Ducks still swimming in the Avon River, where most of the surrounding land is badly damaged.
A photograph of a damaged footpath. The photograph is captioned by Paul Corliss, "River Road, Avonside".
A photograph of a damaged culvert. The photograph is captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Pines Beach".
A photograph of a damaged house. The photograph is captioned by Paul Corliss, "River Road, Avonside".
A photograph of a damaged building. The photograph is captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "High Street".
A photograph of a damaged building. The photograph is captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "High Street".
Damage to Beaufort House on Latimer Square. A partially intact wall is protected with wooden braces.
Damage to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. View from the side with diggers at work.
Damage to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. Detail to the front entrance of the cathedral.
Damage to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. Detail to the front entrance of the cathedral.
Damage to Cranmer Courts, where some parts of the wall and windows have been boarded up.
Damage building in the CBD. A wall section from the second story has been taken out.
A photograph of a damaged house. The photograph is captioned by Paul Corliss, "272 Fitzgerald Avenue".
A photograph of a damaged house. The photograph is captioned by Paul Corliss, "272 Fitzgerald Avenue".
A photograph of a damaged house. The photograph is captioned by Paul Corliss, "River Road, Avonside".
A photograph of a damaged house. The photograph is captioned by Paul Corliss, "River Road, Avonside".
A photograph of a damaged house. The photograph is captioned by Paul Corliss, "River Road, Avonside".
A photograph of a damaged house. The photograph is captioned by Paul Corliss, "River Road, Avonside".
A photograph of a damaged footpath. The photograph is captioned by Paul Corliss, "River Road, Avonside".
A photograph of a damaged wall. The photograph is captioned by Paul Corliss, "River Road, Avonside".
A photograph of a damaged house. The photograph is captioned by Paul Corliss, "River Road, Avonside".
A photograph of a damaged footpath. The photograph is captioned by Paul Corliss, "River Road, Avonside".
A photograph of a damaged house. The photograph is captioned by Paul Corliss, "River Road, Avonside".
A photograph of a damaged house. The photograph is captioned by Paul Corliss, "River Road, Avonside".
A photograph of damaged houses. The photograph is captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "New Brighton Road".
Damage to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. View from the side with diggers at work.
A photograph showing St Paul's School's damage in Dallington, following the series of earthquakes in Christchurch.
A photograph of a damaged house. The photograph is captioned by Paul Corliss, "River Road, Avonside".
Deconstruction of the Crystal Plaza arcade on Gloucester Street.
Earthquake Engineering is facing an extraordinarily challenging era, the ultimate target being set at increasingly higher levels by the demanding expectations of our modern society. The renewed challenge is to be able to provide low-cost, thus more widely affordable, high-seismic-performance structures capable of sustaining a design level earthquake with limited or negligible damage, minimum disruption of business (downtime) or, in more general terms, controllable socio-economical losses. The Canterbury earthquakes sequence in 2010-2011 has represented a tough reality check, confirming the current mismatch between societal expectations over the reality of seismic performance of modern buildings. In general, albeit with some unfortunate exceptions, modern multi-storey buildings performed as expected from a technical point of view, in particular when considering the intensity of the shaking (higher than new code design) they were subjected to. As per capacity design principles, plastic hinges formed in discrete regions, allowing the buildings to sway and stand and people to evacuate. Nevertheless, in many cases, these buildings were deemed too expensive to be repaired and were consequently demolished. Targeting life-safety is arguably not enough for our modern society, at least when dealing with new building construction. A paradigm shift towards damage-control design philosophy and technologies is urgently required. This paper and the associated presentation will discuss motivations, issues and, more importantly, cost-effective engineering solutions to design buildings capable of sustaining low-level of damage and thus limited business interruption after a design level earthquake. Focus will be given to the extensive research and developments in jointed ductile connections based upon controlled rocking & dissipating mechanisms for either reinforced concrete and, more recently, laminated timber structures. An overview of recent on-site applications of such systems, featuring some of the latest technical solutions developed in the laboratory and including proposals for the rebuild of Christchurch, will be provided as successful examples of practical implementation of performance-based seismic design theory and technology.