The Municipal, Rural Affairs, and Housing Ministry of Saudi Arabia has made an announcement stating that all new residential infrastructure across the country shall only receive a nod if it includes designs that are earthquake resistant.
It has been reported that the new instructions have been issued by the ministry to all its affiliated agencies as well as engineering offices for new residential construction across various regions and governorates in Saudi Arabia.
The ministry has said that it is keen to make sure as well as bring to the forefront the construction of quake-resistant buildings that are safer and more sustainable, adding that the move is going to be in line with the Saudi Building Code’s implementation and also its execution through two royal decrees.
Besides this, the ministry has now included these particular amendments when it comes to earthquake resistance within the new Saudi Building Code Application Law.
The phrase earthquake resistance design has been used to refer to a stronger core building framework that extends vertically as well as horizontally from floor to floor and has deeper and more robust foundations on any structure that exceeds four floors when it comes to height.
The more advanced usage of insulated foundations—floating in a gimble type design—is especially only used in the case of skyscrapers, but there is an ongoing debate in the kingdom as well as across the GCC that all of this should become mandatory for all new properties coming up that exceed a height of 150m.