Poor performance of reinforced concrete (RC) frame buildings in India during past earthquakes has been a matter of serious concern. Hence, it becomes important to identify and strengthen the deficient buildings. When dealing with a large building stock, one needs evaluation methods for quick assessment of the seismic safety of existing buildings so that corrective retrofitting measures may be undertaken on the deficient buildings. This paper presents a review of some of the available methods for rapid visual screening (RVS) of RC-frame buildings and proposes a RVS method for RC-frame buildings in India based on systematic studies on damage data of the 2001 Bhuj earthquake.

The M6.9 Sikkim Earthquake of 18 September 2011 caused widespread devastation in the state and adjoining areas from disrupting the road network to damaging structures of commercial, public, and religious values. This event presented another opportunity to further the understanding of earthquake risk of the affected region as well as of the North-Eastern Himalayan region, which have similar patterns of seismicity, built environment and construction practices. The general pattern of damage to structures, landslides, rockfalls, etc. was consistent with the shaking associated with this event. However, collapses of many buildings and damages to structures were disproportionate to the observed intensity of shaking, primarily due to poor compliance with seismic codes, inferior quality of raw materials and shoddy workmanship. Consequently, the seismic risk in the region is growing at an alarming pace with increasing inventory of vulnerable construction. The current event provides a preview of what is likely to happen in the event of a larger earthquake which the Himalayan region has witnessed in the past. This article discusses the construction practice in Sikkim Himalayas and their seismic performance in the recent earthquake, highlighting the vulnerability of inventories and suggests steps to mitigate the seismic risk for future events.

Research findings of architecture and environmental psychology espouse the supremacy of built environment in influencing human behavior in general and movement behavior within buildings and urban areas in particular. Retail management studies on the other hand highlight the importance of influencing human movement as a determining factor for tenant-mix design. Identifying a proper mix of tenant stores in a shopping mall is responsible for its economic performance and is considered a strategic mall management decision. In practice, this decision is taken by management professionals, based mostly on gut feeling or rule of thumb. So, there is a scope for integration of knowledge of these two different disciplines for significantly enhancing tenanting decision making in shopping malls, which will ultimately lead to its economic success. A proper methodology is required in this juncture to relate spatial configuration with movement. Verbal description of space, prevalent in the architectural practice, makes it difficult for correlating with measurable variables like footfall. Space syntax analysis is a potential evidence based approach for quantitative description of configuration in explaining movement through space. The purpose of this paper is twofold: identifying the supremacy of space syntax measures over normal metric measures and establishing a spatial rationale behind tenanting decision making (optimal area and rent of tenant stores) through developing the standard bid-rent model with tenant store specific variables and solving under the conditions of maximizing profit and situation of perfect competition. Consequently, retail space planning will not only be an accommodator of functional requirements but will be a potential tool for economic success through generating, controlling and predicting movement.

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