Preliminary Assessment on Seismic Vulnerability of Masonry Churches in Central Chile

ABSTRACT

The 2010 Maule Chile earthquake (Mw 8.8) caused extensive structural damage to the built heritage. In particular, the poor seismic performance of a set of unreinforced masonry (URM) churches highlighted the need to implement protective and safety strategies in order to preserve these buildings which exhibit unique constructive and typological features, as a result of a combination of Chilean and European construction cultures.

The peculiarity of this heritage and the high seismic hazard of Chilean territory have motivated the present study which aims to apply systematic procedures to assess the seismic vulnerability of these buildings. This article is of archival nature and presents a complete database generated from the geometrical, constructive, and structural characteristics of a representative stock of 106 churches located in central Chile, with the goal of proposing fragility curves to be used in seismic risk assessment. Considering variables related with geometrical, architectonic, and stylistic features, as well as damage levels for the 2010 Maule earthquake, this church sample is classified into three homogenous groups: colonial, neo-classic, and neo-gothic. Moreover, a preliminary qualitative assessment of the seismic capacity of these structures is provided using a survey and analysis of geometric indices for each of the three selected groups.     

The good and the bad of the same: On the political value of historical repetition in Angola

ABSTRACT

In this article I discuss processes of investment in historicity as an ideological, political and moral problem. Focusing on the study of religious and political movements in Angola, I address the problem of historical repetition as a form of ‘acting upon time’ which, in similar terms to Walter Benjamin’s citation a l’ordre du jour, contests the idea of temporal irreversibility. I propose that this contestation is multiplex and can produce ‘good’ as well as ‘bad’ historical repetitions.