An-Najah Staff

In the Middle East region and particularly in Palestine, municipal land parcels are generally scarce or the cost is enormous, therefore architects are frequently compelled to produce irregular architectural layouts dictated by the geometry of the available land parcels or by their topographic location. Furthermore, vertical irregularities are indispensible and form a ubiquitous design feature in order to meet client needs that normally revolve around the local market demand and thus able to face the severe competitive considerations in the real estate industry. Floor functionality invariably change with elevation; this appealing practice is vernacularly becoming the rule rather than the exception. Seismically resistant structures on the other hand are presently an obligatory requirement according to the local government bylaws because Palestine lies well within an active earthquake prone zone. The present study undertaking presents a structural design example that includes, inter alias, turning an edifice highly  irregular in plan and elevation architecturally into a structurally regular yet convenient one by a judicious distribution of shear walls that further eliminate the need for excessive column lines. The shear walls have the added advantage of effectively supporting the cantilevering stories at higher levels. The building under consideration is designed in accordance with the 1997 Uniform Building Code regulations with the intention of providing life safety performance under a potential design earthquake. Thorough comparison of analysis results is presented to show the significant advantage of the structural system characterized by proper shear wall distribution over an alternate system with poor shear wall distribution; the comparison included but is not limited to modal shapes and frequencies, story displacements. Story shear and bending moment distribution along the building height are strictly dependent on the volume of shear walls present.