In this paper the architectural and

planning concerns pertaining to

earthquake have been discussed

by relating the existing bye-laws and

regulations with the most suitable

practices for the hill state of

Himachal Pradesh. It highlights a

comparison of "what is and what

should be" from the viewpoint of

earthquake vulnerability in the state.

Himachal Pradesh is one of the

northern states of India, known for

its spectacular natural setting,

soothing, ever-refreshing serene

and scintillating environmental con-

ditions, vast tourism potential, inno-

cent people and beautiful image of

amalgamation of vernacular hill

architecture with daily life of people.

The people of the state are involved

in small scale simple business activi-

ties, farming, horticulture and life

waves at a steady slow pace in com-

parison with the metro culture.

Vandana Sharma and Ankit Sharma

TECHNOLOGY

Earthquake ConsiderationsDharamsala - Kangra, Himachal

ARCHITECTURE - Time Space & People September 200740

There is a pressing need

to increase awareness

about safe design and

construction practices

in the hill areas.

September 2007 ARCHITECTURE - Time Space & People 41

Life is mostly unaltered by the

fast gear of near and far plains due

to geographical and accessibility

constraints posed by its natural set-

tings and topography. But nowa-

days the development towards the

urban centres is increasing due to

availability of land, better infrastruc-

ture facilities and services. But the

development is not harmonious

with the environmental conditions

of these urban centres. Example of

one such urban centre is

Dharamsala that falls in the zone 5 of

Vulnerability Altas of India (Refer

Map 1). The development in the city

is regulated by the Department of

Town and Country Planning by pro-

viding a set of building-bye laws. But

these bye laws are very ambiguous,

broad and emphatically do not

address the construction practices

required to be adopted for earth-

quake resistance. These set of

byelaws and norms are not in accord

with the requirements for this zone

and do not discuss ideal construc-

tion practices both due to lack of

knowledge on the behalf of con-

cerned authority and public and lack

of enforcement of appropriate strict

legal control measures during con-

struction phase. It has been a long

felt need to rationalize the earth-

quake resistant designs and con-

struction of structures by giving sim-

ple and acceptable guidelines for

this hilly region.

CHANGING ARCHITECTURE

PRACTICES

Nowadays the architecture of the

region has been totally transformed

into a modern style for the use of

building materials and design.

Earlier the buildings used to be of

mud with the wooden structural

members and slates at the top or of

stone masonry but with the advent

of concrete, everyone is using

cement concrete for the construc-

Map-1: Seismic Map of Himachal Pradesh Source: Redrawn by author, based on Vulnerability Atlas of India

International Boundary

State Boundary

District Boundary

Very High Damage Risk Zone (Zone 5)

High Damage Risk Zone (Zone 4)

LEGENDS

NORTH

ARCHITECTURE - Time Space & People September 200742

tion due to its easy availability, less

labourous working and fast con-

struction aspects. Now the con-

struction of vernacular style build-

ings and use of vernacular building

materials are rarely seen leaving

apart far flung rural villages.

Concrete has reached even to most

of the villages where there is no

problem of accessibility.

No doubt concrete has many

advantages like strength, durability,

weather resistant parameter and

has been accepted as better con-

struction material and has com-

pletely outdated the vernacular

techniques and materials. But due

to lack of proper guidelines about

the use of material and techniques,

it may lead to enormous loss of life

and property in the wake of earth-

quake. Therefore the constraints of

any material in the region shall be

seen before being put to use and

simple standards and guidelines

shall be made available in bye-laws

so that proper safety measures may

be taken.

SIMPLE EARTHQUAKE TIPS

FOR HIMACHAL PRADESH

The considerations are:

• Design

• Construction

• Building materials

DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

1. Plan of the building shall be

compact, simple without any

reentrant angles since they

tend to concentrate shear

forces during earthquake and

severe the impact of damage

on the built mass.

2. In plan rectangular, square,

circular shapes are preferred

while very long, zigzag

shaped buildings or even with

courtyards and Y, T, U L, X

shapes for the building shall be

avoided.

3. In case it is unavoidable to

change such a shape, then it is

preferable to go for expansion

joints at every change of geom-

etry and inclusion of angles

in shape so that each block

retains symmetry and simplicity

in shape.

4. Elevation of the building or the

vertical profile of the building

shall also be simple, square and

shall be uniform in weight

avoiding sharp curves,

5. Plantation shall be kept at a

minimum distance of 15m from

the building

6. Building on stilts shall be

avoided which is often seen as

favorable solution to parking

problem since it disturbs the

uniformity of distribution of

load vertically

7. Offsets in the elevation or wide

cantilevers shall be avoided.

8. Grouping of the built masses

shall not be such that collapse

of one part of the building

damages the other part

9. More than one staircase and

more than one emergency exits

shall be provided in case of

multistoried buildings at most

convenient points of access

10. Height of each storey in the

building shall not exceed 3.2 m

in any case.

11. Distance between corner of

wall and door, between door

and corner of window and

between corner of window and

end of wall shall not be more

than 0.6 m.

