Survive an earthquake by killing the forests

If you get a transfer to a place that is earthquake prone, you don’t have to worry. You can cut down have a forest for timber and get a wooden framed tower that can withstand high magnitudes of earthquake built. This project however will only be ready in two years, so the trees can breathe. For now. Claiming to be the world’s largest earthquake shake table test has shown that structures of seven storeys or timber-framed towers can survive high magnitude earthquakes up to 7.5 on the Richter scale. This was done by the Hyogo Earthquake Engineering Research Center who found that a building comprised of a six storey timber-framed condominium block atop one story of concrete and steel could survive intact.

Very noble. But what’s the point in cutting down timber to build a huge multi-storeyed building to save you from the earthquake? It is extremely silly to be fighting a natural phenomenon with a man-made one. These people haven’t properly anticipated the strength ofnatural, especially if you hamper it. Apparently they have used wood because it performs well under seismic loading. Imagine building structures of seven storey building measuring at 14,000 sq ft with 23 residential one and two bedroom units for living space. Instead, wouldn’t it be better that they just avoided such places?
[WorldArchitectureNews]