Earthquake-proof building

The number of victims in earthquake disasters is substantially influenced by the quality of the basic structure of the buildings. Always with simple and non-expensive methods and considering some basic rules it is possible to improve the earthquake resistance fundamentally.

Basic rules for earthquake proof building

Collapsed houses due to unsafe building ground

Collapsed house walls after earthquake because the roof was to heavy

Earthquake proof door with a lower and an upper part and stiffed with wooden timbers

• Choose safe building ground. Don't build on or near by landslides and rifts
• Build a massive ground floor; best with meshing stones or bricks
• Build a lightweight first floor and roof; best from wood, bamboo, GI Sheets or Plastic Sheets
• Avoid big asymmetric rooms, divide big rooms in squares
• Use triangles as basic constructions for timbers, ceilings and roof trusses
• Apply windows and doors symmetrically over the facade
• Use windows from the same size
• Strength windows and doors with timbers (Stiffing)
• Build as little windows as possible in the ground floor
• Divide the door in a lower and an upper part that it is possible to leave the house trough the upper part if there are debris in front of the house
• For the same reason the main door should open inward
• Arrange all load-bearing elements (timbers, walls etc.) symmetrically

Rules for advanced building

• Strengthen the walls by including pillars
• Use ring beams on the top of every floor
• Include reinforcements in brick-walls and concrete-walls
• Make strong connections between the reinforcements and the ring beams

Material performance in case of an earthquake

To build more earthquake resistant buildings it is necessary to know the main physical capacities of different construction materials.

Adobe

Walls which are only or mainly constructed from adobe are profoundly instable in earthquakes. Particularly at risk are adobe-buildings with a heavy second floor and/or a heavy roof and without strong connections between the different elements of the building, for example between walls and roof truss. Adobe buildings with more than two floors should be avoid in general. In fact, mostly people with less resources are forced to use the cheapest construction materials. In many areas adobe is one of these materials. Hence it is necessary to consider some basic rules if you want to build with adobe in earthquake areas:

Unsafe building ground

• In general it is essential to use other materials than adobe for load-bearing elements like walls, timbers etc.
• If the building will have more than one floor try to construct the ground floor from other materials than adobe. For example use ferro-concrete, red bricks, massive wooden beams or meshing (dressed) natural stones. Don't use round natural stones!
• Use adobe bricks from one size. Don't use adobe bricks with added grasses or pieces of wood. These is a disadvantage in a case of an earthquake because the bricks can break there!
• If possible use reinforcements between the adobe bricks or build a wooden frame (triangles) an fill it with adobe bricks.

Building Footprints

Natural stones

New constructed wall from round natural stones and loam rendering. In a case of an earthquake the danger of collapse is very high because basic rules are ignored

Red burnt bricks

More stable than adobe are red burnt bricks.

Concrete

Ferro-concrete

Wood

Bamboo

Plastics