B. Rafezy - Assistant Professor, Sahand University of Technology, Sahand
W.P. Howson - Cardiff School of Engineering, Cardiff University, The Parade, Cardiff CF۲۴ ۳AA, UK

The importance of being able to determine easily the location of the centre of rigidity, centre of shear and hence the static eccentricity at each floor level in a multi-storey building is discussed. A practical approach for determining these quantities is then presented. The method uses a simple flexibility approach to relate the loading sustained by the resisting elements of the structure to the total lateral load on the building. It is shown that the method is easy to use and offers considerable advantage over the Plane Frame Method that is commonly used in practice. A number of examples are included to validate and illustrate the method.