August 19, 2006: Unbuilding the HDB Foundation
For orientation:
click to see the unbuilding site.
The three towers on the right with the swimming pool is our home in
Singapore. To the left of the tower to the left of our pool are the two
HDB blocks. The nearer one is currently under unbuilding.
The one to the left is being prepared. To the right of our apartment
complex are the MRT tracks (above ground subway here) with the MRT station
near the top right of the map.
Its Saturday morning about 7:45 and the guys are waking up across the
street. Here is the worksite this morning. I was home most of the day
working on an editorial for a cardiology journal, so today I was able
to follow the work until dinner time.
Here is the worksite
This is where most of the action is today. This region is the
ground floor of the building. Over the day, the excavators will transplant
this region to somewhere and work down to the foundation
Here is Michael's hammer working on punching through the ground floor
Now its 11:25 am and most of the floor in the center region is gone
To the left - not much action
In the center, you can see a few basement wall sections still in place
Now its 4 pm and the excavators are down to the foundation
Most of the action is in the center, taking down the basement walls
And Michael's hammer - in a sort of reverse position
Working on unbuilding the basement walls
A closer view. The grapple in the back is digging around the foundation
while the hammers are working on the walls
Now its 4:45 pm and gone is the wall
and work continues on breaking the foundation up into small bite-size pieces
And the result of a day's unbuilding
