How to better protection of our architectural heritage in the event of earthquakes? The vulnerability of cultural artifacts necessitates the working out of a system which takes into account the problems of architecture, engineering and seismology among others. Written by architects and engineers, this book attempts to offer answers and give guidelines for both architects and engineers working in this field.

After the IUTAM Symposium on Optimization in Structural Design held in Warsaw in 1973, it was clear to me that the time had come for organizing into a consistent body of thought the enormous quantity of results obtained in this domain, studied from so many different points of view, with so many different methods, and at so many levels of practical applicability. My colleague and friend Gianantonnio Sacchi from Milan and I met with Professor Prager in Savognin in July 1974, where I submitted to them my first ideas for a treatise on structural optimization: It should cover the whole domain from...