Greg,
The earthquakes in Christchurch were a serious kick in the pants for not only building designers here, but the people that construct them as well.
I was at the CTV building after it had collapsed in 2012, as a Fire Officer and to see a building that had had actual floors shear off as they had collapsed, it was almost surreal, like something from a movie set.
But, mistakes like that need to be learned from and building codes strengthened to ensure this sort of thing never happens again.
At the end of the day, it is up to the building designers and engineers to MAKE SURE that their plans are adhered to, to the letter.
One other thing needs to be said though, in that a lot of the buildings that did collapse or partially collapse, were quite old and were of double brick construction, where any tie wires between the two brick layers could have become compromised over time.
What we have seen in Kaikoura and Culverden, is that the majority of the buildings that did collapse or were seriously compromised is that these were older wooden buildings and while these do tend to have a bit more "give" with sudden ground movements, I have heard reports that when the initial quake happened the ground moved at 3m (9ft) per second, I mean, try and design any building to withstand that sort of longitudinal stress?
