Earthquake Performance of Historic Timber Buildings in New Zealand

arly European immigrants to New Zealand, in the mid-nineteenth century, found that their traditional stonebuildings were susceptible to destruction by hurricanesand earthquakes; and they discovered that woodenbuildings proved to be considerably more durable andable to withstand the natural forces. The colonialists’8 NEW ZEALAND TIMBER DESIGN JOURNAL VOL 17· ISSUE 3early experiences with church buildings illustrate thisswitch to building in wood. Wooden churches, originallybuilt as temporary buildings, are in general, stillstanding today and in excellent condition.In the second part of the paper, two modern mediumrise buildings, one in Auckland and the other inWellington, are introduced, and their systems forwithstanding earthquake and wind loads are explained.These examples show that modern timber buildings canbe designed to be adequately protected against majorearthquake events. One building is in Auckland andshows how the top storey of a RC car park building wasreplaced by 5 levels of a timber apartment building.Also, it illustrates how steel tension elements can beused to avoid difficult tension joints between timbermembers. The second building is located in Wellingtonwhich is particularly prone to Earthquake events. Thelateral load resistance is provided by ply shear wallsand steel ‘K’ bracing elements.