Dynamic Seismic Hotel

The hotel project by Margot Krasojević Architects contains and reduces the building’s destruction and fatality as a result of earthquakes in the western province near Naples.

The hotel’s design and programmatic criteria involve the effects of earthquakes, tremors and dislocations in the immediate environment. Italy has a long history of earthquakes and they are increasing in frequency, this design has been commissioned to contain and reduce the building’s destruction and fatality as a result of earthquakes in the western province near Naples.

Margot Krasojević Architects, Dynamic Seismic Hotel, render

The hotel’s plan consists of three separate elements which move away from each other when tremors are recorded by the hotel’s seismometers. The building elements are constructed from a lightweight aluminium frame, annealed laminate glass panels and post-consumer recycled plastic panels which are strong yet malleable and light, making it easier to move away from the neighbouring element and slide along the length of the seismic parallelogram frame which they rest on. Once evacuated the fabricated panels fold with the frame as it rotates/moves with tremor.

The entire scheme sits on a series of parallelogram frames acting as seismic dampers. The architecture is choreographed by the earthquake, responding to the movement and minimizing the impact of the kinetic energy. The software used to develop the design involves simulations in order to understand the effects of dislocations in the landscape.