The Cayman Society of Architect, Surveyors and Engineers will host a series of lectures this week about the difficulties in designing buildings that are both earthquake- and storm resistant.

Tony Gibbs, an expert in designing and constructing buildings to withstand storm winds, earthquakes and volcanic shock, is a well-known engineer practising in the Caribbean and currently a director of Consulting Engineer Partnerships in Barbados.  Mr. Gibbs will speak about the issues inherent in designing earthquake- and storm-resistant structures during two half-day seminars at the Marriott Beach Resort on Thursday and Friday 17 and 18 June, 2010.

“Designing a building to cope with hurricanes is very different to designing a building to cope with earthquakes,” he said. “For a hurricane, you want your building to be stiff and heavy. You would expect the structure to be intact even after a severe hurricane, with the external walls and roof being critical for reducing wind forces and preventing damage from flying debris.”

Designing buildings to withstand earthquakes is different.

“For an earthquake, flexible and light buildings perform better,” he said. “You would design your buildings in the event of an earthquake shock to fall in a certain way to allow the people inside it to survive.”

The lectures will address the dilemma in the Cayman Islands, where there are threats of hurricane and earthquakes.

“Designing against multiple hazards is more than doubly difficult when compared to designs against a single hazard, especially when those multiple hazards are hurricanes and earthquakes,” Mr. Gibbs said.

In Cayman, the significant damage on building structures caused by Hurricanes Ivan in 2004 and Paloma in 2008 has again brought home the importance of reviewing the adequacy of the building design code and seeking better and more innovative ways of countering this vulnerability, a press release issued by The Cayman Society of Architect, Surveyors and Engineers stated.

“The construction industry in the Cayman Islands has an important role to play in mitigating local losses due these natural hazards, and hence the need for a better understanding of techniques that are deployed for the reduction of loss of life and injury as well as reducing or even eliminating property losses,” the release said.

The CASE seminar will include overviews of impacts of hurricane and earthquakes on structures as well as case studies of natural hazard events such as the Haiti earthquake and recent hurricanes.
 For more information, contact Garth Arch at 525-5603 or Andrew Gibb at 526-8888.