Magnificent temples, monumental dams, and lofty spires that reach out and touch the sky. Why do we build? Is it just because we need roofs over our heads or is there another more profound reason? The UnXplained with William Shatner s2e3: Extraordinary Engineering, History 2022
Champlain Towers: On 24th June 2021 a 13-storey apartment building Surfside, Florida, crumbles to the ground without warning killing 98 people. It’s the deadliest structural collapse in the US since 9/11. Why Buildings Collapse, BBC 2022
A building in urgent need of repair … What went wrong in Surfside? And could more buildings be at risk? ibid.
Nightmare builders: the destruction caused and the toll it can take. So is change needed? … The number of complaints about trades people rose by a quarter last year. So how do you avoid being conned? Tonight: Building Nightmares, ITV 2022
Help! We need a builder. The problems that skills shortages are causing. The lives being ruined. So is there a solution? … We are facing a severe shortages of skilled tradesmen. Tonight: We Need a Builder: Britain’s Skills Shortage, ITV 2024
I can’t bear it much longer! Henrik Ibsen, The Master Builder, Brovic, written 1892; viz BBC 1988 starring Leo McKern
You must die as best you can. ibid. Solness
I cared very much for Ragnar once – before I came here to you. ibid. Kaia to Solness
Aline has made up her mind that I am mad. ibid. Solness to Dr Herdal
For sooner or later the luck must turn, you see. ibid.
I want my kingdom. The time is up. ibid. Hilda
Solness: Do you read much?
Hilda: No, never! I have given it up. ibid.
The price, Hilda! The terrible price I had to pay for the opportunity! ibid. Solness
Don’t you agree with me, Hilda, that there exist special, chosen people who have been endowed with the faculty, the power, of desiring a thing, craving for a thing, willing a thing … ibid.
Oh, there are devils innumerable abroad in the world, Hilda, that one never sees. ibid.
There is something of the bird of prey in you. ibid.
I have just come up out of a tomb. ibid. Hilda
I am chained alive to a dead woman. ibid. Solness
Solness: Now tell me what it is – the loveliest thing in the world – that we two are to build together.
Hilda: Castles in the air. ibid.
Castles in the air – they are so easy to build. ibid. Hilda
The princess shall have her castle. ibid. Solness
South Korea: A bustling department store in one of the busiest cities in the world. 1,500 people are crammed inside the building. Suddenly, an explosion erupts from the top floor. In less than 20 seconds the entire store crashes to the ground. In its place lies a massive pile of twisted steel and concrete. Over 500 people are dead. Seconds from Disaster s3e5: Superstore Collapse
1,500 people are crushed under 42,000 tons of rubble. ibid.
Built in the late ’80s from reinforced concrete the complex has 4 basement levels and 5 storeys above ground. It stands on 15,000 square metres of real estate … The area was one a landfill site and the city’s wastedump. Now in a remarkable turnaround it’s one of Seoul’s most affluent areas. ibid.
The entire structure came straight down … Some kind of structural failure must have caused this disaster. ibid.