The paper describes the output of a survey carried out in the district of L'Aquila, Italy, in May 2009 after the April earthquake and later in January 2010, and the consequent vulnerability assessment completed by the authors. Observations collected on site regard masonry buildings of the historic centre of L'Aquila and the towns of Paganica and Onna; particular focus was given to a number of buildings of interest, which better represent two locally recurrent building typologies: the mansion and the common dwelling. A description of the main structural features and their influence on damage mechanism is provided, stressing the importance of elements such as wall lay-out, quality of masonry and strengthening interventions. The gathered information is used as input for the application of the FaMIVE method (D'Ayala and Speranza in Earthq Spectra 19 (3): 2003), whereby feasible collapse mechanisms and the associate failure load factors can be identified. The procedure is briefly outlined and results are discussed from the point of view of the performance point: push-over curves produced by statistical elaboration of FaMIVE's output are compared both with the demand spectra obtained from EC8 and the response spectrum for the main shock as recorded by the closest station to the town. Conclusions are drawn on the reliability of the FaMIVE method with respect to its capability of predicting the damage mechanism identified on site.

Structural connections are crucial in determining the seismic behaviour of buildings; their importance is indeed acknowledged by current design codes, both in the case of new built and of heritage structures. Eurocode 8 in particular encourages the strengthening of connections of existing structures so as to ensure global response; yet, at the state of the art, clear prescriptions regarding the assessment of connections of heritage buildings and the design of appropriate strengthening systems are missing. Even the scientific literature seldom deals with the issue of connections, both in the unreinforced and strengthened setup. As such, designers are left with the issue of experimentally characterise the capacity of connections, and of sourcing data and choosing suitable design procedures in order to comply with the requirements prescribed for retrofit interventions on historic buildings. In the attempt of tackling the lack of quantitative data, as well as of providing template for the experimental assessment and design of strengthening systems for connections, the authors carried out two sets of laboratory tests on masonry samples strengthened by metallic grouted anchors. Parameters significant to the performance of the connection are identified through experimental results and a design procedure is developed. The paper analyses in detail the response of a widely-applied strengthening technique, but also provides general guidance for dealing with the repair and strengthening of connections of heritage buildings.

The EU Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC states that all member states should take all necessary measures in order to achieve at least 70% re-use, recycling or other recovery of nonhazardous Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) by 2020. In response, the Horizon 2020 RE 4 project consortium (REuse and REcycling of CDW materials and structures in energy efficient pREfabricated elements for building REfurbishment and construction) consisting of 12 research and industrial partners across Europe, plus a research partner from Taiwan, was set up. For its success, the approach of the Project was manifold, developing sorting technologies to first improve the quality of CDW-derived aggregate. Simultaneously, CDW streams were assessed for quality and novel applications developed for aggregate, timber and plastic waste in a variety of products including structural and non-structural elements. With all products considered, innovative building concepts have been designed in a bid to improve future reuse and recycling of the products by promoting prefabricated construction methods and modular design to ease future recycling and increase value of the construction industry. The developed technologies and products have been put to the test in different test sites in building a twostorey house containing at least 65% of CDW.

During the past few decades, various technical solutions have been developed to improve the seismic performance of structural connections, as these determine the global response of buildings as much as single structural elements. However, in the case of heritage buildings, standard strengthening systems might have collateral effects owing to their high stiffness in comparison with historic substrata. Furthermore, little technical guidance is given to designers for dimensioning the retrofit of connections. Drawing on these observations, the authors have developed, in collaboration with Cintec Ltd, two dissipative devices. These are able to restore the connection between perpendicular masonry walls and to control relative displacements, thus reducing the load stress resultants transmitted to the substratum and the risk of pull-out or punching failures. The paper gives an overview of the experimental work conducted to identify performance parameters and exemplifies how these can be used for designing the strengthening, while satisfying code performance requirements.

This paper describes the observations made by a reconnaissance team following the 22 nd February 2011, M w 6.3, Christchurch, New Zealand earthquake (GNS Science; 2011). The team comprised of members of the UK based Earthquake Engineering Field Investigation Team (EEFIT) who spent five days collecting observations on damage resulting from the earthquake. Although the magnitude of this earthquake was not particularly high (M w 6.3), the shallow focus and close proximity resulted in locally very high ground motions, widespread damage and 182 fatalities. The earthquake is also particularly notable for the widespread liquefaction it caused, landslides and rockfalls in the hills south of Christchurch, and the significant damage suffered by unreinforced masonry and historic structures. Over wide areas of central Christchurch, recorded accelerations were in excess of those required by the current New Zealand seismic loadings standard (NZS1170.5:2004): Standards New Zealand (2004), and therefore the earthquake presented a valuable opportunity to assess performance of modern buildings under code-level ground acceleration.