An assessment tool for seismic strengthening of heritage buildings

Abstract

This research produced a multidisciplinary assessment tool to examine the effectiveness of seismic strengthening designs for heritage buildings. Fifteen one-on-one interviews of a range of experienced industry professionals were conducted using a grounded theory approach. This enabled the framework to be progressively refined throughout the research process. The resulting framework uses qualitative inputs to produce a table and spider graph presentation of the design‟s effectiveness across six assessment categories. These categories include heritage, seismic engineering, feasibility, architectural, services and fire protection, and buildability assessments. The spider graph is able to clearly communicate a design‟s effectiveness to stakeholders with limited technical knowledge. Original features of this study include a multidisciplinary framework that facilitates early collaboration, measures „design performance‟ in relationship to „client priorities‟, provides new assessment principles gleaned from industry knowledge, and provides a tracking tool as the design progresses through each developmental stage. It is hoped that this multidisciplinary framework will promote more successful design solutions via early and effective collaboration among project team members.