Dr Muto's Labour To Master Earthquakes

When the Kanto Earthquake hit central Japan in 1923 , 100,000 people lost their lives , another 100,000 were injured but more than 700,000 homes were destroyed. Kiyoshi Muto , then 21 decided to devote his life to seismic architecture. Using new seismographic equipment and computer technology it became apparent that the old idea about the shape of the earthquake wave was false: the waves were not identical. " If every single wave has it's own shape, a building then would not necessarily suffer a
'multiplied' tremor!Each wave needs to be dealt with separately" - working on that hunch Dr Muto thought of making buildings flexible instead of solid. Traditional ferro-concrete walls were too strong , too rigid.After a series of experiments Dr Muto came up with a "slitted wall " - designed in such a way as to contain all the impacts of the earthquake.The framework was applied to the 36-story Kasumigaseki Building when construction started in 1965.On March 2 , 1967 a severe earthquake hit Tokyo but workmen on the 27th floor of the building hardly felt the tremor!His reputation established as the foremost designer of earthquake-proof structures , Dr Muto has enabled Japan to stretch skywards and other earthquake prone nations to finally be able to rebuild from the devastation and destruction ...