ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the challenges faced during the structural design of a 20-storey high masonry building, constructed in an area subjected to high speed winds in Brazil. The Brazilian Code Associalo Brasileira de Normas Tecnicas-NBR 15961-1 establishes an out-of-plumb equivalent horizontal load that depends on the height of the building and the floor vertical load. Concrete units in Brazil are produced with a variation of 2MPa, and the minimum value to be used in buildings is 4MPa. Considering construction needs, and the common use of electrical wires inside cells in one-leaf walls in Brazil, the solution seemed impracticable. The whole building would need a total amount of 18,500kg of steel and 260m3 of grout inside the masonry walls. The homogenization of vertical normal stresses was considered inside each group, taking into account the number of floors needed for that to occur, that is, the vertical distance similar to the diameter of the circle that circumscribes each group in plain view.
