Chapter 242: The Designer’s Insights
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Wei Kang kept talking until he felt thirsty.
Lü Mingyi winked at the staff member and said quietly, "Grab a few waters from my office."
The staff member was focused on the story, but he had to do what the boss told him to.
Lϋ Mingyi knew Wei Kang well enough. He never joked around, especially about things like that. It had to be true.
The ancient Egyptian cat wasn’t the most impressive thing to Lϋ Mingyi, but how Zhang Zian could get a cat like that was more fascinating. It seemed like Zhang Zian was more than just an owner of a normal pet store. Lϋ Mingyi was guessing that Zhang Zian had to have some sort of connection overseas, just like himself. Lϋ Mingyi got some of the rare birds through under-the-table channels overseas.
"I am sorry, Mr. Zhang. It was my fault. Don’t take it personally though because I didn’t know your cat was that precious," Lϋ Mingyi reached out his hand to Zhang Zian. He decided it was smart to build a connection with this special guy who might help him in the future.
"That’s fine," Zhang Zian shook his hand and pointed at Guo Dongyue standing next to him. "Thi. is a famous architect in our city, Guo Dongyue."
"Hello, Mr. Guo. I have heard about you, long ago," Lϋ Mingyi reached out his hand politely. In fact, Lϋ Mingyu had never heard of Guo Dongyue but he just said that to be nice.
Guo Dongyue didn’t shake his hand. Instead, he pointed at the joint between the stainless-steel frame and the glass roof and said, "There are structural problems right there. If you don’t fix it, it will collapse in strong wind."
Lϋ Mingyi was surprised. He looked up to where Guo Dongyue was pointing, but didn’t find any problem.
"Mr. Guo, are you joking? This bird house was designed by a famous design firm in our country." Lϋ Mingyi couldn’t believe Guo Dongyue’s words. This guy could really figure out problems just by looking up like that?
Guo Dongyue was deep in thought. "This design will hold up under any normal strong wind. However, the person who designed the bird house didn’t consider an important factor – There are typhoons that go through Binhai city. We don’t get hit every year, but you will see there is one typhoon every three to five years. The typhoon may not hit your bird house directly. However, your bird house will collapse if the typhoon goes by it."
He walked up to a wall and patted on several places as if he was trying to feel the thickness of the wall.
"I observed from outside and found that your bird house was almost completely enclosed. The frame is made of an aluminum alloy. It is a nice-looking design. My concern is that the weight of the building is not enough to hold it in place. If my guess is correct, the designer might’ve made a mistake on the calculation of wind load. The wind load factor used was too small, which means he only considered fundamental wind pressure. The so-called fundamental wind pressure means the average speed wind travels in ten minutes. The designer might have missed the ripple effect from a typhoon which creates instant wind pressure."
Guo Dongyue lectured the group on a whole bunch of terms as he knocked on the beam made by aluminum alloy. He looked closely.
"The designer cared about the look more than anything. The supporting frames were snapped together. Such jointing method is especially bad for wind resistance. I’d recommend changing the jointing method to screws. Of course, you don’t have to change anything if you don’t want, but it would be a gamble on how likely it is that a typhoon hits Binhai."
"You are in a flat field. When the typhoon comes, there is nothing to stop it. Your building has a large surface area…" Guo Dongyue shook his head, "Never mind. You don’t have to listen to me. I just got done with a project building an all-glass greenhouse, so I did some research. I almost made the same mistake myself. I just wanted to tell you about it. You don’t have to listen."
Guo Dongyue’s words made Lϋ Mingyi worried. Looking up at the glass ceiling, he suddenly felt dizzy as if a typhoon was coming and the whole bird house would be pulled up in the swirling air.
He quickly walked up to Guo Dongyue. He shook Guo’s hand even though Guo didn’t want to. "Mr. Guo, I am sorry about just now. Please tell me more!"
He wasn’t sure if Guo Dongyue was right. However, as a businessman, he’d rather be safe than sorry.
"Come here, you two. Let’s chat in my office, please," Lϋ Mingyi happily invited them inside.
"May I bring my cats?" Zhang Zian asked.
Lϋ Mingyi was embarrassed and laughed, "Mr. Zhang, please! I can’t afford to get you another one if your cats get lost."
Zhang Zian was joking with Lϋ Mingyi. He waved. "That’s fine. We are here to buy parrots today. No need to chat."
Lϋ Mingyi thought that they were mad at him because of what happened. He regretted it and asked, "What kind of parrots are you looking for? I will give it to you for free."
Immediately, Zhang Zian felt like he missed out on a big deal. It was too bad that he wasn’t planning on getting a parrot. If he was going to pick one… he would pick one that was the most expensive to take home. It was also clear that Lϋ Mingyi wanted to be friends with Guo Dongyue and have him fix the problems of this building.
On the other hand, Wei Kang didn’t care about the problems of the building. All he wanted to do was to take pictures of Fina and get some of its genes to study in the lab. Zhang Zian couldn’t agree so he played dumb in front of Wei Kang and stopped him from getting close to Fina. Snowy Lionet was also smart. It could tell from Zhang Zian’s attitude that this Wei Kang might harm Fina. Snowy Lionet stayed right next to Fina to protect the Queen.
Guo Dongyue was worried about his mom and didn’t want to spend any more time with Lϋ Mingyi. He simply said, "It is easy to increase the building’s wind resistance. You don’t have to change much."
"Really? How?" Lϋ Mingyi was surprised. At first, he wasn’t sure if Guo Dongyue’s words were true or he was playing tricks. Also, he didn’t want to spend the time, money and effort if the building needed a big fix… however, if it was an easy fix, it would be great to just get it done.
"It is simple. You have so many open fields around you. You can put up some thick windbreakers around your building to protect it from the wind. The walls can be pretty and also help fight the wind. I also suggest replacing the short trees with tall pine trees. Of course, you should consult the original designer on how to add the windbreakers. It can count as their after-sale service."
Upon hearing that, Lϋ Mingyi felt a lot better.