Innovative earthquake resistant school building typologies for earthquake-hit areas of Nepal

The 2015 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal devastated over 50,000 classrooms across 14 rugged districts, many accessible only by foot trails. Rebuilding multi-hazard resilient school buildings in these remote areas posed unique challenges, including adherence to restrictive building codes, logistical hurdles in transporting modern construction materials and financial constraints. This study innovatively addressed these challenges by advocating for the utilisation of local materials and craftsmanship in line with the 'Build Back Better' initiative. Through a blend of literature review, field surveys, structural assessments, and stakeholder consultations, an overall framework of the research was prepared and is presented in this paper. This framework included an attribute-based approach for the selection of locally suitable construction materials, techniques and building types. Four novel multi-hazard resilient building prototypes are proposed, rigorously tested for compliance with Nepalese building codes using shaking table experiments and numerical simulations. By challenging conventional engineering norms, the findings of the findings of this study not only resulted in the development of pragmatic alternatives but also illustrated the significance of locally driven solutions for school infrastructure resilience, both in Nepal and also for regions worldwide where similar geographical and multi-hazard constraints are encountered.