Shaking Gordon Wilson Flats: early seismic engineering research in New Zealand

Abstract

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Gordon Wilson Memorial Flats (Wellington, New Zealand, 1955–1959) was instrumented for seismic engineering research and subjected to vibration testing. The research was prompted by new thinking about architectural design in the mid-twentieth century (i.e. modernism) that had caused a mismatch between structural assumptions in building codes (which relied on significant amounts of uncalculated stiffness inherent in 1920s building design) and the structural characteristics of new buildings that had, for example, greater areas of glazing. This type of research led to the revision of New Zealand building codes in the 1960s and informed Japanese processes for permitting buildings higher than 100 ft (30·5 m). This paper outlines the research conducted and provides the context for understanding its significance. It is particularly topical given current proposals to instrument 400 Wellington buildings, creating the highest density of seismic instrumentation in any city.