MASTER THESIS Biomimetic potential of sponge ... - IAP/TU Wien

Earthquake proof buildings
Some of the fast growing megalopoleis lie within areas regularly affected by earthquakes
(e.g. Karachi and Dhaka) (Salzgitter AG, 2008). New buildings, especially high-rise buildings
should of course correspond to this latent danger to save lives and prevent destruction.
Figure 26: Severely damaged office building in Concepción, Chile after the 2010 earthquake. The O’Higgins
building (right) had only been inaugurated months before the earthquake; a consternating example indicating
that earth-quake proof construction is still widely disregarded 2 even in high risk areas like the ”Pacific Ring of
Fire”. Possibly, integrating other functions, like lighting, into earthquake-proofing structures would increase
their acceptance. Strong, bio-inspired optical fibres might pave the way for multifunctional “rocking cores”
(Calugaru & Panagiotou, 2011) in high rise buildings. © by imageshack.us
In the aftermath of the Great Japan Earthquake 2011 various approaches used in
earthquake proofing of high-rise buildings have been evaluated (Takewaki et al., 2011).
Especially viscoelastic dampers (e.g. made of hard rubber) that decouple the building from
i 2 The owners of the property, however, allege that a tenant has removed columns inappropriately and thereby
compromised the stability of the building (e-construcción, 2010).
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