Sistemas em madeira e derivados na reabilitação urbana em situações pós-catástrofe

Os centros históricos são elementos importantes e fundamentais de muitas cidades. Representam a sua história e evolução, sendo por isso parte essencial do Património Cultural. São contudo elementos extremamente vulneráveis, sendo vários os exemplos ao longo da história de situações imprevistas como terramotos, tsunamis, cheias, vulcões, incêndios, etc., que provocaram danos significativos nos edifícios e monumentos de cidades históricas importantes. Após um desastre destes, a situação é previsivelmente crítica e torna-se urgente proteger os monumentos e demais edifícios históricos. Deverá evitar-se a propagação e avanço dos danos, prevenindo colapsos locais e falhas globais. Neste cenário, torna-se crucial a utilização de sistemas de construção rápidos baseados em elementos leves e pequenos. Estes elementos devem permitir uma instalação fácil e rápida, bem como proporcionar a resistência suficiente para prevenir o aumento das perdas. Por outro lado, é fundamental que estes sistemas tenham em linha de conta a manutenção da traça arquitectónica, através de soluções que preservem as características estéticas e materiais dos edifícios. Este artigo apresenta uma primeira abordagem ao uso de sistemas à base de madeira e derivados em situações pós-catástrof

Guidelines to improve sustainability and cultural integration of temporary housing units

Unfortunately, natural disasters have drastically increased over the last decades causing extensive material and non-­material damages. The destruction of houses and the number of homeless people are some of the most visible effects of post-­disaster scenarios. Housing is one of the people’s most important needs and it is also essential for their well-­being. After a disaster it is crucial to supply temporary accommodation in order to provide victims with comfort, protection, and privacy until they have a permanent house. Temporary housing is an extremely important solution of temporary accommodation allowing victims to gradually return to their normal life activities during the reconstruction process. Although it has been widely used after the most large-scale disasters, the urgent need of fast solutions has not led to effective options. Therefore, temporary housing solutions have been greatly criticized mainly for being unsustainable, and also culturally and locally inadequate. Through literature review and case-­studies’ analysis the research points out the main factors and reasons that cause the problems of temporary housing units. It also refers to possible solutions to overcome or minimize those problems, offering guidelines based on concepts that have been proved effective in previous studies. The guidelines focus on useful concepts in the development of more sustainable, locally sensitive and culturally integrated solutions. It was found that an essential change is needed in the development of temporary housing solutions. These solutions should be developed through a people-­oriented strategy rather than focusing on the technical aspects of the units. The suggested guidelines have that objective

Temporary housing after disasters: a state of the art survey

The number of natural disasters has drastically increased, causing great damages on buildings. A large number of houses have suffered damage and become unusable, causing a high number of homeless people. Housing reconstruction programmes play a decisive role on the disaster recovery and providing temporary housing is a crucial step of these programmes. During the reconstruction of permanent housing, it allows victims to have a private and secure place to return to their normal lives. This has been widely used after the largest scale disasters but it has also been greatly criticised, mainly for being unsustainable and culturally inadequate. The study aims to present a state-of-the-art survey on the topic, as well as to identify the main problems, their origin and the existing proposals to avoid them. The research also proposes some guidelines that can reduce the effects of those problems

Cobertura da sala do relicário do mosteiro de Santa Cruz : da inspecção e diagnóstico ao projecto

A existência e difusão de diversas tipologias estruturais encontradas não só em todo o país, mas um pouco por toda a Europa, faz com que a sua conservação, inspecção e utilização sejam de vital importância para a manutenção do património enquanto símbolo de identidade e orgulho nacional. No presente artigo são apresentadas as conclusões obtidas no diagnóstico e inspecção da estrutura existente, com recurso a técnicas não destrutivas (nomeadamente o Pilodyn e o Resistógrafo), referindo-se o seu potencial campo de aplicação, vantagens e limitações, fundamentadas na experiência da sua utilização noutros casos reais. Finalmente, é apresentada a solução proposta para a realização de uma nova cobertura. Precedida e fundamentada no diagnóstico e inspecção realizados, a apresentação da metodologia a adoptar no projecto da nova cobertura tem como objectivo primeiro a manutenção da traça original da antiga cobertura (cota da cumeeira e geometria da antiga cobertura) respeitando diversos condicionalismos estruturais e técnicos existentes

Innovative architectural and structural design to preserve historical centers

Historical centers are important elements of our cities, representing their history and evolution. Many cities are facing the problem of having several vacant and degraded buildings needing intervention to avoid collapses. Also several examples of unforeseen events, like earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, etc., have severely damaged important historical cities. Beyond the risk of losing built heritage, these buildings represent public danger for citizens. Thus, in post-disaster scenarios it is urgent to protect historical buildings in order to prevent the propagation of damages. This paper presents a first efficiency assessment of using wood based systems in buildings needing urgent consolidation or damaged after disasters. Being light, easy to handle and install, as well as providing the sufficient load carrying to prevent the evolution of the damage and losses, wood and wood-based elements can be associated in different arrangements providing quick construction systems for the consolidation of damaged constructions

The role of spontaneous construction for post-disaster housing

Housing is crucial for living and well-being. Due to its vulnerability, one of the most severe consequences after natural disasters has been the destruction of houses, causing impressive numbers of homeless people. After those situations, it is imperative to start the reconstruction works and the provision of houses is a crucial task, since they can help to restore the livelihoods of the affected people. The urgency to supply housing quickly, has lead the formal construction sector to neglect user’s needs and expectations, and consequently has not conducted to successful solutions. Contrary to that, informal housing solutions have reached successful results in addressing the user’s cultural needs and expectations. Some studies have presented the advantages of spontaneous construction solutions, yet they seem to be ignored and contradicted by the formal construction sector. This study aims to present an assessment of the potentials of spontaneous construction solutions for post-disaster housing development

Water quality assessment of Portuguese streams: Regional or national predictive models?

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6W87-4TY8WB4-2/2/5bab94f8490387f7a8da832e49003d6

Critical fluctuations and random-anisotropy glass transition in nematic elastomers

We carry out a detailed deuterium NMR study of local nematic ordering in polydomain nematic elastomers. This system has a close analogy to the random-anisotropy spin glass. We find that, in spite of the quadrupolar nematic symmetry in 3-dimensions requiring a first-order transition, the order parameter in the quenched ``nematic glass'' emerges via a continuous phase transition. In addition, by a careful analysis of the NMR line shape, we deduce that the local director fluctuations grow in a critical manner around the transition point. This could be the experimental evidence for the Aizenman-Wehr theorem about the quenched impurities changing the order of discontinuous transition