Seismic Isolation for Earthquake-Resistant Design

The idea that buildings can be protected from the damaging effects of earthquakes by using some type of support that uncouples it from the ground is an appealing one, and many mechanisms have been invented over the past century to produce this result. Several of these ideas have proposed using rollers, layers of sand, or similar materials that would allow a building to slide, and some examples have been built. A building in Sevastopol, Ukraine, and a five-story school in Mexico City have been built on rollers, and there is at least one building in P.R. China with a sand layer between the foundation and the building, specifically intended to let it slide in the event of an earthquake.