Abstract:
'Earthquakes Don't Kill People, Buildings Do.' Based on the statistics more than 75% deaths in earthquake were killed by building collapses. In most cases structural design such as the size and shape of building components has been always thought as the engineers' issue. Actually, architects also need to consider about the structural issues when they pursue the architectural freedom and aesthetics, in order to create a beautiful but also safe place for people to stay. So that how to combine the architectural language with the structural considerations such as earthquake-resistant requirements, which is one of the purposes of this thesis. Meanwhile, city and buildings always carry with the people's memories and motions. The M6.3 Christchurch earthquake of 22nd Feb 2011 is a nature disaster, many people lost theirs lives and numerous buildings collapsed. The earthquakes changed various things in this city, such as people's life, the lands, the architectural appearance, and a few of the construction standards changed as well. Some of these changes are physical and some are emotional. So that another aim of this paper is using architectural langrage to design something on such a site with memories and motions. Therefore in this thesis, I will descript about the situations of Christchurch after the disaster, such as people's thoughts of rebuilding the city, ground conditions, and upgraded architectural or structural standards based on the new seismic requirements. Then by doing some case studies try to find the possible solutions. Sendai Mediatheque is a good example of structural scheme in the earthquake high-prone zone, and it is also a significant sample of how to make the structure becomes a kind of architectural language. And the World Trade Center site design is another case that is mainly involves the site, involves with how to use architectural languages to represent the memories and emotions. After that, based on my proposal of designing the new CTV building on previous site, I will describe the site conditions in detail at first, such as location, surroundings, circulations, and vegetations. Then step by step, develop this project from a concept to become an architectural form. By using the ideas learned from the case studies, and also consider the real seismic-resistant requirements, finally to solve the structural issue of the project, find out the possible solutions of the CTV building in Christchurch.