Exploring the implications of urban vulnerability to incidents of building collapse for construction safety research

Engineers and architects have not yet developed a model for predicting when and where a building may collapse. However, the odds are high that any such incident(s) may occur in an urban setting, particularly in a developing country. This review bemoans on the public safety implications of the rising urban vulnerability to incidents of building collapse for our ever-urbanising world. It acknowledges the proactive turn that construction and building safety research has taken- i.e. the shift from, hitherto, ex-post facto analysis of trigger events to identifying and neutralising organisational preconditions that create vulnerability for failures to occur. It, nevertheless, contends that the questions that urban vulnerability to building collapse incidents raise, such as what web of forces are at play, why is it predominant in developing in contrast to advanced countries and their corollaries, are beyond the current scope of causes of vulnerability for construction failures research. It calls for more attention to the under-researched role that the broader socio-political economic factors that influence construction processes and practices play in generating vulnerability for collapse incidents. Such endeavour, it is envisaged, could confer useful insights to affect broader social, regulatory and policy measures to address the phenomenon.