[Music]
[Music]
my purpose for this evening is to shake
things up a bit
but don’t worry you are not going to
feel anything shaking except maybe for
my voice which is already going crazy
what I would like to ask you to do for
the beginning is to imagine this
following situation you are in the
middle of an earthquake the ground is
shaking the buildings are falling the
roads are breaking and there are quite
possibly some fires around did anyone of
you feel uncomfortable or maybe even
scared by these thoughts I know a few
years ago I’ve actually seen my
grandfather’s facial expression change
at the smallest sign of vibration from
the house and I asked I heard him ask is
this an earthquake I did not understand
understand his reaction then but then I
realized it was because 40 years ago he
has lived the major earthquake that hit
Romania and he wasn’t ready for that
shock now we all have a certain fear of
hazards and it’s natural but the problem
is in order to protect our feelings we
try to convince ourselves that we will
always be in control of our surroundings
when in fact statistically we are very
likely to experience at least one major
earthquake during our lifetimes
psychologically the further we are in
time from a major event the more likely
it is for it to happen again but our
awareness decreases proportionally which
is exactly what we were talking about
before even if we do hear about this
news we choose to ignore them and this
is because of the the second fact and
this is that the more we hear about an
unpleasant topic the more we choose to
ignore this fact or the fact we hear and
we try to block this information from
our brains and if there are smokers in
the audience I’m sure you’ve had a lot
of
you’ve heard a lot of reasons why
smoking is bad but you choose to ignore
them this is exactly how it happens with
earthquakes nowadays but this is exactly
why we need to be prepared if we choose
to ignore the statistics all we actually
manage to do is to be just as unprepared
as my grandfather was 40 years ago so
the key to preparedness as odd as it
might sound is embracing the fact that
this could happen to us now the good
news is being prepared does not take
that much effort you do not have to know
every technical aspect that goes into
creating a building because otherwise
without it we would live me without job
but I do think people do need more
education in this matter because I
strongly believe that the only way we
can change things is if we work together
and I say this because this is how I
started working and learning about
earthquake resistant structures I was a
part of a team comprised of many amazing
people and our goal was to create a
structure that would maximize the
chances of survival of those who would
live inside it attend major earthquake
you can see our model over there and it
was made of balsa wood now because we
used a balsa wood model we had to ensure
that the structure stiffness and we did
that by using a lot of bracings
both vertical and horizontal bracings
besides the elements you would normally
consider you know when creating a
building and those are the columns the
beams and maybe the share walls the
whole concept of what we did there could
be simplified and explained like this
look at this small scale model if I’m
going to try to shake this on the
direction it has been braced I can do
this from the base as well or from the
top you will see the structure is almost
not moving but if I’m going to
change the direction of the movement to
this other side where I have not raised
my structure you will immediately notice
the difference and it’s clear that we
got a very different response from this
second test but even though we do know
this difference thousands of people are
still dying due to earthquakes and this
is not only in Romania but everywhere in
the world so why does it keep happening
well one aspect would be that even
though we do know these rules we
sometimes choose to ignore them because
we value time and money more than safety
okay not not necessarily value them but
if we forgot about the previous
earthquake we could forget about its
effect and by ignoring this fact all we
do is to allow poorly-executed buildings
to accommodate people for at risk
without even having an idea about the
wrist area now the problem is the other
problem is that safety recommendations
are not only about new buildings they
are about the old being there they refer
to of buildings as well and most of the
old buildings are standing in normal
conditions but they could be easily
considered very extremely risky during
an earthquake scenario because their
structure was not designed to to help
hold one and the thing is a lot of
buildings from Bucharest are in this
situation all of the red dot buildings
from Bucharest are extremely risky for
us sighs so if you would think about the
most densely occupied areas from Romania
you would actually see that those areas
are the ones with the but they’ll also
have the biggest seismic risk so the
lives of a lot of people are in the
hands of our decisions which is why we
need to be very careful with what what
we do because an earthquake is a cyclic
event we do not know when the next one
