3rd Croatian Conference on Earthquake Engineering 3CroCEE

The vulnerability of the built environment to seismic events has been increasingly evident, particularly in the Balkan region, where recent earthquakes have caused significant non-structural damage to both old and new buildings, often leading to restricted use. In North Macedonia, seismic design standards were introduced only after the catastrophic Skopje earthquake in 1963, with the first seismic code implemented in 1964. The construction of reinforced concrete buildings, which began at that time and continues even today, are now regarded as unique monuments of that era. These structures are a significant part of the urban landscape and reflect the evolution of engineering practices in the region. In recent years, there has been a focus on improving building features such as energy efficiency and facade renovations, but seismic evaluation and retrofitting have not been prioritized, as they are not required by national regulations.

This gap highlights the urgent need for guidelines to evaluate the seismic performance of existing buildings, allowing for the estimation of both direct and indirect losses associated with restoring building functionality, as well as the identification of key parameters influencing these losses. To address this, the economic loss prediction method outlined in FEMA-P58 is applied to residential buildings in Skopje’s city center, which were constructed after the 1963 earthquake. These buildings serve as prototypes for assessing seismic performance using a scenario-based approach. The findings provide insights into expected repair costs due to earthquake-induced damage. Ultimately, the results of this study contribute to the establishment of performance-based objectives and procedures for assessing the recovery of existing buildings, providing valuable insights for future seismic resilience strategies and building safety improvements.