242 The Designer’s Insights (1/2)
Chapter 242: The Designer’s Insights
Translator: Nyoi-Bo StudioEditor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Wei Kang kept talking until he felt thirsty.
Lü Mingyi winked at the staff member and said quietly, ”Grab a few waters from my office.”
The staff member was focused on the story, but he had to do what the boss told him to.
Lϋ Mingyi knew Wei Kang well enough. He never joked around, especially about things like that. It had to be true.
The ancient Egyptian cat wasn’t the most impressive thing to Lϋ Mingyi, but how Zhang Zian could get a cat like that was more fascinating. It seemed like Zhang Zian was more than just an owner of a normal pet store. Lϋ Mingyi was guessing that Zhang Zian had to have some sort of connection overseas, just like himself. Lϋ Mingyi got some of the rare birds through under-the-table channels overseas.
”I am sorry, Mr. Zhang. It was my fault. Don’t take it personally though because I didn’t know your cat was that precious,” Lϋ Mingyi reached out his hand to Zhang Zian. He decided it was smart to build a connection with this special guy who might help him in the future.
”That’s fine,” Zhang Zian shook his hand and pointed at Guo Dongyue standing next to him. ”Thi. is a famous architect in our city, Guo Dongyue.”
”Hello, Mr. Guo. I have heard about you, long ago,” Lϋ Mingyi reached out his hand politely. In fact, Lϋ Mingyu had never heard of Guo Dongyue but he just said that to be nice.
Guo Dongyue didn’t shake his hand. Instead, he pointed at the joint between the stainless-steel frame and the glass roof and said, ”There are structural problems right there. If you don’t fix it, it will collapse in strong wind.”
Lϋ Mingyi was surprised. He looked up to where Guo Dongyue was pointing, but didn’t find any problem.
”Mr. Guo, are you joking? This bird house was designed by a famous design firm in our country.” Lϋ Mingyi couldn’t believe Guo Dongyue’s words. This guy could really figure out problems just by looking up like that?
Guo Dongyue was deep in thought. ”This design will hold up under any normal strong wind. However, the person who designed the bird house didn’t consider an important factor – There are typhoons that go through Binhai city. We don’t get hit every year, but you will see there is one typhoon every three to five years. The typhoon may not hit your bird house directly. However, your bird house will collapse if the typhoon goes by it.”
He walked up to a wall and patted on several places as if he was trying to feel the thickness of the wall.
”I observed from outside and found that your bird house was almost completely enclosed. The frame is made of an aluminum alloy. It is a nice-looking design. My concern is that the weight of the building is not enough to hold it in place. If my guess is correct, the designer might’ve made a mistake on the calculation of wind load. The wind load factor used was too small, which means he only considered fundamental wind pressure. The so-called fundamental wind pressure means the average speed wind travels in ten minutes. The designer might have missed the ripple effect from a typhoon which creates instant wind pressure.”
Guo Dongyue lectured the group on a whole bunch of terms as he knocked on the beam made by aluminum alloy. He looked closely.