The state-of-the-art review in seismic retrofit of existing reinforced-concrete (RC) buildings indicates that a technology that is<br/>non-disruptive and easy to implement, achieves simultaneous control of drifts and accelerations, and overcomes major<br/>issues related to low concrete strength, poor reinforcement details, and vulnerable RC columns, has never been described in<br/>the literature or in seismic design codes (e.g. Eurocode 8). The ambitious main objective against the background of the<br/>state-of-the-art of the project is to develop such a retrofit technology. In particular, the project will develop a non-disruptive<br/>retrofit scheme using an external, modular, steel frame as a facade close and in parallel connected to frames of the existing<br/>RC building. The external steel frame will have chevron braces to support energy dissipation devices, and, connectors to<br/>achieve horizontal coupling with the existing RC building. Strategically, the energy dissipation devices will be visco-plastic<br/>dampers, i.e. novel devices that will offer visco-elastic damping output under low-to-moderate earthquake intensities and<br/>friction damping output with a predefined limit on their peak force under high seismic intensities. The project will develop<br/>sophisticated yet practical structural details and a simplified seismic design procedure for the external steel frame. All these<br/>will be achieved through a carefully planned integrated experimental and numerical research program involving constitutive<br/>modelling, nonlinear finite element analysis, and shaking table tests. The proposed retrofit scheme constitutes a solid<br/>contribution to earthquake engineering that is expected to raise major international scientific and industrial interest.