I am not a professional engineer, but I got a degree in mechanical engineering and I work in construction, and I have seen a lot of cases in California of 8"x8"x16" hollow CMU blocks that are periodically reinforced with rebar and filled with concrete every 4 or 8 feet. But in my opinion you'd be better off going with insulated concrete forms (ICF) filled with reinforcing steel (rebar) for a continuous reinforced concrete and continuously insulated concrete wall.

1. Kindly use interlocking+lightweight+good strength units (bricks,blocks) to build LOAD BEARING Structures.

2. Alternatively Ferro-cement construction may be used.

Hollow Block Massonry walls are relatively low cost, but do not hold together when sudden lateral movements displace the bottom, while the top wants to stay put. Being hollow, you can use long reinforcing bars, and pump in Grout to bond the layers together. You can also Zig-Zag a wall, and fill it with rebar and grout, but the cost more than doubles . An East to west Wall would go East, North, East, South, East , North, East , South . This consumes twice as many blocks, and twice as many rebar, and twice as many grouted columns , but if anchored to both floor slab, and the ceiling slab, it is not as prone to total collapse. The internal spaces created can be used for shelving, and storage closets.

Think of how taller buildings are made strong. They use two or more high strength elevator shafts ( stairwell shafts ) and a much weaker flimzy metal and glass structure connected to the strong rectangular shafts.

Good question.. Please share me the best answer might you get...

The Heavy, Hollow Masonry Units filled with rebar and grout in all the cells, and horizontally below, and above the windows, and doors. I would also avoid long straight walls. Zig-Zag all the Internal and external walls to Make closets. Use Light weight wooden floors, and roofs. This will only stand light lateral shaking. Undulating ground waves will fracture up the building as it is too rigid. It would still be better than un-reinforced masonry,

or stacked mud brick masonry ( adobe ). Or Rammed Earth walls. Most structure can only stand smaller Earth quakes any way. Limit the Height to two stories.

Learning from Earthquake structure and earthquake engineering

Masonry is generally not preferred in high seismic regions due to its inferior material characteristics. Moreover, properties and type of masonry largely vary from country to country. However, one needs to look into its strength, interlocking mechanism and local construction practices. You may adopt reinforced or confined masonry for better resistance against earthquakes.

Hollow Block Masonry can be filled with Rebar, and grout. I have thought that

zig-zaging walls so they help support any lateral loads applied. Long straight walls fail by applied lateral loads, but do not fail with longitudinal loads.

Lots of short walls with many 90 degree corners ( zig-zag ) will use more materials, and more space, but be more rigid. The internal zig-zags can be used for shelving, closets, storage etc. and externally to shade windows and door ways.