The eventual collapse of rash desires

The invention of reinforced concrete triggered humanity’s desire for height that stopped at the Tower of Babel. Prior to that, the main building materials were bricks and concrete.

YOON SUNG-MINThe author is a political news editor of the JoongAng Ilbo.

The invention of reinforced concrete triggered humanity’s desire for height that stopped at the Tower of Babel. Prior to that, the main building materials were bricks and concrete.

According to the Bible, the Tower of Babel was built with bricks covered with bitumen. Concrete has been used since ancient times by mixing tuff powder, lime, and sand with water. The main material of the Pantheon in Rome is also concrete. The problem is height. The higher the building, the bigger the brick had to be, and concrete had a high risk of collapsing due to weak tension force.

The solution was accidentally discovered. French gardener Joseph Monier made durable flowerpots by putting wire mesh in concrete. Monier got a patent for this technology in 1855 and used the material to build bridges and stairs. Structures that were around five stories grew to more than 20 stories high. Concrete, which has a high compression force, and steel bars, which has a high tension force, supplemented each other’s weakness. In 1931, the world’s tallest tower, the Empire State Building, was built in New York. It stands at 381 meters tall and it required 57,000 tons of steel. Steel bars realized mankind's desire to build “higher.”

However, rash desires eventually collapse. It was the case for the public housing for the urban poor built in Seoul between 1968 and 1972. Then Seoul Mayor Kim Hyun-ok promoted the project and most of them were built on mountains. While they were considered dangerous and inconvenient for the residents, Kim said that they should be built in higher locations to be visible from the Blue House. Kim was then-President Park Chung-hee's junior in the military academy. Kim wanted to please Park and had built Wawu Apartment halfway up the Wawu Mountain in Mapo-gu, with construction taking only six months. This apartment collapsed around 6:40 am in April 1971, only four months after completion, killing 33 people.

Another controversy over “missing rebars” arose. According to the investigation by LH, rebars were missing in 15 apartments commissioned by LH. In the LH apartment complex in Yangju Hoecheon, Gyeonggi Province, all rebars were missing from the 154 columns that should have reinforcing rebars. Reinforcement rebars that advanced mankind’s dream to “build higher” failed as a tool that only encourages builders to “build cheaper.”