Seismic vulnerability of gravity load design r.c. buildings of 1960s in low seismic areas

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a substantial increase in the issues of assessing the seismic vulnerability of existing structures and reducing seismic risk in Italy. Most of the buildings in Italy dates back to 1950s-60s and are Reinforced Concrete buildings designed only to vertical loads (GLD). In some cases, these buildings are located in areas that were defined as non-seismic zones in previous seismic classification of the national territory. Nowadays, in a whole seismic country the study of the seismic vulnerability of this type of buildings represents a really interesting issue.In this paper the seismic vulnerability of a building of the Olympic Village of Luigi Moretti in Rome has been evaluated, as representative case, originally designed to counteract only vertical loads. This valuable solution by Moretti respects the “five points of modern architecture” by Le Corbusier. It was built on the occasion of the XVII Olympics in 1960 with the aim of hosting the participating athletes. It is characterized by resisting frames only in transverse direction, as occurred for Le Unitè d'Habitation by Le Corbusier.