The combined seismic and energy retrofit of existing aged buildings represents a topic of importance for the building stock. The current study investigates the out-of-plane performance of a specific type of thermo-insulation scheme with panels attached on the external facades of multistory buildings. The investigation was carried out through flexure tests of prototype masonry specimens. From the comparison of their flexural performance, with or without thermo-insulating attachments, the influence of thermal insulation on the out-of-plane behavior of clay brick masonry is demonstrated. It was found that when the thermo-insulating attachment is in tension from such out-of-plane flexure of the masonry facade it performs in a satisfactory way and gives an increased flexural capacity for the assembly. The thermal insulating panels, although partially debonded from the masonry substrate at a limit-state, do not collapse, even when the masonry panel develops large flexural cracks. This is due to the presence of the used plastic anchors. When the thermo-insulating panel is subjected to compression during such an out-of-plane flexure the resulting increase in the out-of-plane load bearing capacity is relatively small. Based on these observations it can be concluded that such thermo-insulating panels may also lead to a less vulnerable seismic performance than that of the same masonry panel without this type of thermo-insulating attachment. This was also confirmed when the in-plane behavior was considered from a separate investigation already published. The employed numerical modeling was successful in simulating the most important aspects of the out-of-plane response of the tested masonry wallets with or without thermo-insulating attachments. The good agreement with observed performance as well as the general nature of this numerical simulation confirms its validity for further use.

The climate crisis, the need for a circular economy, and the large financial losses after earthquakes have promoted the concept of the sustainable and resilient design of societies, and more specifically, of lifelines and building environments. Focused on building facilities, it is imperative to prescribe, within the aforementioned framework, the components that characterize earthquake resilient near zero energy buildings (ERnZEBs). Through a conceptual analysis, the goal is to discuss the attributes and perspectives of ERnZEBs within the framework of the view of a designer engaged in practice. This fact introduces an additional factor recognizing that not all projects have the same technical and financial values; the difference in budget, the type of owner, and the investment (private or public, company or private person) play important roles in creating an ERnZE building. In this direction, this paper reviews the basic principles of ERnZEBs, providing a combination of pragmatic considerations while also exploiting the state of the art and practice of current engineering knowledge.

It is well known that steel structures have high ductility capacity and high strength to weight ratio, which, theoretically, by nature makes them, the most efficient seismic structural system against strong earthquakes. However, the recorded experience of failures which have befallen over the last 40 years, as a result of strong seismic actions, suggests that this by itself isn't always sufficient. Generally, it is essential that an appropriate and preferred conformation and configuration of the structural system and in particular of its joints should be adopted. In any case, the steel building structures showed local failures without general and complete collapses. The work in this paper presents the seismic performance focused on steel building structures, as revealed by strong earthquakes, such as those of Mexico (1985), Northridge (1994), USA, Kobe (1995), Japan, Christchurch (2010-2011), N. Zealand, which affected and changed the design of metal structures, as well as other earthquakes like Maule (2010), Chile, Emilia (2012), Amatrice (2016), Italy, which completed the picture in the better understanding of failures and their reasons. On the basis of the lessons learnt from, a discussion for avoiding such situations are commented on and provided in this work.