Seismic Retrofitting for Masonry Historical Buildings: Design Philosophy and Hierarchy of Interventions

The static and seismic retrofitting design, for masonry historical buildings, has to follow a right hierarchy
of interventions, taking into account that to improve the seismic behavior of a masonry structure, it is
necessary to guarantee a “closed box” behavior for the whole structural body or, in case of complex
buildings, to guarantee a closed box behavior for each building’s wing. Thus it is fundamental to distinguish
the interventions for the global behavior improvement from those related to local reinforcements.
In this chapter is then proposed a scheme of interventions hierarchy and, therefore, a related design
process road-map together with the explanation of a correct design philosophy for the static and seismic
retrofitting of historical masonry buildings. Moreover it is also reported an example of two distinguished
levels of intervention, with numerical analyses supporting that solution.