Seismic Upgrading of a Fire-Brigade Building by Base Isolation in Basel, Switzerland

Recently, the main building of the professional fire brigade of the city and canton Basel-Stadt built in the year 1943 was placed on special seismic elastomeric bearings and sliding bearings. This is the first such seismic upgrading of an existing building, north of the European Alps. Compared to conventional strengthening, the building costs were significantly smaller, and no temporary transfer of the fire-brigade troops and operational facilities to an expensive provisional building was necessary. Moreover, the resulting seismic safety is considerably higher, and the vulnerability to a severe earthquake is essentially smaller than in the case of conventional strengthening. Therefore, softening instead of strengthening was a much better upgrading strategy.