Morteza Bastami - Assistant Professor Bahram Rezatalabi Lecturer ،Dept. of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran

Main types of old house constructions in Iran use Sun-dried brick or Adobe walls with wooden roof, Sun-dried brick with dome, masonry buildings and stone buildings. Mud is one of the main construction materials. In some parts of Iran, approximately all the traditional settlements are made with mud. This paper presents guidelines for seismic strengthening, construction, or reconstruction of earthen houses as one of the traditional settlements in eastern, central as well as western parts of Iran, which are earthquake prone area. Unfortunately in Iran no any guideline or code is provided to refer which is main motivation for preparing the guidelines within this paper. In this paper, at first typical damage and collapse of earthen buildings is discussed then guidelines for seismic strengthening of walls in Very High and High Risk seismic zones in accordance with the Seismic Zoning Map of Iranian code for earthquake resistance design of buildings, house site in seismic zones, seismic strengthening of bearing wall buildings bracing and braced frames and etc are provided.

Earthquake, Resistant, Earthen Buildings, Adobe, Guideline