High performance wooden building subjected to seismic action

The paper is focusing the attention on the important aspects related not only to the acceptable safety level avoiding catastrophic failures and loss of life, but even tohigher performance level requested for some important buildings,like hospital,police station, communication centers. Such buildings need to be designed to remain functional after the earthquake event. The paper, moving from the current philosophy for seismic engineering, aims to recall and underline how the different levels of Performance Based Design of such buildings are still requesting investigation concerning the design and realization of technical devices. It is known that a building is able to respond with a predictable performance level if designed with ductility capacity, developed as response mostly by the structure. An alternative is to modify externally the building to reduce the demand or the response. This can be achieved either isolating the building from the ground, or dissipating the incoming energy. The paper introduce the work done by the authors, mostly developed at the University of Canterbury, by following the second design technique, describing and testing dissipating devices for wood structures.the response. This can be achieved either isolating the building from the ground, or dissipating the incoming energy. The paper introduce the work done by the authors, mostly developed at the University of Canterbury, by following the second design technique, describing and testing dissipating devices for wood structures.