Structures with deliberately engineered weak spots can endure greater impact damage

Deliberately designing out structural weaknesses in buildings can prevent catastrophic collapse. This counterintuitive strategy succeeded in minimizing damage to a two-story concrete building in its first real-world experiment.

This innovation was partially inspired by the way lizards sacrifice their tails to escape the hands and jaws of predators. In this case, segments of the building’s connected structure are designed to fail when stressed beyond a certain point, rather than pulling down on the rest of the structure.