TECHNOLOGY

Earthquake Considerations
Dharamsala - Kangra, Himachal
Vandana Sharma and Ankit Sharma

There is a pressing need to increase awareness about safe design and construction practices in the hill areas.

n this paper the architectural and planning concerns pertaining to earthquake have been discussed by relating the existing bye-laws and regulations with the most suitable practices for the hill state of Himachal Pradesh. It highlights a comparison of "what is and what should be" from the viewpoint of earthquake vulnerability in the state. Himachal Pradesh is one of the northern states of India, known for

its spectacular natural setting, soothing, ever-refreshing serene and scintillating environmental conditions, vast tourism potential, innocent people and beautiful image of amalgamation of vernacular hill architecture with daily life of people. The people of the state are involved in small scale simple business activities, farming, horticulture and life waves at a steady slow pace in comparison with the metro culture.

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LEGENDS
International Boundary State Boundary District Boundary Very High Damage Risk Zone (Zone 5) High Damage Risk Zone (Zone 4)

NORTH

Map-1: Seismic Map of Himachal Pradesh

Source: Redrawn by author, based on Vulnerability Atlas of India

Life is mostly unaltered by the fast gear of near and far plains due to geographical and accessibility constraints posed by its natural settings and topography. But nowadays the development towards the urban centres is increasing due to availability of land, better infrastructure facilities and services. But the development is not harmonious with the environmental conditions of these urban centres. Example of one such urban centre is Dharamsala that falls in the zone 5 of Vulnerability Altas of India (Refer Map 1). The development in the city is regulated by the Department of

Town and Country Planning by providing a set of building-bye laws. But these bye laws are very ambiguous, broad and emphatically do not address the construction practices required to be adopted for earthquake resistance. These set of byelaws and norms are not in accord with the requirements for this zone and do not discuss ideal construction practices both due to lack of knowledge on the behalf of concerned authority and public and lack of enforcement of appropriate strict legal control measures during construction phase. It has been a long felt need to rationalize the earth-

quake resistant designs and construction of structures by giving simple and acceptable guidelines for this hilly region.

CHANGING ARCHITECTURE PRACTICES

Nowadays the architecture of the region has been totally transformed into a modern style for the use of building materials and design. Earlier the buildings used to be of mud with the wooden structural members and slates at the top or of stone masonry but with the advent of concrete, everyone is using cement concrete for the construcSeptember 2007 ARCHITECTURE - Time Space & People 41

tion due to its easy availability, less labourous working and fast construction aspects. Now the construction of vernacular style buildings and use of vernacular building materials are rarely seen leaving apart far flung rural villages. Concrete has reached even to most of the villages where there is no problem of accessibility. No doubt concrete has many advantages like strength, durability, weather resistant parameter and has been accepted as better construction material and has completely outdated the vernacular techniques and materials. But due to lack of proper guidelines about the use of material and techniques, it may lead to enormous loss of life and property in the wake of earthquake. Therefore the constraints of any material in the region shall be seen before being put to use and simple standards and guidelines shall be made available in bye-laws so that proper safety measures may be taken.

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SIMPLE EARTHQUAKE TIPS FOR HIMACHAL PRADESH

The considerations are: Design Construction Building materials 9.

DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
1. Plan of the building shall be compact, simple without any reentrant angles since they tend to concentrate shear forces during earthquake and severe the impact of damage on the built mass. 2. In plan rectangular, square, circular shapes are preferred while very long, zigzag shaped buildings or even with
42 ARCHITECTURE - Time Space & People September 2007

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courtyards and Y, T, U L, X shapes for the building shall be avoided. In case it is unavoidable to change such a shape, then it is preferable to go for expansion joints at every change of geometry and inclusion of angles in shape so that each block retains symmetry and simplicity in shape. Elevation of the building or the vertical profile of the building shall also be simple, square and shall be uniform in weight avoiding sharp curves, Plantation shall be kept at a minimum distance of 15m from the building Building on stilts shall be avoided which is often seen as favorable solution to parking problem since it disturbs the uniformity of distribution of load vertically Offsets in the elevation or wide cantilevers shall be avoided. Grouping of the built masses shall not be such that collapse of one part of the building damages the other part More than one staircase and more than one emergency exits shall be provided in case of multistoried buildings at most convenient points of access Height of each storey in the building shall not exceed 3.2 m in any case. Distance between corner of wall and door, between door and corner of window and between corner of window and end of wall shall not be more than 0.6 m. In case, the length of the room or the space is more than 6.0 m then, it is advisable to add

pilasters at even and regular intervals (interval of at least 3m.) since it adds to the strength of the built mass

