Seismic response of traditional timber elements and roof structures: learning from the L’Aquila earthquake

The timber roof structures of traditional buildings have a strong influence on the response of the whole system, either linking the underlying walls and improving their collaboration or triggering failure. Timber slabs, and other timber elements, play a similar role. The massive strengthening interventions on these structures and elements that were executed in recent times with the aim at increasing their seismic capacity often had the opposite effect. In the L’Aquila region high-impact interventions on roofs with the addition of different materials to the roof-wall system and particularly of concrete elements had been very popular in the past. A series of cases of timber roofs and elements observed in the L’Aquila region and their role in the response to the earthquake are examined and discussed. The objective of this work is to contribute to devising efficient and less invasive interventions for improving the seismic response of timber elements.