For a long time earthquake risk was considered unavoidable. It was accepted that buildings would be damaged as a result of an earthquake’s ground shaking. Preventive measures for earthquakes were therefore mostly limited to disaster management preparedness. Although measures related to construction methods had already been proposed at the beginning of the 20th century, it is only during the last decades that improved and intensified research has revealed how to effectively reduce the vulnerability of structures to earthquakes.
The objective of this document is to present recent knowledge on earthquake protection measures for buildings in a simple and easy to understand manner. The chosen method explains basic principles by matching them with illustrations, examples, and an explanatory text. The principles, photographs (from the author for third parties), and the texts are the result of a long research and design activity in the challenging and strongly evolving field of earthquake engineering.
The author would like to thank, above all, the numerous photographs contributors mentioned at the end of the booklet, who have made available the results of extensive and often dangerous efforts. Thanks are also extended to the Federal Office for Water and Geology and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation for editing and carefully printing this document.