26. One of Singapore’s Worst Post-WWII Disasters
The Hotel New World failure was one of the worst disasters in post World War II Singapore. In a collapse, not a single wall or column were left standing, and the entire building was reduced to rubble. Initial rescue efforts were hampered by the fact that Singapore’s government lacked personnel trained or equipped to deal with such a situation. Fortunately, some foreign tunneling experts were building a subway at the time, and they were sent in to spearhead the rescue.
33 people were killed, and another 17 were pulled out of the debris. Subsequent investigation revealed that the collapse was caused by incompetent architectural design: the building lacked a foundation. Specifically, a dead load foundation. Building designs have to account for two “loads” – a live load, which is the weight of the people and furniture and other things inside a building, and a dead load, which is the weight of the building itself. The Hotel New World building design only accounted for the live load.
