New Zealand: State of shock: How our buildings save lives but little else

By Rob Mitchell

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John Shewan is a director of the Australasian arm of Munich Re, one of the world's biggest reinsurance companies.

In a recent presentation to the Wellington Rotary Club he said the 2011 and 2012 quakes in Christchurch "unsettled" the global insurance industry because they "changed the whole modelling parameters for earthquakes ... produced a number of highly unusual events, including liquefaction".

The damage in Christchurch and the impact, particularly on modern buildings, after the 2016 Kaikōura quake made the "Germans pretty grumpy", not only about the continuation of nearly two decades of losses in natural disaster cover but also the lack of building resilience in a country rated by Lloyd's of London as the second most risky in the world, behind flood-prone Bangladesh.

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The problem is not with the insurance companies, [Insurance Council chief executive Tim Grafton] says, but building codes and practices that ensure lives are saved but buildings are essentially lost, written off. Just as a car is designed to save its occupants in an accident, but is unusable afterwards.

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"The NBS rating is primarily a life safety rating that has limited relevance to a building's seismic resilience," says Grafton. "New Zealand needs a better rating system."

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The Christchurch and Kaikōura quakes were devastating, tragic events, but they were also opportunities for scientists, engineers and even legislators to learn a great deal about the ability of our infrastructure to withstand quakes and our communities to prepare for the next big one.

That has led to one conclusion.

"We are designing the wrong kinds of buildings if we want low damage," says [John Hare, of Holmes Group Ltd].

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