A conceptual inquiry into building collapse in cities in developing countries

Building collapses are becoming a common, tragic occurrence in cities in developing countries – particularly Africa and Asia. This does not bode well for urban sustainability given the rapid growth and concentration of more and more people in cities in those parts of the world. The growing number of climate-related hazards portends an even higher disaster-risk as more buildings could collapse in such places subsequent to hydro-meteorological hazards. This raises the need for conversations toward unravelling and addressing the underlying causes. This review draws on contemporary as well as historic documents on housing and construction, media, scholarly and investigative reports on building collapses and other cognate materials on the growth and development of cities across diverse locations to confer insight into the phenomenon. In summary, it was found that, accelerated demand for buildings triggered by urban expansions provides the context for how the creation of unsafe buildings arise in developing countries’ cities and are thus central to understanding the deleterious consequences of building collapses in those parts of the world. The implications of the findings for control are discussed. The review provides an exploratory reference for empirical research into the situations of specific countries and cities.