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Introduction

This First Volume of the “EARTHQUAKE RESISTANT BUILDINGS” series describes the structural frames, the loadings, the materials and their behaviour.

The Second Volume addresses the analysis of the structures and aims at defining the stresses and strains developed under the loadings examined including earthquake.

The Third Volume (under publication) deals with the dimensioning of the structural members, i.e. de-scribes how to verify the adequacy of the structural members to resist loadings and the necessary rein-forcement.

The present First Volume addresses the “detailed design” and more specifically, based on the results of the analysis, deals with the detailing of the structure and the creation of accurate construction drawings, details and instruction reports necessary for the construction. The final design is the most strenuous phase and requires a thorough knowledge of the numerous and complex issues regarding the construction.

In order to compose or/and comprehend the detailed design, all parties involved in the works, namely the architect, the civil engineer, the supervising consultant, the contractor, the foreman and the construction workmen must be thoroughly familiar with the common “communication language” of all team members and at the same time dispose of an -at least fair- knowledge of the construction issues. The dissemina-tion of the knowledge and the common “communication language” benefits all parties involved since on one hand the inexperienced ones will learn and therefore communicate more effectively with the experi-enced ones and on the other the latter will be satisfied that the construction will proceed without prob-lems and hazards. Harmonious teamwork is the only way to achieve excellence in construction and the present book aims exactly at achieving this harmony.

The construction principles elaborated in this book comply almost perfectly with all the seismic codes of the world e.g. EC2 and ΕC8, ACI, as well as with all the relevant regulations of other seismic prone coun-tries.

All the drawings and solutions in the examples of the book are clearly indicative and include only a frac-tion of the numerous existing solutions. Their high quality presentation should not mislead anyone to be-lieve that they constitute the one and only solution.

Additional useful material can be found visiting our website www.buildinghow.com where one may:

• Download 11 drawings of an exemplary study elaborated in several chapters in this First Volume.

• Watch an e-booklet containing 3D stereoscopic construction details.

• Watch a sequence of photographs of a real site showing the construction of a reinforced concrete frame from the day that general excavations started up to the completion of the structural frame.

By signing up for a BuildingHow account, one can download the HoloBIM software choosing from either the two-year educational license with a limitation to the number of structural members, or the trial one which has all the features of the professional license but is valid for one month only.

 


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