Appropriate strengthening technologies for the mitigation of seismic vulnerability of Bhutanese vernacular stone masonry architecture

Bhutanese vernacular stone masonry architecture proved highly vulnerable to the recent seismic events affecting Bhutan since 2009. The isolation of rural communities, due to the site geomorphology, the precarious roads networks condition, the local labour limited skills, and the scarce resources availability, largely influence the applicability of strengthening technologies for traditional stone masonry architecture’s seismic vulnerability mitigation. Following up the collaboration with the Royal Government of Bhutan, within an international research project, the paper aims to analyse the appropriateness and suitability of strengthening intervention strategies to the local context. The identified strategies have been associated with the analysis of the stresses causing the failure mechanisms occurred during the 2009 earthquake and tailored to local construction technologies. A full-scale static test carried-out on a stone masonry-building mock-up, allowed to evaluate its behaviour under static loads. As a final result, the suitability of the interventions has been evaluated through qualitative indicators.