Comparative analysis of inspection and diagnosis tools for ancient buildings

The survey and inspection of the state of conservation of buildings is understood as an active process of selecting information to support decision making in the rehabilitation of the built heritage. The development of new technologies applied to the integrated management of the built heritage resulted in digital tools able to support the technicians in on-site procedures. The purpose of this study was to analyse existing methods for the survey and inspection of the state of conservation of ancient buildings. It uses a qualitative methodology, focused on bibliographical survey and comparative analysis. Only methods with identical characteristics were considered: evaluation based on visual inspection of buildings with heritage value. This research shows that structuring information in computer systems is a solution to overcome the main problems pointed out in previous studies related to survey and inspection: expensive, time-consuming, inconsequential procedures and dispersed information. However, this is only valid if computer-based methods are adapted to the different geographic and chronological contexts. Future research may contribute to the development of a method that brings together this added value with a simple but objective way to diagnose the condition of ancient buildings with heritage value.The authors would like to acknowledge the support granted by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), in the scope of the Doctoral Program Eco-Construction and Rehabilitation (EcoCoRe), to the Ph.D. scholarship with the reference PD/BD/127853/2016 that was fundamental for the development of this study.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Polysaccharide remains in Maya mural paintings: is it an evidence of the use of plant gums as binding medium of pigments and additive in the mortar?

A number of monosaccharides characteristic of plant gums were found in paint layers and preparation layers of samples of Maya mural paintings of 10 archaeological sites located in Campeche and Yucatan regions. This finding opens the question about the deliberate use of these organic polymers as additives for improving workability and mechanical properties in the preparation layer mortar and conferring cohesion to the pigments in the paint layer. The study performed by GC-MS has confirmed the presence, in significant amounts, of a series of monosaccharides, being glucose and mannose between the most abundantly found. Nevertheless, the low amount present in most of the samples hindered the quantification of the relative proportion of monosaccharides necessary for identifying the botanical species of the plant gum. According to the accepted methodology used by Maya artists for preparing painting materials, bark of trees containing plant gums was added to the slaked lime stored in pools and that should be consistent with the notable amounts of glucose, mannose and other monosaccharides forming the skeleton of hemicelluloses and cellulose found in most of the samples. Although organic matter can be present in paint samples exposed to the external environment in Mesoamerican region as result of the microbiological activity, marker compounds characteristic of products resulting from their metabolism were not found in the studied sample

Oval Domes: History, Geometry and Mechanics

An oval dome may be defined as a dome whose plan or profile (or both) has an oval form. The word Aoval@ comes from the latin Aovum@, egg. Then, an oval dome has an egg-shaped geometry. The first buildings with oval plans were built without a predetermined form, just trying to close an space in the most economical form. Eventually, the geometry was defined by using arcs of circle with common tangents in the points of change of curvature. Later the oval acquired a more regular form with two axis of symmetry. Therefore, an “oval” may be defined as an egg-shaped form, doubly symmetric, constructed with arcs of circle; an oval needs a minimum of four centres, but it is possible also to build polycentric ovals. The above definition corresponds with the origin and the use of oval forms in building and may be applied without problem until, say, the XVIIIth century. Since then, the teaching of conics in the elementary courses of geometry made the cultivated people to define the oval as an approximation to the ellipse, an “imperfect ellipse”: an oval was, then, a curve formed with arcs of circles which tries to approximate to the ellipse of the same axes. As we shall see, the ellipse has very rarely been used in building. Finally, in modern geometrical textbooks an oval is defined as a smooth closed convex curve, a more general definition which embraces the two previous, but which is of no particular use in the study of the employment of oval forms in building. The present paper contains the following parts: 1) an outline the origin and application of the oval in historical architecture; 2) a discussion of the spatial geometry of oval domes, i. e., the different methods employed to trace them; 3) a brief exposition of the mechanics of oval arches and domes; and 4) a final discussion of the role of Geometry in oval arch and dome design

Design and analysis of cross vaults along history

The history of cross vaults began almost 2,000 years ago with a widespread use during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, becoming nowadays one of the most diffused and fascinating structural typologies of the European building cultural heritage. However, conversely to the undeniable excellence achieved by the ancient masons, the structural behavior of these elements is still at the center of the scientific debate. In this regard, with the aim of reviewing the knowledge on this subject as a concise and valuable support for researchers involved in conservation of historical buildings, with a focus on design rules and structural analysis, the present study firstly introduces the cross vaults from a historical perspective, by describing the evolution of the main geometrical shapes together with basic practical rules used to size them. Then, the article deals with the subsequent advancements in structural analysis methods of vaults, until the development of modern limit analysis.This work was partially carried out under the program "Dipartimento di Protezione Civile - Consorzio RELUIS", signed on 2013-12-27.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Imitation and intangibility: postmodern perspectives on restoration and authenticity at the Hill House Box, Scotland

