Summary draft #1

In the article “Hotel New World Collapse”, Lim (2009) reported on the events that occurred after the collapse of Hotel New World, including brief details on the causes leading up to the structural failure. Following the collapse, initial rescue attempts stalled due to the lack of rescue personnel and tools specialising in structural collapse. Locally-stationed international tunnelling experts, as well as specialised equipment, were brought in to assist with rescue efforts. Nearby establishments were re-purposed as command and support centres by the authorities. These efforts resulted in the rescue of 17 individuals. “Inadequate structural design”, coupled with the construction decisions made by Lian Yak Realty Company managing director, Ng Khoon Lim, were determined to be the causes of the collapse by President Wee Kim Wee’s appointed “commission of inquiry.” It was proposed by the commission that the government should be more involved, to prevent similar failures. This led to the eventual setup of the Development and Building Control Division by the Ministry of National Development (MND).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Annotated summary

Steward, A. (2016). The ‘living concrete’ that can heal itself. Retrieved 11 March 2020, from  https://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/14/tech/bioconcrete-delft-jonkers/index.html This article introduces the use of a ‘healing agent’ as a means to increase the durability of concrete by allowing the material to heal itself in the event of structural cracks. It highlights the reason why bacillus, a type of bacteria, was chosen as a ‘healing agent’. In the article, concrete is ‘extremely alkaline’ and the ‘healing agent’ that was to be chosen, had to be ‘dormant’ for an extended amount of years for a structural crack to form. Moreover, this ‘healing agent’ had to be able to produce a substance that could ultimately ‘heal’ the cracks. Thus, bacillus was selected as these bacteria are able to survive in high PH conditions, are able to last long without oxygen and when reacted with water, they produce limestone which acts as the healing material to cover the structural cracks within concrete. ...
Read more

Assignment 1: Formal letter

Hi Professor Brad, I am writing this letter as a means to introduce myself. My name is Thoufeek Ansari and I am currently enrolled in your effective communication class. I graduated from Singapore Polytechnic with a diploma in civil engineering with business in the year 2017 and am currently pursuing a degree in civil engineering from the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT). I chose this field of study as I am someone who is passionate about the built environment and have always been in awe to see how we, as mankind, have shaped Earth since the beginning of time and as I got older, I realised how civil engineering has played a major role in the environment that we see today. I would say that communicating with others on a professional level would be a communication strength of mine. During my national service term, I was posted to work on the policing of drones which were being flown in Singapore recreationally and non-recreationally. I had to work with various stakeholder...
Read more

Critical reflection

The two goals I had set for myself at the start of this module were to improve my public speaking skills and to communicate my opinions verbally in an effective manner. Throughout the duration of this module, with the help of resource lists, I was able to improve my public speaking skills during the in-class activities such as intergroup pitching and the research topic presentations. In terms of public speaking, I learnt that the keys to seek the undivided attention of any audience were through the means of storytelling and being confident. I realised that being confident comes with having plenty of rehearsals prior. I managed to really hone my public speaking skills the more I practiced. However, I still could improve in the aspect of storytelling to further sharpen my public speaking skills as I believe it could further engage the audience effectively. During class activities, I believe that I managed to get my points and opinions across effectively whenever called upon. However, I r...
Read more