The 3 concrete domes on the Presidential Palace in Haiti not only survived the recent earthquake intact, they also appear to have survived their fall from their positions as roofs over the second floor of the Palace to their final resting positions on the rubble of the first floor.
This before and after image from BBC News [1] suggests that with regard to the forces of the recent earthquake, concrete domes have a structural advantage over flat parallel wall/box shape concrete construction.
In the images I have seen, the damage from the earthquake was concentrated in the upper corners of masonry buildings. Wall sections were not damaged near the ground, but rather at the wall/roof connections.
Where rigid, heavy, water resistant masonry construction has many advantages with regard to hurricanes and moisture in the Caribbean, but catastrophic disadvantages from seismic activity as seen in this earthquake, defining a structural shape for concrete buildings which can withstand earthquakes is very important.
Dome shaped concrete buildings could be one answer.
Hopefully structural engineers and others are using helicopters to record images of the failed and still standing civil and residential structures across Haiti in order to develop a thorough forensic data base to allow as great an improvement as possible in the seismic stability of the built environment around the world.
Personally, I think developing such a data base would be a very satisfying task.
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