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The purpose of this research is to show significant points which can be used in the architectural design process by investigating the basic principles of earthquake resistant design (ERD) in a deductive format and to contribute to the architectural perception in ERD.

First, the structural irregularity types are examined depending on the rules defined in the Turkish Earthquake Code, 2007 (TEC). Then, architectural design failures related to earthquake resistance of buildings under earthquake loading are visualized and solution suggestions in literature are described in detail by supported drawings.

The problems causing structural irregularities are investigated deeply with given solutions in literature. It is obtained that the significant factors affecting the earthquake performance of structures are: architectural form, structural configuration, slenderness ratio, the location and rate of floor openings, projection rates and symmetry, rigidity and strength differences between floors, short columns, pounding effect. Social implications – The practical design decision rules can contribute to the phenomena of earthquake resistant architectural design and can encourage adoption of these rules in building industry.

This study aims to gain an understanding of the problems in projects in terms of structural irregularities, and then manage to solve the problems using problem‐oriented approaches. The suggested solutions can be adopted and applied to future projects for designing earthquake resistant buildings.

Until the Loma Prieta earthquake of 17 October 1989, also known as the “World Series earthquake” or the “San Francisco earthquake,” many of us may have considered earthquakes a remote danger. But instantaneous television transmission from the interrupted World Series game and frightening images of the collapsed Cypress Viaduct and the burning Marina district transformed this incident from a distant disaster into a phenomenon that touched us all. The Loma Prieta earthquake was followed in December 1990 by the inaccurate but widely publicized New Madrid earthquake prediction. Despite its inaccuracy, this prediction alerted the public to the fact that the largest earthquake ever to have occurred in the United States occurred not in California or Alaska, but in Missouri, and that a large earthquake could occur there again. Americans are discovering that few places are immune to the possibility of an earthquake.

The aim of this study is to question the relationship between architectural ethical codes and faults in earthquakes. Earthquakes have devastating effects on all societies in history and today. And the relationship and importance of the architect and building, one of the most important roles of these destructive effects, is once again revealed in every earthquake. Although there are some restrictions or warnings for architects and the architectural profession to reduce this destructive effect in many regulations and ethical codes, it is possible to see the defects caused by architectural design and the destruction caused by these defects in every new earthquake.

In this study, the most destructive earthquakes in Turkey in the past 20 years (Bingöl, Van, Elazig and Izmir) and the 1999 Marmara earthquake, which was the most destructive earthquake in Turkey’s recent history, and the damages occurred in these earthquakes and their causes were examined. Although the scope of the study is “destructive earthquakes that have occurred in the past 20 years in Turkey”, the Marmara Earthquake, which occurred in 1999, when the destructive effect of the earthquake was seen the most and architectural design errors were intense, was also included in the scope of the study. And to have a more comprehensive understanding of how these defects are examined in terms of ethical codes and to make a more comprehensive comparison, ethical codes from different countries in the world have been researched and a review has been made on topics such as public welfare, human rights and raising the standard of the profession.

This study concludes by reviewing the key factors learned from the examined ethical codes of different countries. Finding ethical codes of different countries was challenging to gain approval. In addition, the study ends with recommendations in terms of questioning the regulations and education curriculum relations on a country basis.

This study, which targets architect candidates who carry out the profession of architecture and continue their architectural education, evaluates the architectural design flaws seen in earthquakes through ethical codes and forms a basis for further studies.

The purpose of this paper is to serve two main purposes: first, casting an architectural lens over the disaster context propagates deeper understanding of affected communities who depend on, and can benefit from, better understanding of rebuilding processes; second, by reframing architecture as a “social equaliser” we can make sustainable buildings more accessible to a society that is undergoing massive post-disaster change.

This paper presents the findings of my doctoral research on the role of architects in humanitarian endeavours. Based on empirical research and fieldwork conducted on professional responses to three recent disasters: the 2010 Canterbury earthquake; the 2010 Haiti earthquake; and the 2004 Hurricane Katrina, the author has used Horst Rittel's design methods paradigm as a conceptual framework to reconstruct and re-evaluate our understanding of disasters. Drawing from 49 semi-structured interviews with key architectural-design practitioners in the three case sites, this study proposes a re-conceptualisation of urban reconstruction that prioritises community empowerment through design processes rather than through architectural symbolism.

