Why don’t tall buildings fall?
An office block’s foundations are sunk so deeply into the ground that they won’t budge. The sections are made of strong columns that are firmly braced. So the whole structure is like a continuous rigid column jammed into the ground. Imagine your feet were set in a big block of cement half way up to your knees. Providing you hold your body rigid, there’s no way you will fall over – even in high winds. An office block and its foundations are a bit like this. Tall buildings are designed to sway a little in high winds. The top of a 100-storey building can sway, quite safely, up to 1.5m.