Barnson

Class leaves building all shook up

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 12:30:00 +0000

SOUTH Korean experts believe a vigorous exercise class caused a high-rise building in the capital to shake for 10 minutes this month, prompting hundreds to flee.

They said tests showed that oscillations created by a group of tae bo practitioners on the 12th floor of the 39-storey TechnoMart mall building apparently resonated through the structure.

Tae bo is an aerobic exercise that involves performing rapidly the motions of boxing and martial arts such as taekwondo. Chung Lan, of Danguk University in Yongin City, near Seoul, linked the incident to a physics principle under which catastrophic failures can occur when another source matches the vibration of a structure.

He said the building, made of iron girders and cement, had a characteristic vibration frequency that was ''in phase'' with the synchronised movements of the tae bo practitioners.

Professor Chung and six others recreated the scenario that caused the panic on July 5 - with 17 middle-aged people working out to the tune of a pop song, The Power by German group Snap - and said the building shook in a similar way.

In the original incident, hundreds fled as the building shook for about 10 minutes. The Gwangjin district government ordered the mall closed but reopened it after experts said it was structurally sound.

The gym remains off-limits.

''Practising tae bo in that particular building may have to be banned.'' said Cho Byung-joon, chief of the district government's flood control and disaster prevention division. He said Professor Chung and other experts would carry out a test before news media and officials.

Source: www.smh.com.au

Construction data backs rate status quo

Wed, 25 May 2011 12:30:00 +0000

Weaker than expected construction data show there will be a contraction in economic growth in the March quarter and makes a June rate hike unlikely, economists say.

Total construction work done in Australia rose 0.7 per cent in the March quarter, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said on Wednesday.

The median market forecast was for a 1.5 per cent rise in the quarter.

Engineering construction rose 4.6 per cent in the March quarter, residential construction was up 1.9 per cent and non-residential fell 10.2 per cent.

JP Morgan economist Helen Kevans said the headline figure was a little bit weaker than expected, due to the non-residential component.

"Engineering construction was quite strong, as we had suspected, and that was because of the work being done on roads, pipelines and the oil and gas and electricity sectors," she said.

"We think that will underpin these numbers until the end of the year."

Ms Kevans said the weaker than expected construction data may drag down the March quarter gross domestic product (GDP) figures, due out on Wednesday next week.

The figures are already expected to show a contraction in economic growth due to the natural disasters over summer.

"It has pushed down our forecast slightly from negative 0.3 per cent to negative 0.4 per cent," she said.

"We still have a lot of data over the next few days that will fit into that GDP forecast, including the capital expenditure data on Thursday."

She said the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) wouldn't raise the cash rate from 4.75 per cent at its next board meeting on June 7 because of the expected contraction in March quarter growth.

"We think the RBA will sit on the sidelines until August, when it will have the second quarter CPI (consumer price index) data in hand," Ms Kevans said.

Source: www.smh.com.au

River City must stay the course

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 16:30:00 +0000

REDEVELOPMENT: Since 1974, Brisbane's CBD has sprung up on riverside land once used only for industry, port activities and storage. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

ONE of the most common reactions to the recent inundation of homes in Brisbane is that town planning has been at fault.

As someone who was starting a career in town planning in 1974, I can say that, in the ensuing 36 years, there has been a high level of consciousness about flooding and its implications in town-planning practice in southeast Queensland.

That said, however, there has been a revolution in land use in the central part of the city since the time of the 1974 floods.

In that year, the City Reach was still wharves and warehouses and South Bank was factories and more wharves.

Since then, industry, port activities and warehousing have left the central part of the city, often the parts near the river. Significantly, the first major modern building in what is now Brisbane's financial quarter, the AMP "gold tower", was built in 1976, followed by the "blue tower" and then the Riverside Centre.

This redevelopment of Brisbane's central riverfront areas has been accompanied by a reorientation of Brisbane's psyche towards the Brisbane River. In the 1980s, Brisbane became badged as the River City.

The city centre, put there next to the river 180 years ago, progressively has been developed as the greatest concentration of employment in the metropolis - the centre of finance, business and public administration, the largest concentration of shopping, an important centre for education, culture and entertainment, and the heart and soul of the city region.

Consequently it is also the hub of a substantial radial transport system that enables the second-highest rates of public transport use in Australia, ahead of Melbourne.

Progressively also, our city image has been more focused on the central part of the city, located spectacularly in a loop of the Brisbane River. Our iconic view of Brisbane is looking over the river to the Brisbane CBD from the Kangaroo Point cliffs.

Pedestrian and bike paths built along the river, the CityCat system, riverside housing redevelopment, restaurants and new bridges, have also helped change common perceptions of the city by allowing us more opportunities to view both the river and the city from the river.

It may be tempting to suggest Brisbane should decentralise away from the flood-prone city centre, in terms of both commerce and housing.

But that is impossible. We are now, more than ever before, the River City. It is part of our essential character.

Indeed the emergence of Brisbane as a more sophisticated city has coincided with its embrace of the Brisbane River, physically and psychologically.

The creators of "new economy" jobs that Brisbane wants will demand to locate them in the most attractive and dynamic part of the city, around the city loop of the Brisbane River.

The discourse about flooding in the River City must continue.

It may be that the development levels we have been working to need to be reviewed. However, it is doubtful that we should make fundamental changes to our approach to the development of Brisbane.

* Jeff Humphreys is a Brisbane-based town planning consultant of 30 years and is Adjunct Professor of Planning at the University of Queensland.

Source: www.couriermail.com.au