by Virginia I. Rodriguez, Maria I. Yacante, Sergio Reiloba

This is typically a one-or two-story residential building of detached or semi-detached construction, generally found in the urban areas of San Juan and Mendoza, and less frequently in the rural areas. The walls are made of concrete block masonry with reinforced concrete columns and beams that tie the walls together and provide strength for the building. One of the main structural deficiencies for this construction type lies in the widely different wall densities in the two orthogonal directions. This deficiency may be eliminated with appropriate architectural design. This construction type is otherwise expected to demonstrate good seismic performance.

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