Background

Ever since man first placed stone and wood atop one another, he was confronted with the fact that no building stands forever. Structural failures are omnipresent throughout human history. While ancient engineers take some solace in the fact they did not adequately understand the laws of nature in order to build stable structure, we do not have that luxury. With the exception of freak accidents, all structural failures have a human cause, either negligent design and/or unethical ownership. It is foolish and vain to assume that we as engineers will never make mistakes; however, by examining case studies, we can avoid those made by our predecessors.

In terms of background research, our group is "fortunate" enough to have personal connections to or prior knowledge of a decent amount of structural failures. One excellent knowledge source for this project is Why Buildings Fall Down by Matthys Levy and Mario Salvadori. Another is personal experience, as seen with the Rana Plaza report.