strike but we do know it will now try to
think of this this other scenario try to
think about your day try to imagine how
you wake up you get yourself ready you
leave the house to go to school or to
work or maybe even the park but imagine
you’ve done this immediately after an
earthquake the scenario scenario would
probably not be very nice because you’d
all you’d see our fallen roads and
buildings and cars and everything but
what I would like for us to do today is
to change our focus and instead of
burdening ourselves with all this
unpredictability and all these negative
aspects of the earthquake I would like
for us to try to focus on being prepared
and to think that if we are prepared we
could actually save lives not just our
own but of the people around us so I
know many of you have heard that during
an earthquake it is recommended to place
ourselves under a beam or under a door
but the thing is I’ve only showed you
one aspect of the structural design but
the appliance is we have in the
electronics if they are not properly
placed on the walls or on the floors
could actually produce even more harm
because they could move they could hurt
us or they could produce financial
damages so the problem with our our
education is that it only limits itself
to the very moment of the earthquake the
important things for us to understand is
that we have to to separate this event
in three major parts what we can do
before the earthquake what we are going
to do in the in the time of the
earthquake and what we are going to do
after the earthquake and if we try to
separate these things and try to imagine
how to solve our problems in every
single step of this this event I’m sure
we would be way more comfortable
knowing that we are prepared now I would
like for us to go back to that second
second picture I was talking about and
imagine your day again and think about
how you wake up and you get yourself
ready and you leave the house to go to
school or to work or to the park and
this time try to imagine in detail and
try to focus on the things that could
harm you and think of ways you could
secure them and make them make them
safer and I’m sure you would be more
relaxed thinking about an earthquake
from now on the thing is we can actually
make this difference we just have to
change our focus and I am sure I have a
lot more to learn about earthquakes and
about how to be prepared for one and
even about how to design a good
structure but I am willing to learn and
that this is what I’m going to invite
you to do is to learn alongside me thank
you
[Applause]
[Music]
you
[Music]
my purpose for this evening is to shake
things up a bit
but don’t worry you are not going to
feel anything shaking except maybe for
my voice which is already going crazy
what I would like to ask you to do for
the beginning is to imagine this
following situation you are in the
middle of an earthquake the ground is
shaking the buildings are falling the
roads are breaking and there are quite
possibly some fires around did anyone of
you feel uncomfortable or maybe even
scared by these thoughts I know a few
years ago I’ve actually seen my
grandfather’s facial expression change
at the smallest sign of vibration from
the house and I asked I heard him ask is
this an earthquake I did not understand
understand his reaction then but then I
realized it was because 40 years ago he
has lived the major earthquake that hit
Romania and he wasn’t ready for that
shock now we all have a certain fear of
hazards and it’s natural but the problem
is in order to protect our feelings we
try to convince ourselves that we will
always be in control of our surroundings
when in fact statistically we are very
likely to experience at least one major
earthquake during our lifetimes
psychologically the further we are in
time from a major event the more likely
it is for it to happen again but our
awareness decreases proportionally which
is exactly what we were talking about
before even if we do hear about this
news we choose to ignore them and this
is because of the the second fact and
this is that the more we hear about an
unpleasant topic the more we choose to
ignore this fact or the fact we hear and
we try to block this information from
our brains and if there are smokers in
the audience I’m sure you’ve had a lot
of
you’ve heard a lot of reasons why
smoking is bad but you choose to ignore
them this is exactly how it happens with
earthquakes nowadays but this is exactly
why we need to be prepared if we choose
to ignore the statistics all we actually
manage to do is to be just as unprepared
as my grandfather was 40 years ago so
the key to preparedness as odd as it
might sound is embracing the fact that
this could happen to us now the good
news is being prepared does not take
that much effort you do not have to know
every technical aspect that goes into
creating a building because otherwise
without it we would live me without job
but I do think people do need more
education in this matter because I
strongly believe that the only way we
can change things is if we work together
and I say this because this is how I
started working and learning about
earthquake resistant structures I was a
part of a team comprised of many amazing
