Workers adding the floor to a temporary classroom on the Oval.
Volunteers laying down pallets for the floor of the Pallet Pavilion.
Pip Ramby was rescued from the top floor of the Canterbury televison building.
Papers fallen on the floor in an office in the Registry Building.
Papers fallen on the floor in an office in the Registry Building.
Documents and folders fallen on the floor in a Registry Building office.
A photograph of architectural detail on the upper floor of MSC House.
Papers fallen on the floor in an office in the Registry Building.
Books fallen on the floor in an office in the Registry Building.
The disco ball hanging above Gap Filler's "Dance-O-Mat" dance floor.
Plastic road barriers on Kilmore Street, just outside the damaged Metro Floor.
St Elmo Courts. Crack along the length of the 4th floor
A photograph taken through a window of The Burrito Company restaurant on Armagh Street. The window is broken and glass has spilled into the restaurant. The floor of the restaurant has risen in the centre. Small stones from an unknown source have scattered across the floor on the left.
A one story, two bays, approximately half scaled, perimeter moment frame containing precastprestressed floor units was built and tested at the University of Canterbury to investigate the effect of precastprestressed floor units on the seismic performance of reinforced concrete moment resisting frame. This paper gives an overview of the experimental set up and summarizes the results obtained from the test. The results show that elongation in the beam plastic hinges is partially restrained by the prestressed floor, which increases the strength of the beams much more than that being specified in the codes around the world.
An infographic showing retail floor size limits in the draft Central City Plan.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Book Warehouse, ground floor, 232 Cashel Street".
A photograph of a crack in the floor of the Hotel Grand Chancellor.
A volunteer working on the dance floor for Gap Filler's "Dance-O-Mat".
Broken plates litter the floor oif Man's Bakery and Cafe on Hereford Street.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Ground floor Clarendon Tower, 78 Worcester Street".
A photograph of the exposed upper floor of the McKenzie & Willis building.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Ground floor Clarendon Tower, 78 Worcester Street".
A photograph of the partially-demolished Smiths City car park, taken from Dundas Street. The front section of the car park has mostly been cleared, though there is still a scattering of rubble and steel reinforcement. The back section has collapsed, but the floors are largely intact, with many cars still parked on the top floor.
One landscape colour digital photograph taken on 25 February 2011 showing damage to the Norton Buildings on Oxford Street. The photograph shows part of the first floor of the building and the façade collapsed onto the ground floor and out onto the street. The photograph was taken from St Davids Street looking west. Also visible in the photogra...
The 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes have provided a unique opportunity to investigate the seismic performance of both traditional and modern buildings constructed in New Zealand. It is critical that the observed performance is examined and compared against the expected levels of performance that are outlined by the Building Code and Design Standards. In particular, in recent years there has been a significant amount of research into the seismic behaviour of precast concrete floor systems and the robustness of the support connections as a building deforms during an earthquake. An investigation of precast concrete floor systems in Christchurch has been undertaken to assess both the performance of traditional and current design practice. The observed performance for each type of precast floor unit was collated from a number of post-earthquake recognisance activities and compared against the expected performance determined for previous experimental testing and analysis. Possible reasons for both the observed damage, and in some cases the lack of damage, were identified. This critical review of precast concrete floor systems will assist in determining the success of current design practice as well as identify any areas that require further research and/or changes to design standards.
The recent earthquakes in Christchurch have made it clear that issues exist with current RC frame design in New Zealand. In particular, beam elongation in RC frame buildings was widespread and resulted in numerous buildings being rendered irreparable. Design solutions to overcome this problem are clearly needed, and the slotted beam is one such solution. This system has a distinct advantage over other damage avoidance design systems in that it can be constructed using current industry techniques and conventional reinforcing steel. As the name suggests, the slotted beam incorporates a vertical slot along part of the beam depth at the beam-column interface. Geometric beam elongation is accommodated via opening and closing of these slots during seismically induced rotations, while the top concrete hinge is heavily reinforced to prevent material inelastic elongation. Past research on slotted beams has shown that the bond demand on the bottom longitudinal reinforcement is increased compared with equivalent monolithic systems. Satisfying this increased bond demand through conventional means may yield impractical and economically less viable column dimensions. The same research also indicated that the joint shear mechanism was different to that observed within monolithic joints and that additional horizontal reinforcement was required as a result. Through a combination of theoretical investigation, forensic analysis, and database study, this research addresses the above issues and develops design guidelines. The use of supplementary vertical joint stirrups was investigated as a means of improving bond performance without the need for non-standard reinforcing steel or other hardware. These design guidelines were then validated experimentally with the testing of two 80% scale beam-column sub-assemblies. The revised provisions for bond within the bottom longitudinal reinforcement were found to be adequate while the top longitudinal reinforcement remained nominally elastic throughout both tests. An alternate mechanism was found to govern joint shear behaviour, removing the need for additional horizontal joint reinforcement. Current NZS3101:2006 joint shear reinforcement provisions were found to be more than adequate given the typically larger column depths required rendering the strut mechanism more effective. The test results were then used to further refine design recommendations for practicing engineers. Finally, conclusions and future research requirements were outlined.
A worker grinds the carpet glue off the floor of the James Hight Library.
Workers building the floor of one of the temporary classrooms on the Ilam Oval.
Workers laying the floor on one of the temporary classrooms in the Ilam Oval.
A photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Floor deformation in the Hotel Grand Chancellor".