dilek eger�*s apartment was only built last year.iately. across the region, many buildings suffered total colla pse. the floors stacking up, one on top of another. engineers call it pancaking. we have seen a lot of pancaking in the area. that actually really is a term that they use to describe very brittle and sudden failure of a reinforced concrete multi—storey or reinforced concrete building, and we have seen quite a lot of that. turkey is one of the world's most active earthquake zones. the last major quake hit in 1999 near the northwestern city of izmit, killing more than 17,000 people. archive: the damage to the | infrastructure of north-eastern turkey is extensive. homes that weren't built to withstand earthquakes simply collapsed in on themselves. to try to prevent such catastrophic collapses, turkish building regulations were strengthened. professor mehmet aydinoglu was asked to write these new rules. this is a guide for engineers and it contains the rules for good, safe building design. we have a good seismic design code. i