Designing for Disaster Preparedness: Resilient Guidelines for the Smart Archive-Building of a Turkish Bank

In the face of disaster risks, this paper aims to emphasize the importance of incorporating resilient design principles into disaster preparedness. Additionally, it questions the comprehensiveness and effectiveness of rating tools employed in assessing building resilience. The case study involves an analysis of the resilient design guidelines that have been established for a recently constructed archive building of a Turkish bank. As a smart building incorporating sustainable and low-consumption solutions, the nature and confidentiality of documents in the archive require preparedness for disasters, both natural and man-made. The building’s resiliency is evaluated utilizing two distinct assessment tools. Based on the results, the design decisions are made align with all aspects of CBRI as outlined by Burroughs in 2017. However, the building scores as non-resilient according to the BRI developed by the World Bank Group in 2023. This inconsistency underscores the need for consistency across different rating tools, comprehensiveness to incorporate both sustainability and resilience principles, and long-term projection to anticipate increasingly prevalent disasters. Moreover, the enhanced accessibility, transparency, and accountability facilitated by online rating tools became obvious. These tools serve to promote communication among diverse stakeholders and motivate them to embrace resilient and sustainable policies and practices within the realm of disaster management.