CONSTRUCTION CONSIDERATIONS:
1. In case of rocky strata, the foundation shall not be based on rocky base directly instead it should be 0.15m inside rocky base. 2. In case of sandy or moorum soil the depth of the foundation shall be less than 0.5m and width shall be 0.75 m. 3. Walls shall never be made without a foundation base and baked bricks and stones shall only be used for foundation with minimum depth of 500m of the foundation. Unbaked bricks and coarse sand tend to settle down with time period and leads to instability of the foundations. 4. Foundation thickness shall be appropriate. It shall be at least one and a half times thicker than the wall. 5. Vertical joints in each course of the masonry shall be discontinued and avoided since it also weakens the strength of the masonry 6. Buttresses between long walls shall be added and corner buttresses shall be preferred 7. Size of doors and windows shall be kept small and seismic band shall be provided at least at plinth level, lintel level. Each storey shall be provided with a lintel band 8. Wall length shall be less than 10 times the thickness of the wall and height shall be 8 times the thickness of wall.

9. In case of trusses, bracing shall be done with use of bracings at bottom chord and in plane of slope of truss. 10. To make roof fireproof and waterproof, thatch shall be tied with adequate overlap and being tied tightly to the strong members and then plastered with mud 11. Th e m o r t a r m i x t u re s h a l l comprise of cement: sand - 1:6, lime: sand -1:3, cement: lime: sand -1:2:9 12. In case of gable wall, gable band shall be provided 13. Regular and even grid shall be maintained with laying out at right angle to each other. 14. Span of the beam shall not exceed 7m and not be less than 3m either. 15. Centerlines of columns and beams shall be meeting each other and they shall have nearly same width 16. All opening at different floor shall be placed at same position throughout the various floors. 17. Columns and walls shall be aligned in one straight line in all directions. All columns shall be subjected to same load and load distribution uniformity shall be there. 18. Reinforcement shall be provided with minimum specified cover and maintained by noncorroding spacers.

stability to the roof. 3. The sloping roofs shall be provided with proper gutters and purlins to add to both stability as well as water discharge aspects for the roof. 4. Generally slate s, roofing sheets or other lightweight material shall be used and properly tied over the wooden rafters. 5. In case of doors and windows, wood used shall be well seasoned. Ornamental and heavy wooden doors, very heavy fire retarding plastic doors shall be avoided. 6. Heavy stone masonry for walls shall be avoided. 7. Tiles for walls or stone cladding etc. shall be avoided.

in Dharamsala. 2. Sharma Vandna, 2007, Unpublished, M.U.R.P Dissertation, Planning for a new hill town in Kangra region. 3. Sharma Aniket, 2007, Unpublished, M.U.R.P Dissertation, Industrial Development Planning for Himachal Pradesh. 4. http://hpkangra.gov.in/welcome.asp 5. "Vulnerability Atlas of India", Expert Group, Ministry of Urban Affairs and Employment, GoI, Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council ,1997 6. IITK-BMPTC Series on Earthquake Tips, 2005 at www.nicee.org 7. Arya, A.S. et.al, July, 1986, "Report on Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh Earthquake, April 26, 1986Seismicity, Building Damage and Recommendations for Strengthening and Reconstruction", Department of Earthquake Engineering, University of Roorkee, Roorkee 8. "IS: 4326-1993, Recommendations for Earthquake Resistant Construction of Buildings", BIS, New Delhi Ar. Vandana Sharma and Ar. Ankit Sharma are presently doing post graduation in Urban and Regional Planning at IIT Roorkee. Photographs: Authors. Courtesy the

CONCLUSION
Being regardless of natural potential in terms of available natural resources, topographical constraints, geography, geology, soil conditions, flora and fauna, the problems posed by blind urbanization and resultant high speed and aloof growth of urban centers of hill state of Himachal Pradesh especially Kangra region would certainly lead to unaccountable loss of public and private property during earthquake. The remedial, simple techniques and proposals given in the paper regarding earthquake considerations shall be taken into consideration by the concerned authorities and public and made mandatory for all constructions to be undertaken in future.

MATERIAL CONSIDERATIONS:
1. Heavy and loose materials shall be avoided on the roof and replaced by comparatively lightweight roofing materials. 2. All members shall be tied and also with the wall to provide

REFERENCES:
1. Sharma Vandna, 2005, Unpublished, B.Arch Thesis, Mini Secretariat

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