1

A Tutorial on Stone Masonry Houses:

A Compendium of Worldwide Experiences

New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering

3-5 April 2009, Christchurch

Jitendra K Bothara, C.V.R. Murty, Qaisar Ali, Tom Schacher,

Andrea Penna, Marjana Lutman

2

Content

• Background

• Why Tutorial on Stone Masonry

• Guiding facts

• Philosophical Drive

• What it covers

3

The World Housing Encyclopedia

www.world-housing.net

Web-based Housing EncyclopediaHosted by

EERI and IAEE

• An educational resource on housing

Resources available free of charge

• Housing construction reportsFrom 38 Countries

Total number of reports: 150

4

Tutorials

• Reinforced concrete frame

• Confined Masonry Dwellings (English, Spanish and Chinese)

• Adobe Buildings (English and Spanish)

• Adobe Houses with Geomesh (English, Spanish)

• Stone masonry

• Straw bale

• Brick Masonry

• Concrete Shear Walls

• Precast concrete

• Timber

• Post-earthquake damage assessment

••

5

Stone Masonry Tutorial

6

Guiding facts

• Highly vulnerable to earthquakes shaking

• Stone masonry houses are the fatal killers• Building technologists do not know much about

this construction type No engineering universities course on stone masonry

construction

• These building can not meet requirements of

modern building standards!!! Radical change does not fit because of:

social reasons

Economic reasons

7

Guiding facts

• Supply Mode: Owner Built

• Process: Informal/ Incremental

• Key Advisor: Local Craftsman

• No access to engineering knowledge

• Predominant Material and Skill: Locally available (traditional)

• Weak and inferior construction materials (mud

mortar, irregular stones, etc)

• Mostly poor construction technology

• Economically unprivileged population

8

Stone masonry buildings

9

Destructions

10

MAJOR PROBLEMS

• Inadequate integrity

11

MAJOR PROBLEMS

• Poor construction materials and technology

12

Encouraging Evidences

CAN BE IMPROVED WITH VERY NOMINAL INPUT

13

Philosophical Drive

• Even small improvement matters for survival

• Incremental safety

Something is better than nothing

• No cost to low cost solutions

• Easily implementable technology

• Building should not collapse during a moderate earthquake

• Building should delay the collapse during a major event so people can escape.

14

Approach

• Easy to understand

• Pictorial

• Answers: Why?

• Identifies deficiencies and proposes easy solutions

• Collects knowledge from different countries, researches

• Target group: field level people, engineering practicener, engineering students

15

Stone Masonry Tutorial

16

Content

• Introduction

• Earthquake Resistant Construction

• Construction Materials

• Seismic Retrofitting of Stone Masonry Building

• Bibliography

• Terminology

17

The Team….

• Authors from:

Nepal/ New Zealand

India

Pakistan

Slovenia

Switzerland

Italy

• Reviewers from

India

New Zealand

The USA

18

Acknowledgements

• New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering

• NWFP University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar

• Beca

19

Thank You