Dynamic Seismic Hotel Naples, Italy

The seismic hotel is constructed from light weight recycled plastic polymer and precast concrete panels, the aluminium frame moves with external forces to avoid dislocation and cracking as it is flexible enough and light enough to prevent extreme damage during an earthquake.

The main body of the inhabitable part of the hotel rests on a series of seismic dampers following a grid which supports a sequence of stacked steel parallelogram ground frames, these are stacked and slide from their original position along a series of ramps, this separates the main 4 zoned areas of the hotel in order for the building to sail through the tremors.

The entire scheme rests on a grid of seismic isolation rubber bearings which act as partially exposed foundations, this grid deforms/dislocate in order to ride out the tremors/accomodate for the tremors. the isolators are made up of a stack of lead and rubber plates which allow for maximum deflection in any direction which dampens the energy of the earthquake preventing the built elements from being displaced.

The rectangular seismic damper frames contain 4 shallow water trays which register any nearyby reverberations as a possible warning sign for an approaching longitudinal and transverse wave/tremor. The hotel incorporates an open avery, the erratic movement of birds may show signs of an advancing earthquake.

The primary idea is to detach and isolate areas of the hotel using a similar construction used in ship launches, the entire scheme sits over a large pool which allows for the fragmented elements to keep their equilibrium when launched during the earthquake, the hotel is constructed on these large metal ramps leading to the flooded pools.

The steel frame parallelograms are choreographed by the earthquake moving and expanding, the seismic dampers attached to the corners absorb and dissipate the energy stabilising the building elements with minimum deflection.

Year 2016

Work started in 2015

Client Gao Investments CH

Status Research/Thesis

Type Apartments / Hotel/Resorts / Tourist Facilities