Ricerc@Sapienza

Recent lessons from past earthquakes repeatedly showed the vulnerability of existing buildings and of non-structural
elements. In the past decades, efforts have mainly focused on improving the seismic performance of the structural
skeleton. Although buildings designed according to modern and recent seismic codes generally performed as expected
by securing the human life, the observed damage was often deemed too expensive to be repaired and stakeholders often

Post-earthquake damage reports have continuously highlighted the significant vulnerability of non-structural
elements to seismic events. Non-structural damage has severe impact in the building recovery, increasing the socio-
economic losses even for low intensity events. In the last few years, research efforts have focused on the
development of innovative non-structural solutions, to be combined with damage-resistant structural skeletons in
order to obtain an overall high-performance building. As part of a European Union (EU)-funded project, the