Nonengineered Construction Research
Earthquakes don’t kill people; buildings do – as the adage goes. The Gujarat, India earthquake in 2001 killed more than 20,000 people; the Bam, Iran earthquake of 2003 killed at least 30,000 people while damaging or destroying 85% of the buildings and infrastructure, along with the historic 2000-year-old citadel. These two earthquake disasters provide unfortunate but clear examples of the devastation caused by nonengineered buildings.
Nonengineered construction can be defined as "those buildings spontaneously and informally constructed in various countries in the traditional manner without any or little intervention by qualified architects and engineers in their design."¹ Buildings made of field stone, fired brick, concrete block, adobe or rammed earth, wood or a combination of these traditional locally-available materials are included. The purpose of this resource is to introduce a variety of current online tools addressing nonengineered construction research.
Nonengineered Construction Websites
- EERI — World Housing Encyclopedia: Earthquake-Resistant Construction of Adobe Buildings: A Tutorial
- Earthquake-Resistant Construction of Adobe Buildings
- EERI — World Housing Encyclopedia
- search Non-Engineered Construction
- Earthquake Hazard Centre (EHC) — Victoria University of Wellington, School of Architecture
- Earthquake Hazard Centre
- John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering Center — January 2001 Gujarat Earthquake
- John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering Center
- National Information Center of Earthquake Engineering – IAEE Guidelines for Earthquake Resistant Non– Engineered Construction
- National Information Center of Earthquake Engineering
- Non–Engineered Construction and its Earthquake Damage by Yuji Ishiyama, Professor Emeritus, Hokkaido University
- Non-Engineered Construction and its Earthquake Damage
- ProVention Forum 2006 — Post–disaster recovery: Is there a real window of opportunity for reducing risk? by Rajib Shaw
- ProVention Forum 2006
Nonengineered Construction Articles
- Adobe Construction by Marcial Blondet and Gladys Villa Garcia M.
- Marcial Blondet and Gladys Villa Garcia M.
- Notes on the seismic adequacy of vernacular buildings by Jorge Gutierrez
- Jorge Gutierrez
- Performance of Building Roofs in the 2003 Bam, Iran, Earthquake by Mahmoud R. Maheria
- Mahmoud R. Maheria
- Safe building construction and protection of critical facilities (from UNISDR Living with Risk 2004)
- UNISDR Living with Risk 2004
- Summary of "Seismic Vulnerability of Non–Engineered Houses in Caracas Field Experiment and Seismic Evaluation" by Mitsuo Miura, Akira Inoue, et al. from Proceedings of the 8th U.S. National Conference on Earthquake Engineering, April 18-22, 2006, San Francisco, California, USA.
- Mitsuo Miura, Akira Inoue, et al.
- Summary of the paper: Seismic Safety of Schools in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal: Problems and Opportunities, by J.K. Bothara, A.M Dixit, M. Nakarmi, S.B. Pradanang, and R.C. Thapa.
- J.K. Bothara, A.M Dixit, M. Nakarmi, S.B. Pradanang, and R.C. Thapa.
- Web–Based World Housing Encyclopedia: Housing Construction in High Seismic Risk Areas of the World (paper presented at 13th WCEE)
- Paper presented at 13th WCEE
¹ International Association for Earthquake Engineering. (1980). Guidelines for earthquake resistant non-engineered construction. (page xiii). Mumbai, India: The Associated Cement Companies Limited.