With respect to other construction systems, masonry structures are very resistant against ageing, as testified by the large number of constructions built in the past centuries and survived until today. Besides, masonry gives good performance from the point of view of energy saving. As for other systems, masonry structures in seismic zones request a careful design, with particular reference to regularity of resistant elements.

Recently, a pilot project has been proposed in collaboration by ENEA, Sulmona municipality and ANDIL (Italian National Society of Brick Manufacturers). ENEA contributes as a structural and energy consultant, whereas ANDIL furnishes materials and design. The project is related with the realization of a building, for the service center of Sulmona municipality, to be used also in case of seismic events, for the civil defense and intervention organization.  

The design finality must respond to a precise needs: to combine a solution appreciable from architectural point of view with the will of guarantee safety against strong earthquakes, and highly efficient from the energetic point of view. The building has been indeed designed for the maximum events conceivable by the Italian code.

The Service Center has a “C” in plan shape and three floor levels over ground. An under-ground level is also present. The in plan area is about 220 m² .The designed building will be with masonry structural parts in a single layer assemblage, except for the under-ground level, which will be realized with reinforced concrete. Bricks are adjusted to have a precise planar placing surface, which allow horizontal interface surfaces between blocks to be filled with only 1 mm of cement adhesive. 

The masonry structure is conceived to have a regular configuration to avoid torsional behavior under seismic loads, and will be provided by an isolation layer made of 10 isolators HDRB with diameter of 700 mm and 7 sliding devices. The paper describe the structural design and analysis aspects.