Merckt

SAFETY, GRONINGEN, RESIDENCES, SHOPS, EARTHQUAKES

Location

Groningen

Size

5.100 m2

Client

Plegt-Vos Noord

Year

2019

Merckt is a project in the centre of Groningen city situated on the corner of Grote Markt. The building houses apartments and small restaurants. Because of its specific shape, the earthquake resistant engineering for the building was particularly complex. Through an NLTH-analyse, the behaviour of the structure during an earthquake was investigated, see our paper. Especially the lower levels are sensitive to earthquake loads. To make the building earthquake resistant in its present form, the apartments have been structurally 'separated' from the lower levels. This significantly reduces the forces from the apartments in case of an earthquake and enables the structure to absorb them within the present design.

We have made a short illustration with a comparison of an earthquake analysis of Merckt with and without base isolation.

The photo clearly shows the sliders, which have been inserted between the ground floor and first floor.

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