COMPUTER AIDED DESTRUCTION.(Technology Information)

Everyone knows about CAD in construction. But can it play a role at the other end of the life cycle?

The building is enormous. It is concrete. It is full of steel. It reaches many stories into the turquoise sky. All around it is a teeming city. There is traffic in the streets. Huge and delicate office suites of glass and steel are right next door. And nearly a million people live nearby.

Yet the building is decaying. It is abandoned and crumbling. Police have had to remove squatters several times. It is a danger to the city, and must be removed. But how to do so without creating even more of a threat?

There is a sound of sirens, then a deep, almost subliminal explosion. And slowly, almost gracefully, the building seems to melt into itself. The glass suites are unharmed. The traffic hurries on. The million people barely notice.

Building demolition is among the most demanding, and the most flamboyant, of all the "construction" industries. Its practitioners must be able to take vast structures and turn them to rubble without in the process disturbing their surroundings.

How do they do that? The answer, of course, is with great difficulty. And demolition experts, the people who do it, are a special breed. Luckily, computer-aided design---or in this case, computer-aided destruction---can make their lives just a tad easier.

The Business of Wrecking