Amogh N P
✦ In loving memory of Amogh N P — Architect · Designer · Visionary ✦
An aerial view of a dense Indian city with a large open public ground in its midst — the kind of open space used for evacuation and relief after an earthquake, surrounded by closely packed vulnerable buildings.
Unit VEarthquake Resistance Architecture

Urban Planning & Disaster

The resilient city — vulnerable stock, fire, evacuation and recovery.

≈ 35 min + studio work

An earthquake is an URBAN disaster, and resilience must be planned at the scale of the city. This unit covers the vulnerability of the EXISTING building stock (the millions of un-retrofitted buildings already standing), facilities and emergency planning, the FIRES that often follow earthquakes, and the socio-economic impact and recovery. It sets out urban-level strategies — open spaces for evacuation, redundant lifelines, microzonation, retrofitting — and ends with the studio's design aim: a well-configured institutional or multi-storey building that embodies everything this course has taught.

Learning objectives

By the end of this unit, you will be able to — mapped to the course outcomes for Earthquake Resistance Architecture:

1
CO6 · Understand

Explain the vulnerability of the existing building stock and the role of retrofitting.

2
CO6 · Understand

Describe facilities planning, post-earthquake fire and the socio-economic impact.

3
CO6 · Apply

Apply urban-level planning strategies for earthquake resilience.

4
CO6 · Apply

Frame the design of a resilient institutional or multi-storey building.

Vulnerability, fire, recovery, planning

The resilient city

The hardest problem is the existing stock — retrofit it; plan open space, redundant lifelines and firebreaks; and build back safer, with the community.[3, 1]

Retrofit the buildings already standing added bracing existing building strengthened • jacket weak columns • add shear walls / bracing • tie masonry into a box • fix the soft storey The hardest, most urgent task — millions of existing buildings (schools, hospitals) need strengthening.
DiagramRetrofitting an existing building — jacketing weak columns and adding shear walls or bracing

The buildings already standing

The hardest seismic problem is not new buildings but the millions of EXISTING ones — old masonry, soft-storey RC, un-retrofitted public buildings — already standing in high-hazard zones. RETROFITTING (seismic strengthening — jacketing columns, adding shear walls/bracing, tying masonry, IS 13935) of the most critical and most vulnerable buildings (schools, hospitals) is a vast, urgent task. The architect's role includes assessing vulnerability and designing sensitive, effective retrofits, not only new buildings.[3]

Plan the resilient city wide road = access + firebreak open space evacuation · relief hospital (higher std) Open space, redundant lifelines, firebreaks, microzonation — and plan for the fire that follows.
DiagramA resilient city plan with open spaces and wide roads for evacuation, relief and emergency access
A building that embodies it all

The design aim

A resilient institutional or multi-storey building puts everything together — and the bottom line is that the architect is a partner in seismic safety, because buildings, not earthquakes, kill people.[1, 2]

Build back safer vulnerable → destroyed recovery rebuilt safer (tied, configured) do NOT recreate the vulnerability Recovery must:• build back safer• involve the community• restore livelihoods Earthquakes don't kill people — badly designed buildings do.
DiagramThe recovery cycle — a disaster destroys vulnerable buildings, and reconstruction should build back safer

Low, spread, regular

The studio brief: design a resilient INSTITUTIONAL masonry building with horizontal spread and a HEIGHT RESTRICTION. The seismic logic: keep it LOW and regular, with a symmetric, compact plan, properly tied masonry (bands and ties), good corners, controlled openings, and seismic separation between wings. Low-rise, well-configured, well-detailed masonry can be very safe — exactly the building most Indian institutions need.[1, 2]

Urban planning & disaster in one table

At a glance

AspectOneThe other
Hardest seismic problemNew buildingsThe existing un-retrofitted stock
After the quakeOnly rescueFire, evacuation, recovery — all planned
ReconstructionRebuild the same vulnerabilityBuild back safer, with the community
Institutional briefTall and complexLow, spread, regular, tied masonry
Bottom lineEarthquakes kill peopleBadly designed BUILDINGS kill people
Vocabulary

Key terms

Existing-stock vulnerability

The millions of old, un-retrofitted buildings already standing in high-hazard zones — the hardest problem.

Retrofitting (IS 13935)

Seismic strengthening of existing buildings — jacketing, shear walls, tying masonry.

Post-earthquake fire

Fires from ruptured gas/electrical lines after a quake, often worse than the shaking.

Open space for evacuation

Parks, maidans and wide roads used for evacuation, relief camps and equipment.

Seismic microzonation

Mapping a city's varying hazard by soil and fault to guide land use and design.

Lifelines redundancy

Flexible, backed-up water/power/roads so the city keeps functioning after a quake.

Build back safer

Reconstruction that removes the vulnerability rather than recreating it (Ian Davis).

Architect as partner

The architect's concept-stage decisions decide whether a building can be made seismically safe.

Design

Studio task — the capstone

Choose one brief and design it seismically: a low, spread, tied-masonry institutional building with a height restriction; OR a regular, ductile multi-storey RC apartment/commercial building with no soft storey. Apply everything — site, configuration (run it through the checker), detailing, non-structural restraint, evacuation. Then write one paragraph arguing why the architect, not only the engineer, is responsible for seismic safety.

Check your understanding

Self-assessment

1. The hardest seismic-safety problem in Indian cities is —

2. In an earthquake-resilient city, open spaces (parks, maidans, wide roads) are important because they —

3. The guiding principle 'earthquakes don't kill people, buildings do' means that —

In a nutshell

Recap

The hardest problem is the existing vulnerable stock; retrofitting (IS 13935) the most critical buildings is urgent.
Plan for after the quake: functional emergency facilities, open space for evacuation/relief, and firebreaks against post-earthquake fire.
Earthquakes hit the poor hardest; recovery must build back safer and restore livelihoods, with the community (Ian Davis).
Urban strategies: microzonation, safe land use, code enforcement, redundant lifelines, open-space networks and prioritised retrofitting.
The architect is a partner in seismic safety — and the bottom line is that badly designed buildings, not earthquakes, kill people.
The evidence

References & further reading

  1. [1]BIS — IS 1893, IS 4326, IS 13920, IS 13935 (seismic strengthening of existing buildings).
  2. [2]Murty, C.V.R. — Earthquake Tips (NICEE, IIT Kanpur).
  3. [3]Davis, Ian — Shelter After Disaster / 'Safe shelter within unsafe cities'; NDMA guidelines on seismic-resilient urban planning.

Further reading

  • Ian Davis — Shelter After Disaster.
  • C.V.R. Murty — Earthquake Tips (NICEE, IIT Kanpur).
  • NDMA — guidelines on earthquake-resilient construction and planning.

Sources gathered and fact-checked June 2026. Published values vary by source, sample and method — treat as indicative and confirm against the cited standard before structural use.