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Many existing R/C framed buildings in seismic areas are designed with no seismic criteria, considering only gravity loads. They are a significant percentage of existing structures and their strengthening is one of the most urgent problems for seismic risk mitigation. New passive control techniques are very effective and to assess their feasibility and effectiveness, an in-situ experimental investigation has been carried out on an existing two storey, one bay R/C building structure, designed for gravity loads only, with no transverse frame. The structure was upgraded in the transverse direction with four re-centring braces based on the super-elastic properties of NiTi shape memory alloys (SMA). Push-over and cyclic tests, as well as dynamic release tests, were carried out on the upgraded structure.