Abstract
Masonry structures with clay and stone units were constructed under intensional policy of strengthening the economical and military power of Japan in the Meiji era. However, this type of building structures has not been used, since the Kanto earthquake disaster destroyed unreinforced clay masonry buildings. Recently, the development of high aseismic masonry structures has been requested, because the high durability and appearance of masonry structures has been highly estimated as with indispensable merits for buildings. The RM structure introduced in this report, is a kind of newly developed reinforced masonry structures in order to solve the seismic problems under a cooperative research program between U.S. and Japan. The draft guidelines to structural design and construction methods of medium rise RM structures are briefly explained.
