Reader Response (Final Draft)

In the article “4 Ways to Demolish a Building”, Rodriguez (2018) states that there are many considerations to take before resolving the way to demolish a building, and the method used must be safe for the demolition crew and surroundings. He mentions 4 ways to demolish buildings. The author mentions the first technique, implosion, uses explosives to demolish large structures in urban area and it requires comprehensive planning by the blaster crews before carrying out. The second one is the high reach arm method ,which is used to tear down tall buildings from the top by operating machine arm. The third one is wrecking ball method, which demolishes buildings by swinging a heavy ball into the structure. The building size is limited by using this method. Moreover, it requires professional crane operator and will cause pollutions. Lastly, selective demolition is an environmentally friendly and cost saving method as it allows the demolition crew to recycle materials. However, it requires manpower and it is not efficient for light-framed buildings.

While Rodriguez mentions that large structures are commonly demolished by using implosion technique in the urban areas, bringing down a building by explosives is not applicable when the buildings are close together. Moreover, it will cause danger to the surroundings and demolition becomes even harder. Under these circumstances, implosion is not suitable to be implemented in urban areas.

First of all, the use of implosion technique is not always effective and safe in urban areas. In the news article, Mahmud (2017) reported that it is not a good idea to implement implosion method in Singapore. As Singapore is a city with buildings closely built with one another, the explosion will affect the neighboring structures. The worst scenario can be the demolition crews do not plan the explosives precisely enough, the explosion might not be able to bring down the building completely at once. Then, it will become very dangerous for the demolition workers to deal with afterwards, because the structure of the building is already damaged and may collapses on itself in any second. In addition, based on the article Dave (2017) mentions: “The detonations went off as planned, but nothing fell and the implosion was a failure.” Based on these points, implosion method is not recommended to be use in the urban area, as this method might create danger for the demolition crew.

Secondly, the outcome of using implosion method to ground a building cannot really be predicted. Ramaswamy (2015) states: “The building does what it wants to do in the end.” The demolition of Red Road flats in Glasgow has failed, not because the demolition crew make the mistakes. The reason is that, even though everything is prepared very well, the result cannot always be predicted. As the final stage of implosion cannot be one hundred percent guaranteed. "You can't really test explosives," She elaborated. Although everything goes smoothly, the explosives cannot be really tested before the second they are detonated. Thus, there is a chance of malfunctioning of the explosives. Due to these uncertainties, implosion should not be practiced in urban areas.

Lastly, implosion creates a risk of collision of the structure to the surrounding buildings. This can be supported by the news article “22-Floor Residential Tower in China Demolished, Partially” (2010), where the demolition of a 22-floor building in LiZhou almost cause a disaster. Instead of going all the way down to the ground, the building broke into two parts with one side smash sideways while the other remain standing unstably. This report proved that it is not sure what will actually be happened after detonation. In this case, implementing implosion method to demolish a building in urban area is not wise as it may result in catastrophe such as endanger the surrounding buildings and even the residents.

References

Aqil Haziq Mahmud. (2017). No explosives or swinging balls: How high-rise demolitions go down in Singapore. Channelnewsasia. Retrieved from https://www.channelnewsasia.com

Dave Bartkowiak Jr. (2017). Pontiac Silverdome implosion fail: What went wrong and what happens now. Clickondetroit. Retrieved from https://www.clickondetroit.com

IndiaTVnews. (2010). 22-Floor Residential Tower In China Demolished, Partially. Retrieved from https://www.indiatvnews.com

Ramaswamy.C. (2015). You can’t really test explosives – why demolitions go wrong. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com