The use of old-fashioned building methods was the main reason schools collapsed more readily than other buildings in the Sichuan earthquake last year, according to a book compiled from hazard assessment reports.
The book, entitled Wenchuan Earthquake Building Damage Investigation and Analysis of Post-disaster Reconstruction, was published by China Architecture and Building Press. Reports about the book appeared in several mainland newspapers yesterday.
Produced by some of the most prominent universities on the mainland, the book supports the official conclusion that there is no evidence that poor building quality caused thousands of students to die in the disaster. Parents have tried to sue builders, but courts have refused to accept the cases.
A main theme of the book is that the school buildings collapsed not because of bad quality but their old-fashioned structure.
'Most of the schools in the quake zone used masonry structure ... resulting in relatively poor earthquake resistance,' said one of the papers, jointly written by civil engineering professors at Tsinghua, Southwest Jiaotong, and Beijing Jiaotong universities.
'Most government buildings use frame structures with reinforced concrete, and they suffered the least.'
The schools were mostly built according to a masonry structure - an old method in which individual units are built one on top of the other and bound together with mortar. The Pyramids in Egypt and the Great Wall are among the most successful masonry structures.