Base Isolation Strategy for Retrofitting of the Existing 19-Story (including two basement floors) Apartment Building with Monolithic Load Bearing Walls in the City of Almaty, Kazakhstan

In January 2024 a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck along the China-Kyrgyzstan border. The earthquake felt also in Kazakhstan in the city of Almaty. In this regard, being aware about the achievements of the author in retrofitting of different types of existing buildings, the author was contacted by the scared residents of a 19-story apartment building located on the Dostyk ave. 138 in the City of Almaty. The request was to consider upgrading the earthquake resistance of the mentioned building by implementation of one of the author’s technologies on retrofitting of this building by base isolation. Previously the author has developed retrofitting designs using invented by him base isolation technology (Patent of the republic of Armenia №579) for the existing buildings from 2 to 9 stories in Armenia, Russia, Romania and Nagorno Karabakh. This paper is focused on the description of the developed conceptual solution for retrofitting of the 19-story apartment building, of which 2 floors are used as the basement and the rest 17 floors are residential. To develop the design, in response to the request of the dwellers, the local cadaster drawings were used. Some other needed information was obtained from internet. These drawings are included in the building’s technical passport which was prepared in 2017.