Guisasola, Adriana

Architecture and Base Isolation

Abstract eng:
This paper reports on an investigation into how base isolation can produce benefits to the architectural design of buildings. Architecture must incorporate passive protection against any threat from natural forces. Architects are partially responsible for the behavior of a building when facing an earthquake because they design its form and configuration. If a relatively new technology such as base isolation can be coupled with interdisciplinary collaboration from the inception of a project, it is possible to achieve not only an improvement in seismic performance, but also in its architectural design and performance. The methodology adopted for this research consisted in identifying the architectural implications of the use of base isolation in hospitals, commercial and buildings for religious purposes. The three basic architectural qualities: Firmitas (structure), Utilitas (function) and Venustas (aesthetics) that comprise the Vitruvian Triad for buildings were analysed in these buildings. Thus Utilitas, optimization and functional use of space was studied. Regarding Firmitas, the more complex configurations that base-isolation can allow while meeting the seismic performance needs of the project were analysed. Finally, from the point of view of Venustas, the way base-isolation has allowed more complex volumetric massing and greater creative expressive design was considered. As a milestone example in the history of the anti-seismic construction in Argentina, the IHEM building is presented as a case-study. Located in Mendoza, it is the first large base isolated building in Argentina. The paper concludes that the use of base isolation in the IHEM building studied has increased the overall quality from conception architectural design process itself the seismic safety in case of earthquake maximum expected in the region, never reached goals achieved all together in a building of Mendoza.

Contributors:

Reboredo, Agustin

Conference Title:

Proceedings of the 16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering

Conference Title:

16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering

Conference Venue:

Santiago (CL)

Conference Dates:

2017-01-09 / 2017-01-13

Rights:

Text je chráněný podle autorského zákona č. 121/2000 Sb.