According to the French code PS92 lightly reinforced concrete walls subjected to earthquake ground motion are designed following the “multifuse” concept. Low percentages of reinforcement combined with an appropriate distribution at several levels lead to dissipation of energy via wide crack patterns at different heights of the wall. On the contrary, design according to Eurocode 8 (EC8) privileges dissipation at a single flexural plastic hinge at the base. The rest of the wall is over-designed in flexure to avoid development of plastic behaviour anywhere above the base region (“monofuse” concept). A simplified modelling strategy based on the principles of damage mechanics, plasticity and classical Bernoulli beam theory is used to simulate the 2D non-linear behaviour of two mock-ups satisfying the above design provisions. CAMUS I and III specimens have the same geometry and follow PS92 and EC8 design philosophies respectively. Comparison with the experimental results, obtained on a shaking table, gives an insight into the behaviour of the structures and shows the ability but also the limitations of the approach.