Drawing from 49 semi-structured interviews with key architectural-design practitioners in the three case sites, this study proposes a re-conceptualisation of urban reconstruction that prioritises community empowerment through design processes rather than through architectural symbolism.

This study is an attempt to reconcile the contentious views that exist across multiple sectors by offering design as an ultimately renewable resource and a source of community empowerment.

The main value proposition of this research paper is that, while many studies acknowledge disasters as truly “wicked problems” (resistant to resolution and riddled with complexities), few attempts to integrate the multi-disciplinary perspectives that can advance our understanding of disasters.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate increase in the cost of reinforced concrete buildings in Kathmandu valley constructed using earthquake safer features in comparison with that of buildings constructed using conventional approach without earthquake safety features.

Five buildings constructed using earthquake safer features and five buildings constructed without using these features are selected. A cost comparison of both types of buildings is done, and the total cost is also compared for structural, nonstructural and service components in the buildings.

The cost analysis of buildings constructed in Kathmandu valley shows that there is 10 per cent increase in cost for earthquake safer construction in comparison to construction using conventional approach. This increase in cost can be a deterrent factor for house owners to switch to safer construction practices which ultimately leads to lack of compliance from house owners. A successful implementation of building code in a country like Nepal, where most of the buildings are constructed from informal sector, requires compliance of the code from all stakeholders. Awareness raising can be a deciding factor for success in building code enforcement.

The study is done for only two types of constructions prevalent in Kathmandu: one using simplified codal method and another using conventional method. Only five samples of each types are taken into consideration. The building sample, however, is typical and representative of the two types of the construction practice.

The information from this study will be useful for making policy decisions for enforcement of building codes and also for assessment of economic loss in future earthquakes.

This research output will help to redesign building code enforcement projects in Nepal and other countries in the region with similar issues.

The building samples, analysis and output are original contribution of authors, and it contributes to fulfill the gap for such study.

Introduction The 1985 earthquake in Mexico City served as a sobering reminder of the destructive effects that earthquakes can have on well‐constructed and engineered buildings. The collapse of some 120 tall buildings in steel and reinforced concrete, many designed to a modern earthquake building code, and serious damage in several hundred more, might suggest that modern methods are powerless to prevent catastrophe in an extreme event. Less informed observers even concluded (erroneously) from the generally good performance of 18th and 19th century masonry buildings in the earthquake that we have somehow lost the art of earthquake resistant design which our fore‐fathers knew. The reasons for the selectiveness of attack and the poor performance of modern construction in the Mexico earthquake have been widely discussed (for example, Booth et al.1) and are reasonably well understood.

The main purpose of this study is revival of vernacular architecture of Zegalli houses, which can be beneficial in several aspects of sustainable architecture, and therefore, its reuse in contemporary architecture can be strongly recommended. Zegalli houses, in northern Iran, are almost-entirely wooden vernacular houses, which beside to having several aspects of sustainable architecture, have shown good resistance against past earthquakes. Their relatively good seismic performance is mainly because of their specific timber foundation, which creates a kind of rocking/rolling isolation, as well as their light weight and diagonally braced stiff walls.

In this paper, first the architectural features of Zegalli houses, particularly energy efficiency, sustainability and eco-friendliness are described. Then, their structural system, focusing more on their foundation, is discussed. Finally, a simplified model of the house, developed in a powerful finite element analysis program, is introduced, and sample results of a series of time history analyses (THA), employing three-component accelerograms of three selected earthquakes, are presented.

Results of THA show that the rocking/rolling behavior of foundation timbers in various levels significantly reduces seismic response of the house, leading to its stability against earthquakes with peak ground acceleration up to 0.25 g.

Regarding the architectural and structural merits of Zegalli houses, they can be considered as sustainable vernacular architecture, and therefore, architects and civil and structural engineers are encouraged to reconsider the use of these houses, with some modifications, in future developments.