12. In case, the length of the room

or the space is more than 6.0 m

then, it is advisable to add

pilasters at even and regular

intervals (interval of at least

3m.) since it adds to the

strength of the built mass

CONSTRUCTION

CONSIDERATIONS:

1. In case of rocky strata, the foun-

dation shall not be based

on rocky base directly instead

it should be 0.15m inside

rocky base.

2. In case of sandy or moorum soil

the depth of the foundation

shall be less than 0.5m and

width shall be 0.75 m.

3. Walls shall never be made with-

out a foundation base and

baked bricks and stones shall

only be used for foundation

with minimum depth of 500m

of the foundation. Unbaked

bricks and coarse sand tend to

settle down with time period

and leads to instability of the

foundations.

4. Foundation thickness shall be

appropriate. It shall be at least

one and a half times thicker

than the wall.

5. Vertical joints in each course

of the masonry shall be discon-

tinued and avoided since it

also weakens the strength of

the masonry

6. Buttresses between long walls

shall be added and corner but-

tresses shall be preferred

7. Size of doors and windows shall

be kept small and seismic band

shall be provided at least at

plinth level, lintel level. Each

storey shall be provided with a

lintel band

8. Wall length shall be less than 10

times the thickness of the wall

and height shall be 8 times the

thickness of wall.

September 2007 ARCHITECTURE - Time Space & People 43

9. In case of trusses, bracing shall

be done with use of bracings at

bottom chord and in plane of

slope of truss.

10. To make roof fireproof and

waterproof, thatch shall be tied

with adequate overlap and

being tied tightly to the strong

members and then plastered

with mud

11. The mor tar mix ture shal l

comprise of cement: sand - 1:6,

lime: sand -1:3, cement: lime:

sand -1:2:9

12. In case of gable wall, gable

band shall be provided

13. Regular and even grid shall be

maintained with laying out at

right angle to each other.

14. Span of the beam shall not

exceed 7m and not be less than

3m either.

15. Centerlines of columns and

beams shall be meeting each

other and they shall have nearly

same width

16. All opening at different floor

shall be placed at same position

throughout the various floors.

17. Columns and walls shall be

aligned in one straight line in all

directions. All columns shall be

subjected to same load and

load distribution uniformity

shall be there.

18. Reinforcement shall be provid-

ed with minimum specified

cover and maintained by non-

corroding spacers.

MATERIAL

CONSIDERATIONS:

1. Heavy and loose materials shall

be avoided on the roof and

replaced by comparatively

lightweight roofing materials.

2. All members shall be tied and

also with the wall to provide

stability to the roof.

3. The sloping roofs shall be pro-

vided with proper gutters and

purlins to add to both stability

as well as water discharge

aspects for the roof.

4. General ly s lates, roof ing

sheets or other lightweight

material shall be used and

p r o p e r l y t i e d o v e r t h e

wooden rafters.

5. In case of doors and windows,

wood used shall be well

seasoned. Ornamental and

heavy wooden doors, very

heavy fire retarding plastic

doors shall be avoided.

6. Heavy stone masonry for walls

shall be avoided.

7. Tiles for walls or stone cladding

etc. shall be avoided.

CONCLUSION

Being regardless of natural poten-

tial in terms of available natural

resources, topographical con-

straints, geography, geology, soil

conditions, flora and fauna, the

problems posed by blind urbaniza-

tion and resultant high speed and

aloof growth of urban centers of hill

state of Himachal Pradesh especial-

ly Kangra region would certainly

lead to unaccountable loss of pub-

lic and private property during

earthquake. The remedial, simple

techniques and proposals given in

the paper regarding earthquake

considerations shall be taken into

consideration by the concerned

authorities and public and made

mandatory for all constructions to

be undertaken in future.

REFERENCES:

1. Sharma Vandna, 2005,

Unpublished, B.Arch

Thesis, Mini Secretariat

in Dharamsala.

2. Sharma Vandna, 2007,

Unpublished, M.U.R.P

Dissertation, Planning for a

new hill town in Kangra region.

3. Sharma Aniket, 2007,

Unpublished, M.U.R.P

Dissertation, Industrial

Development Planning for

Himachal Pradesh.

4. http://hpkangra.gov.in/wel-

come.asp

5. "Vulnerability Atlas of

India", Expert Group,

Ministry of Urban Affairs

and Employment, GoI, Building

Materials and Technology

Promotion

Council ,1997

6. IITK-BMPTC Series on

Earthquake Tips, 2005 at

www.nicee.org

7. Arya, A.S. et.al, July, 1986,

"Report on Dharamshala,

Himachal Pradesh

Earthquake, April 26, 1986-

Seismicity, Building Damage

and Recommendations

for Strengthening and

Reconstruction", Department

of Earthquake Engineering,

University of Roorkee, Roorkee

8. "IS: 4326-1993,

Recommendations for

Earthquake Resistant

Construction of Buildings", BIS,

New Delhi ■

Ar. Vandana Sharma and

Ar. Ankit Sharma are presently

doing post graduation in Urban

and Regional Planning at IIT

Roorkee.

Photographs: Courtesy the

Authors.