Building collapsed in Shanghai - awesome pics

This building collapsed in Shanghai yesterday. One workman was killed but no one was injured when the 13 storey building fell. It is a new building. More pics here.

In last year's Sichuan earthquake, a disproportionately high number of school structures collapsed, especially in rural areas of Sichuan. Chinese netizens have since invented a new term "tofu-dregs schoolhouses" (Chinese: 豆腐渣校舍) to mock the quality of these school buildings. The tragedy was all the more poignant because families lost their only child, due to China's one-child policy.

Swaminathan Krishnan, assistant professor of civil engineering and geophysics at the California Institute of Technology said: "The earthquake occurred in the rural part of China. Presumably, many of the buildings were just built; they were not designed, so to speak."

Sounds just like Cambodia--buildings just built, not designed (architecturally, not aesthetically, he means, although one can make a case for both in Cambodia!). I am sure many Cambodian buildings don't have proper foundations, especially with the double storeyed houses in the villages where zero piling goes on.

Fortunately, though, they don't build as high in Cambodia, although they are starting to. I just hope the buildings, built mostly by foreign companies, are built properly.