Archtech Workshop

5/6/2014 Archtech workshop

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EARTHQUAKE RESISTANT PRACTICES

FOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF ARCHITECTURE

July 02, 07 2012, IIT Kanpur

National Information Centre of Earthquake Engineering (NICEE) at IIT Kanpur is committed to furthering earthquake safety in the built environment through

empowering stakeholders in the building delivery process by information sharing and dissemination of the state of the art in earthquake engineering. NICEE has

also actively engaged in awareness, sensitization and training programmes for faculty in architecture and civil engineering disciplines in colleges all over India

through the NPEEE program that was in operation from 2003 till 2007. The National Advisory Committee of NICEE unanimously felt need of targeting thearchitecture professionals of tomorrow by offering training modules to the students of architecture in colleges all over India. The objective of this workshop was

primarily aimed to equip the participants with the necessary expertise to arrive at architectural designs that are inherently adequate in resisting earthquake loadsat a conceptual level.

To meet this objective, a pilot Workshop for Undergraduate students of Architecture in Earthquake Resistant Design Practices was first offered in 2008. The

workshop was a grand success and it was decided to make it an annual event. The 5th National Workshop was held in IIT Kanpur during July 02-07, 2012, inwhich 60 undergraduate students who had completed six semesters of studies in their respective architecture programmes, from 16 institutes representing 16

cities from all over India participated in the 6-day workshop. The participants were selected from around 100 applications received.

Workshop 2012

The general objective of the workshop was to sensitize the students to earthquake safety issues and in capacity building in the basics of earthquake resistant

design at a conceptual level. It was expected that lectures and hands-on studio sessions in tackling a design assignment will help students in internalizingearthquake resistant practices as an integral part of their design decision making. The resource faculty for this workshop were from architecture and structural

engineering disciplines in an attempt to recreate as closely as possible real life architectural practice. The selected participants were each sent a NICEE

publication titled “Architectural Teaching Resource Material on Earthquake Design Concepts” authored by Murty and Charleson. The participants were advised

to go through the book before coming for the workshop.

The following faculty members, Prof. Mahua Mukherjee, Department of Architecture & Planning, IIT Roorkee, Roorkee; Prof. Vasudha Gokhale, Dr. B.N.College of Architecture for Women, Pune; Prof. Alpana Dongre, Department of Architecture, VNIT Nagpur, Prof. Atanu Dutta, Department of Civil Engineering,

Jorhat Engineering College, Jorhat and Mr. Hari Kumar of GeoHazards Society, New Delhi were the resource persons of the workshop 2012.

Design Problem

The design brief was to Design a housing project in a hypothetical 150m x 80m site in Guwahati, located in Seismic Zone V. The workshop participants weredivided into thirty 2 member groups where each member was from a different institute. They were asked to develop a design proposal which should be rational in

functional, structural and aesthetic terms. While the participants were encouraged to adopt innovative design approaches, the objective of this design exercise

was to evaluate their understanding of earthquake resistant architecture and application of the same in a design project.

Evaluation of Design

Six designs that incorporated earthquake resistant features without compromising the host of other requirements such as functionality, climate, etc. were

shortlisted during the initial round by a Jury Board. The Jury Board consisted of following members:

Prof. Mahesh Tandon, CMD, Tandon Consultants & Private Limited, New Delhi Prof. Durgesh C. Rai, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur Ar.

Narendranath Mitra, Practicing Architect, Kolkata Prof. Rajeev Kacker, College of Architecture, Lucknow

The jury looked particularly for a clear understanding of structural system that would be effective in withstanding earthquake loads. The award winning designs

are appended below

First Position

Ms. Andhavarapu Sravani, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam Ms. Monika Jerath, BKPS College of Architecture, Pune



The first prize winning design has located the building blocks

with adequate spacing to allow for excellent accessibility toindividual blocks. Climate responsiveness is addressed by

ensuring cross ventilation in the apartments by keeping all four

sides open. Sloped roofs facilitate rain water harvesting in this

high rainfall area. For better earthquake resilience, the building

has a regular geometry and employs RCC moment resisting

frames in both orthogonal directions. Shear walls are placed in

the central service core of the building for additional stiffness.

The structural system is rational with excellent integration with

the functional use of the spaces.

This structure has been derived from the hexagon found inthe naturally occurring honeycomb pattern and is stretched

in three dimension to yield hexagonal prisms which formthe column configurations. This hexagonal system is

carried through to the building level where a triangularnetwork of beams is used for lateral load resistance. This

design also proposes the use of a modified version of theekra construction technique which has traditionally

performed very well in past earthquakes wherein internalpartition walls use a cane mesh with concrete plastering tomake the walls light and flexible. The internal layouts of

the apartment blocks are also designed to a satisfactorylevel of functionality.

Seconed Position

Ms. Shriya Puranik, Pillai’s College of Architecture, New Panvel Mr. Tanay Nigam, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur



This design used the principles of earthquakeresistant construction prevalent in Assam andmodified it for use within a RCC framed structurewherein RCC moment resisting frames arearranged in a regular geometric configuration withbracing at the seismically vulnerable corners. The

design proposes the use of cavity ekra walls on theexterior facade and single ekra walls for theinteriors. This is envisaged to reduce the mass ofthe building which is also good for earthquakeresistance. A centrally placed water tank isproposed to aid in better damping effects during an

earthquake in much the same way that skyscrapersuse a centrally placed stabilizing pendulum to helpin dampening the movement of the structure duringan earthquake.

Third Position

Ms. Sampada Khadilkar, Dr. B.N. College of Architecture, Pune Mr. Anurag Sapkota, Pillai’s College of Architecture, New Panvel

The workshop was sponsored by Computers and Structures Inc (CSI), Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi; and Poonam and Prabhu Goel Research FoundationFund at IIT Kanpur. For further details please contact Cdr Suresh Ailawadi, Retd, at [email protected], [email protected] .no. +91-512-259 7749, +91-9450162502

Designed By Pawan Kumar Srivastava

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Archtech Workshop