Architectural/Structural Layout in residental buildings

[DamirDz]

Dear all,

I was wondering what the practice is in other countries regarding the architectural and structural layout of residental buildings.

What are your general structural systems in terms of lateral stability and/or seismic design - wall, frame or dual? Do you encounter a lot vertical irregularities that are forced due to (bad) architectural planning?

To keep it simple I had in mind buildings up to some 6-7 floors above ground in moderate to high seismic regions.

In Croatia the most common structural layout are wall systems, very often with lots vertical irregularities. The use of frame structures is very rare.
I would say there are two types of residental buildings: pure residental and residental buildings with the ground floor reserved for some retail/caffe's/restaurants.

In terms of seismic design the second one is in general the most problematic one, as the structural systems in general always border with soft storey due to different occupancies in the ground floor and the other floors. As such, the walls on the above floors are in lots of cases some deep beam-like members with questionable behaviour in earthquake scenarios.
One of the most common problems is alot of randomly placed RC walls in the above floors on the borders between two apartments, which is in alot of cases the architects choice because of sound insulation.
There's also the addition of basement floors mainly reserved for garages and parking space which introduces additional difference in layouts resulting in most cases in transfer structuras or some hybrid systems (part regular + part transfer).

So, please share your expiriences regarding architectural and structural solutions, and the problems you encounter.

Thanks!

DamirDz