- Jack Horton & William Armstrong
- BBC Fact-Finding Team & BBC Monitoring
Ground floor apartment in Iskandaram.
The strong earthquake that hit Turkey has caused chaos, with even newly built adumanas (apartment blocks) collapsing. The BBC examined three buildings that have been reduced to rubble to find out what happened to building safety.
7.8 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes in southern Turkey and northern Syria leveled buildings of all kinds; Tens of thousands of people died.
But the sight of even brand-new houses collapsing to the ground has raised an urgent question about construction safety regulations.
Buildings built using modern technology should be able to withstand an earthquake of this magnitude. Regulations developed following previous disasters should have guaranteed the implementation of these safety features.
Footage of the collapse of the first of three new buildings identified by the BBC to investigate the collapse has been shared on social media. In the video, people scream and run for cover.
The lower half of an aduman complex at Maladya is crumbling. The other half of the building stands leaning amid the rubble.
The building, with the lower half intact and the upper half leaning, was advertised as having been built to earthquake-proof standards.
These apartments are newly constructed last year. Some of the advertisements are that the building was constructed following earthquake-resistant regulations Screenshots on social media are shared.
The advertisement claims that the construction materials and workmanship used in the building are all “first class”. The original ad of the company that did this construction is currently not available online. But the old advertisement videos of the company available on social media are similar to the old advertisements of the company.
As these are very recent buildings, they should have been built following the updated quality controls in 2018. According to this quality control rule, reinforced concrete with steel bars should be used in buildings in earthquake prone areas.
Columns and beams should be spanned to withstand the impact of earthquakes. However, the BBC could not confirm what construction standards were used in the collapsed building.
Photos show a recently built skyscraper in the city of Iskenderun that was also heavily damaged by the earthquake. The 16-storey building has collapsed from the sides and back. Only a fragment of the building remains standing.
A recently built skyscraper in the city of Iskenderun
The BBC compared a photograph of the damaged building with one previously released for publicity by the building’s builder. This building was built in 2019. Therefore, new buildings should be constructed as per quality control norms. The BBC contacted the company that built the building. But no response was received.
Another picture, taken in Andakya and verified by the BBC, shows a 9-storey block of flats completely destroyed. The building’s name, Guclu Bahce, is clearly visible on the front of the ruined building block.
We got a video of the inauguration of this building. From this it is known that this building was completed in November 2019.
In the video, the owner of Ser-Al, the owner of Ser-Al, said in the video that the Kuglu Bashe project is better than other projects in terms of its location and quality of construction.
image source, Twitter
The building’s name, Guclu Bahce, is clearly visible on the front of the ruined building block.
Responding to a question from the BBC, Altaz said, “Of the hundreds of buildings I have built in Hatay (the southern province of which Antakya is the capital), unfortunately and sadly, two blocks have collapsed.”
He said that this earthquake was so big that not even a single building in the city could escape without any damage.
Many in Turkey are questioning the state of building regulations as many buildings have collapsed in the quake-hit area.
Although this earthquake was very powerful, experts say that if properly constructed, the buildings should have been able to withstand it.
“The maximum intensity of this earthquake was strong but not strong enough to level well-constructed buildings,” said Professor David Alexander. He is a specialist in emergency planning and management at University College London.
“The shaking in most places was below the maximum level. Therefore, we can conclude that almost none of the thousands of buildings that collapsed did not meet even the minimum requirements for earthquake resistance,” he says.
Failure to enforce building regulations
After previous disasters, including the 1999 earthquake around İzmit, construction regulations were tightened. It is noteworthy that 17 thousand people were killed in the 1999 earthquake.
However, laws including new quality controls introduced in 2018 have not been properly implemented.
“After the new regulations came in, there was very little retrofitting of safety features in old buildings. Moreover, the regulations were not properly followed in new buildings,” says Professor Alexander.
A building damaged in an earthquake 25 years ago, then left unreinforced and now collapsing, Adana residents told the BBC’s Tom Bateman.
Example of Japan: How to reduce the effect of an earthquake?
In countries like Japan with a history of severe earthquakes, millions of people live in close proximity to high-rise buildings. These will show how building regulations can protect people from disasters.
The need for building safety practices varies depending on the use of a building and how close it is to an earthquake hazard. A simple reinforcement is to install motion dampers throughout the building, and to build the entire structure on a floor-mounted shock absorber. This allows for a variety of safety measures to be applied as needed, such as creating a gap between the building and the potentially vibrating floor.
What is the problem with implementation?
In Turkey, from time to time, ‘constructive pardons’ are granted. This legally exempted owners of buildings constructed without required safety certificates from being charged fines. Critics have said such exemptions could spell disaster in the event of a major earthquake.
Such is the case in the earthquake-hit area of southern Turkey Up to 75 thousand buildings Belin Pinar Gridlioglu says construction errors are forgiven. He is the head of the Istanbul branch of the Union of Turkish Engineers Chambers and Architects Chambers.
Turkish media reported a few days before the latest earthquake that a new draft law was awaiting parliamentary approval to grant such amnesty even to recently constructed buildings.
Geologist Selal Senkar had said that in a country prone to earthquakes, such construction exemptions are tantamount to crime.
The BBC Turkey service found that 6.72 million buildings in Izmir were recently pardoned after a devastating earthquake in the western province of Izmir in 2020.
In 2018, the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization quoted the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization as saying that half of the total buildings in Turkey were built in violation of the regulations, which is 1.3 million buildings.
The ministry had said about the recent earthquake that not a single building constructed by their administration had collapsed and that damage assessment surveys on the ground were going on fast.
Additional newsgathering: Olga Smirnova, Alex Murray, Richard Irvine-Brown, Dilai Yalcin.
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