3D dynamics analysis of Shikilli foundations of Zegalli houses is done for the first time in this study.

This study aims to focus on security measures for protecting transportation buildings from vehicle bomb attacks. It discusses ways to mitigate the effects of vehicle bomb terrorist attacks through architectural design decisions on transportation buildings.

The main research topic is the evaluation of architectural design decisions for vehicle bomb attacks at transportation buildings with the multi-criteria decision-making method. First, it was investigated which characteristics the impact of the explosion on the structures depended on. The measures for vehicle bomb attacks regarding the relationship between the urban scale and the building were determined by four main criteria and 17 sub-criteria. Due to the complex and ambiguous nature of architectural design, these criteria were evaluated by the analytic hierarchy processes. After the criteria weights were obtained, the alternative sample buildings, including the train stations and airports, were evaluated with the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution method.

The site security design was determined as the most effective component for vehicle bomb attacks among the main criteria. The most important sub-criterion was the perimeter firewall. In the evaluations of the alternatives, it was determined that airports performed better against vehicle bomb attacks in terms of architectural design requirements than train stations.

This research contributes to the literature for the countries where explosions occur intensively by determining the importance of architectural design parameters for the transportation buildings and surroundings against vehicle bomb attacks. This study provides an evaluation model based on transportation buildings considering the relationship between the urban scale and the building itself.

This study aims to present a novel Genetic Algorithm-Based Design Model (GABDM) to provide reduced-risk areas, namely, a “safe footprint,” in interior spaces during earthquakes. This study focuses on housing interiors as the space where inhabitants spend most of their daily lives.

The GABDM uses the genetic algorithm as a method, the Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II algorithm, and the Wallacei X evolutionary optimization engine. The model setup, including inputs, constraints, operations and fitness functions, is presented, as is the algorithmic model’s running procedure. Following the development phase, GABDM is tested with a sample housing interior designed by the authors based on the literature related to earthquake risk in interiors. The implementation section is organized to include two case studies.

The implementation of GABDM resulted in optimal “safe footprint” solutions for both case studies. However, the results show that the fitness functions achieved in Case Study 1 differed from those achieved in Case Study 2. Furthermore, Case Study 2 has generated more successful (higher ranking) “safe footprint” alternatives with its proposed furniture system.

This study presents an original approach to dealing with earthquake risks in the context of interior design, as well as the development of a design model (GABDM) that uses a generative design method to reduce earthquake risks in interior spaces. By introducing the concept of a “safe footprint,” GABDM contributes explicitly to the prevention of earthquake risk. GABDM is adaptable to other architectural typologies that involve footprint and furniture relationships.

Despite being located in earthquake sensitive region and often experiencing seismic tremors the State of Uttarakhand in the Indian Himalayas exhibits an elaborate tradition of constructing multistoreyed houses. Both the local dialects of the State (Kumaoni and Garhwali) have unique words for identifying four different floors of a building. This is suggestive of a common occurrence of multistoreyed structures in the region. This paper attempts to establish that the people inhabiting this rugged earthquake prone terrain have evolved the art of constructing earthquake safe structures well before the evolution of the structural engineering principles governing such a construction.

Detailed investigations were undertaken in the area to establish the antiquity of the traditional structures, as were also earthquake safety provisions incorporated traditionally in these. Radiocarbon dating of the wood used in the structures was used to establish the time of the construction of these structures.

Investigations suggest that the region has evolved a distinct, elaborate and magnificent earthquake‐safe construction style. This construction style, designated Koti Banal architecture, attained its zenith around 880 years ago. This architectural style exhibits the existence of elaborate procedures for site selection, preparing the platform for raising the multistoreyed structure, also for the detail of the entire structure that was constructed on principles somewhat akin to that of framed structures of modern times.

The representative structures of this architecture are observed to be deteriorating fast due to lack of patronage, resources and awareness. This article brings forth awareness regarding the heritage value of these structures, enabling organized efforts for the conservation and upkeep of these structures.

This article is the result of original research undertaken by the authors and paves the way for the conservation of the age old traditional structures.