Restoration is often problematised within built heritage practice as an inauthentic activity of imitation. This is symptomatic of a Western focus on physical heritage sites, which is underpinned by an amalgam of scientific materialism and visual aesthetics. Situated within a postmodern conceptualisation of heritage as increasingly dynamic, social and intangible, this study suggests the relationship between restoration and authenticity is increasingly out of step with contemporary perspectives and would benefit from a critical gaze. Drawing on Baudrillard’s theory of ‘hyperreality’, this study makes space for two key concepts within the built heritage paradigm: authenticity as emergent and fluid; and the legitimisation of imitation as a valid activity. Together, these are explored in relation to the restoration of the Hill House, Scotland, and its encapsulation within the ‘Hill House Box’. From a postmodern, Baudrillardian outlook, the site becomes a dynamic performance between the restored building (a tangible ‘simulation’ of an idealised essence) and the users of the Hill House Box (an intangible, ritualised experience). Consequently, this demonstrates how the amalgamation of imitation and intangibility can overcome binary views of original/copy; authentic/inauthentic, resulting in the creation of emergent authenticity and aura that the Box both creates and is engulfed within

Bem-morar em São Paulo, 1880-1910: Ramos de Azevedo e os modelos europeus

Domestic architecture achieves a great impulse in the second half of XIXth-century. From Europe to the whole world, models are conformed to the new social order and spread as industrialization takes command. Dwelling becomes the main concern among architects. New concepts are developed for the ideal house for 011 social strata: working class, middle-class, bourgeoisie. This essay traces the introduction in São Paulo of European formal patterns and principies Ihygiene, salubrity, comfort, social and domestic rites, social visibility) through the activity of F. P. Ramos de Azevedo! 1851-19281. The main projects he conceived for the local bourgeoisie are analysed.A arquitetura doméstica tem um grande impulso no século XIX. Da Europa são difundidos, para todo mundo, os modelos conformados à nova ordem social e à industrialização. A residência se transforma numa preocupação central dos arquitetos. Desenvolvem-se novos conceitos para casa ideal para todas as camadas sociais: operários, classe média, burguesia. Este artigo retrata, em São Paulo, a introdução de padrões formais e princípios (de higiene, salubridade, conforto, ritos sociais e domésticos, as aparências). a partir da atividade de F. P. Ramos de Azevedo (1851-19201. Analisam-se os principais projetos que ele desenvolveu para a burguesia local

Practical recipes for the model order reduction, dynamical simulation, and compressive sampling of large-scale open quantum systems

This article presents numerical recipes for simulating high-temperature and non-equilibrium quantum spin systems that are continuously measured and controlled. The notion of a spin system is broadly conceived, in order to encompass macroscopic test masses as the limiting case of large-j spins. The simulation technique has three stages: first the deliberate introduction of noise into the simulation, then the conversion of that noise into an equivalent continuous measurement and control process, and finally, projection of the trajectory onto a state-space manifold having reduced dimensionality and possessing a Kahler potential of multi-linear form. The resulting simulation formalism is used to construct a positive P-representation for the thermal density matrix. Single-spin detection by magnetic resonance force microscopy (MRFM) is simulated, and the data statistics are shown to be those of a random telegraph signal with additive white noise. Larger-scale spin-dust models are simulated, having no spatial symmetry and no spatial ordering; the high-fidelity projection of numerically computed quantum trajectories onto low-dimensionality Kahler state-space manifolds is demonstrated. The reconstruction of quantum trajectories from sparse random projections is demonstrated, the onset of Donoho-Stodden breakdown at the Candes-Tao sparsity limit is observed, a deterministic construction for sampling matrices is given, and methods for quantum state optimization by Dantzig selection are given.Comment: 104 pages, 13 figures, 2 table

STORIA DI UN DISEGNATORE. COME SI IMPARA A DISEGNARE.

TRADUZIONE DEL TESTO DI E.E. VIOLLET LE DUC, CON SAGGIO INTRODUTTIV