BUILDING RETROFITS: BREATHING NEW LIFE INTO EXISTING STRUCTURES

With the technical advancement across sectors and improved living standards, construction industry is growing at a lightning-fast speed. But do we check on the health of the buildings often, to make sure that they are sustainable and live long? The environment in which we live brings its own complexities and challenges – especially natural calamities to deal with and hence our structures require regular structural audit. This is where ‘Retrofitting’ comes – for reducing the vulnerability of damage of an existing structure against seismic activities.

Remember, the news which flashed on TV screens and wreaked havoc among the residents of Gurugram (Feb 11, 2022) – “Gurugram building collapse: FIR against builders, DSP-level officers to probe case?”

After this incident, there has been a growing concern for incorporating star rating system for the structural resilience of buildings. The term retrofit is also slowly gaining momentum in the world of clean energy too. In the Indian context, it will help reduce energy consumption and GHG emission while accelerating towards a greener economy. A classic example of this is Paharpur business center, a 25-year-old building in Delhi, which has achieved the lowest carbon footprint in the capital with retrofitting.

Need for structural auditing explained:

·       Diagnose health of existing buildings

·       Create awareness amongst the civil engineers, residents and owners of building

·       Avoid any kind of mishaps and save human lives

·       Improve the social, economic and environmental parameters of sustainability

Let’s deep dive

The Seismic Academy, on behalf of Hilti, invites you to an exclusive webinar to help you enrich your knowledge with interesting case studies to learn from with our distinguished speakers.