2nd Croatian Conference on Earthquake Engineering 2CroCEE

After a seismic event, the observation of the consequences to buildings and infrastructures always highlights extensive damage in old or historical district of the hit area. Damage depends not only on the seismic intensity, but above all on the quality of materials and construction technique. The negative consequences of traditional design and construction approaches appeared in all their negative evidence in the areas of Central Italy affected by the recent seismic sequences of medium intensity (M5-M6) in 2016-17. Now the reconstruction should solve the problem to rebuild with safety but preserving the history and culture related to buildings, landscape, people.
This paper proposes a particular application of the known technique of seismic isolation for the integral seismic protection of entire small centers or urban quarter characterized by building of different characteristics also significantly irregular. The adoption of seismic isolation systems at village or quarter scale involves the construction of large slabs, supported by seismic isolators and/or dampers, above which to construct buildings that can present the aesthetic and constructive characteristics of the collapsed traditional ones. These large slabs could have the size of entire compartments (hundreds of square meters). Solutions using large isolated plates have already been implemented in various countries to isolate complex of new buildings. The solution is suited for the reconstruction of villages or quarters that were almost completely destroyed as well: above the slabs buildings of any type (masonry, stone, r/c, steel, wood) can be freely built and all of them will be fully protected from the consequences of future expected quakes.
The solution allows a correct interpretation of the objective to rebuild "as it was, where it was", safeguarding the landscape, prolonging the lifetime, saving the expected cost, preserving the identity of the community.
The paper particularly illustrates the project for the reconstruction of the iconic village of Castelluccio di Norcia in Umbria (Italy) on a stepped isolated plate focusing on seismic efficiency, economic benefits, construction solutions, management procedures.