1. Training in earthquake resistant construction with adobe in the Peruvian Andes INSS Annual Conference April 8-10, 2015 UNC Charlotte Site Charlotte North Carolina M Blondet, M Serrano & A Rubiños Catholic University of Peru (PUCP)

2. Humans have been building with earth all over the world for thousands of years… … And the Peruvian Andes are no exception

3. Most people build their houses in adobe because it is cheap and accessible as a construction material Additionally, adobe houses have very good thermal and acoustic properties

4. BUT earthen constructions and earthquakes are a perverse combination Peru, 2007 Pakistan, 2005 China, 2010

5. The work in safe adobe construction has been recognized worldwide... Still, people in the Peruvian Andes continue building houses the way they did 100 years ago!

6. Pullo is a rural community located in a seismic area where a small earthquake stroke in 2014

7. People from Pullo asked the intervention of the PUCP to help them overcome the damage resulted An interdisciplinary team traveled to assess the situation and propose a help/work plan

8. The resulting work proposal was a long term training project on three phases Follow up with the community Training Awake interest The project consists helping Pullo improve their housing conditions by acquiring the ability to do so on their own

9. It's important to raise people's interest on the training program in order to increase the acceptance of the technology proposed, which is a very cheap and accessible nylon rope mesh

10. We are designing field demonstrations that allow people to experiment building their own models… Katherine Chávez …and testing them in the portable shaking table

11. The non reinforced model shows the fragility of adobe houses against earthquakes

12. The reinforced model introduces the concept of seismic reinforcement and its effectiveness

13. We are developing a construction manual with friendly illustrations and simple words to train the community

14. It is projected that the whole community applies the knowledge learnt through the construction of a social building

15. Through all this process it's important to keep a fluent communication with Pullo's people We want them to internalize the risk they live in and the proposed technology to avoid it

16. So far, the people from Pullo are being open to the project and accepting to the work proposal

17. THANK YOU It is expected that these tools can be used in future (re)construction projects and give the opportunity of living a decent life to millions of people around the world