Rubber Makes Buildings 'Invisible' To Quakes

I really don't see how this will effectively work if the building is constructed on saturated soils and landfilled areas.....these types of soils tend to liquefy (much like "quicksand") underneath the structure during earthquake events, and hence rendering normal bearing foundations totally useless......collapse of structure will result.

Not enough information given in the article IMO.....did they try rubber bladder isolators under the foundations and analyze/verify the results using the shake table?????

I've read this several times, and just don't understand what they are trying to say. The article didn't even get into the different types of movement that can occur during a quake, p/s/t waves and all that. This topic has been on CR4 many times (an especially interesting challenge question amongst them). The explanation of this 'inovation' could be better.

Maybe they are going to float it in a rubber barge!-) Liquefaction is a mass density, center of gravity and uniformity of stress issues. Sure you can stop the perceived shaking but if only half the basement liquefies on a taller building will it still stand?

They left out one very important issue.

They are talking about installing a density change barrier to channel the pressure waves, from an earth quake, around the building.

Much like a rock in a stream. That is fine for the building but the neighbors are going to get amplified waves and get hit much harder. Between two such buildings a focal point can form and you get the rouge wave syndrome at many orders of magnitude over the unhindered wave.

Fine for a building but not for a city. And if you do this on a city scale I do not want to live in the same state.

Both Kris and UV have made some solid valid points here....GA for both!