people and our goal was to create a
structure that would maximize the
chances of survival of those who would
live inside it attend major earthquake
you can see our model over there and it
was made of balsa wood now because we
used a balsa wood model we had to ensure
that the structure stiffness and we did
that by using a lot of bracings
both vertical and horizontal bracings
besides the elements you would normally
consider you know when creating a
building and those are the columns the
beams and maybe the share walls the
whole concept of what we did there could
be simplified and explained like this
look at this small scale model if I’m
going to try to shake this on the
direction it has been braced I can do
this from the base as well or from the
top you will see the structure is almost
not moving but if I’m going to
change the direction of the movement to
this other side where I have not raised
my structure you will immediately notice
the difference and it’s clear that we
got a very different response from this
second test but even though we do know
this difference thousands of people are
still dying due to earthquakes and this
is not only in Romania but everywhere in
the world so why does it keep happening
well one aspect would be that even
though we do know these rules we
sometimes choose to ignore them because
we value time and money more than safety
okay not not necessarily value them but
if we forgot about the previous
earthquake we could forget about its
effect and by ignoring this fact all we
do is to allow poorly-executed buildings
to accommodate people for at risk
without even having an idea about the
wrist area now the problem is the other
problem is that safety recommendations
are not only about new buildings they
are about the old being there they refer
to of buildings as well and most of the
old buildings are standing in normal
conditions but they could be easily
considered very extremely risky during
an earthquake scenario because their
structure was not designed to to help
hold one and the thing is a lot of
buildings from Bucharest are in this
situation all of the red dot buildings
from Bucharest are extremely risky for
us sighs so if you would think about the
most densely occupied areas from Romania
you would actually see that those areas
are the ones with the but they’ll also
have the biggest seismic risk so the
lives of a lot of people are in the
hands of our decisions which is why we
need to be very careful with what what
we do because an earthquake is a cyclic
event we do not know when the next one
strike but we do know it will now try to
think of this this other scenario try to
think about your day try to imagine how
you wake up you get yourself ready you
leave the house to go to school or to
work or maybe even the park but imagine
you’ve done this immediately after an
earthquake the scenario scenario would
probably not be very nice because you’d
all you’d see our fallen roads and
buildings and cars and everything but
what I would like for us to do today is
to change our focus and instead of
burdening ourselves with all this
unpredictability and all these negative
aspects of the earthquake I would like
for us to try to focus on being prepared
and to think that if we are prepared we
could actually save lives not just our
own but of the people around us so I
know many of you have heard that during
an earthquake it is recommended to place
ourselves under a beam or under a door
but the thing is I’ve only showed you
one aspect of the structural design but
the appliance is we have in the
electronics if they are not properly
placed on the walls or on the floors
could actually produce even more harm
because they could move they could hurt
us or they could produce financial
damages so the problem with our our
education is that it only limits itself
to the very moment of the earthquake the
important things for us to understand is
that we have to to separate this event
in three major parts what we can do
before the earthquake what we are going
to do in the in the time of the
earthquake and what we are going to do
after the earthquake and if we try to
separate these things and try to imagine
how to solve our problems in every
single step of this this event I’m sure
we would be way more comfortable
knowing that we are prepared now I would
like for us to go back to that second
second picture I was talking about and
imagine your day again and think about
how you wake up and you get yourself
ready and you leave the house to go to
school or to work or to the park and
this time try to imagine in detail and
try to focus on the things that could
harm you and think of ways you could
secure them and make them make them
safer and I’m sure you would be more
relaxed thinking about an earthquake
from now on the thing is we can actually
make this difference we just have to
change our focus and I am sure I have a
lot more to learn about earthquakes and
about how to be prepared for one and
even about how to design a good
structure but I am willing to learn and
that this is what I’m going to invite
you to do is to learn alongside me thank
you
[Applause]
[Music]
you
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