Greece has the bad luck to be on an active tectonic area in which every year is emitted about 50% of the energy which is recorded in the whole European continent.  Therefore it is extremely important to be used and applied all the contemporary antiseismic rules so as the buildings in our country to have satisfactory resistance and plasticitywhich can protect themin case of intense seismic action.  

 During the latest seismic activity in Greece there was much destruction despite the antiseismic rule which has been applied recently.  This means that the seismic armouris not always enough for the modern buildings, though it must be pointed out that in most cases the destructions result from the wrong application or deviations of this rule.  So we are led to a different philosophy, the philosophy of seismic isolation, which is especially radical and its implementation presents some special technological problems.

In the present essay we will study the use of the seismic isolation in the seismic area and how it affects the architectural design.  

 Firstly we will examine the phenomenon of earthquake, its causes and itstypes; we will present the earthquakes which have been happened in Greece as well as the ways in which we can confront them in the context of the contemporary rules.   

   In the second part we will examine the philosophy of conventional antiseismic design and the experience as regards its implementation.  We will also refer to the antiseismic designof bridges, their vulnerability as well as the general effect of the conventional antiseismic designon the architectural design.  Moreover we will refer to the philosophy of seismic isolation and its prerequisite and we will present some data about the original cost of such a venture and the cost of the reconstruction of the buildings after an earthquake.  The systems of seismic isolation and the materials we use in it will be analysed and we will give some data about the Greek and the world wide experience.