This is upsetting and seems unnecessary.
More than 600 bodies have been recovered from the garment-factory building that collapsed well over a week ago, police said today as the grim recovery work continued in one of the worst industrial accidents ever.
The building was structurally designed as a mall, but was used for industrial purposes with 3 extra stories added.
An architect whose firm designed the building said Sunday that it had not been designed to handle heavy industrial equipment, let alone the three floors that were later illegally added. The equipment used by the five garment factories that occupied Rana Plaza included huge generators that were turned on shortly before the building crumbled. Masood Reza, an architect with Vastukalpa Consultants, said the building was designed in 2004 as a shopping mall and not for any industrial purpose.
"We designed the building to have three stories for shops and another two for offices. I don't know how the additional floors were added and how factories were allowed on the top floors," Reza said.
I suspect a Western designed building may perhaps convert from retail to industrial relatively well, though adding 3 stories would require significant modifications as be mandated by consent approval.
