Urban Heritage Rehabilitation: Institutional Stakeholders' Contributions to Improve Implementation of Urban and Building Regulations

Climate change, natural hazards, and human actions are threatening cultural heritage in urban areas. More than ever, building regulations’ procedures and criteria are essential to guarantee the protection and safeguarding of urban areas and their buildings. These procedures and criteria are crucial to assist stakeholders in decision-making, especially when facing rapid transitions and transformative changes in urban heritage areas. Several institutional stakeholders in charge of urban heritage protection strengthen the need for a better implementation of building regulations through flexible criteria to support intervention procedures in buildings with different features and in different contexts. Under this topic, the present study uses a twofold method. Firstly, the authors analyze and compare the urban and building regulations of three Southern European countries, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, concerning procedures and criteria directed to the built heritage; secondly, they highlight and compare the views of different institutional stakeholders from the same three countries, at different levels (national, regional, and municipal), to understand the impact of the implementation of the regulations on the ground. The findings show the relevance of the institutional stakeholders’ views to improve the regulations and their practice. They highlight the need to promote inventory and cataloging procedures, as well as flexible criteria when dealing with urban heritage buildings

Degradação e modos de habitar em edifícios residenciais antigos do Porto: avaliação da satisfação e perceção dos residentes

Este artigo debruça-se sobre a avaliação da satisfação e perceção residencial dos residentes deedifícios antigos de matriz unifamiliar burguesa (séculos XVII-XX) degradados, localizados nocentro histórico do Porto e áreas envolventes e habitados por uma população socioeconomicamente desfavorecida. Nesse sentido, recorre-se à aplicação da Metodologia de Avaliação doPatrimónio Edificado Habitacional (MAPEH) [1] que compreende a análise do edificado nas dimensões patrimonial, técnica e social. A aplicação desta metodologia é feita através de umaFicha de Avaliação (FA) que, suportada por recolha de informação detalhada e atualizada [2],especifica os critérios gerais da MAPEH, direcionando-os para o contexto particular do edificadoa avaliar.No contexto da MAPEH, a avaliação da satisfação e perceção residencial dos habitantes tem porbase um questionário específico dirigido aos residentes dos edifícios a analisar. Esse questioná-rio permite identificar os diferentes perfis socioeconómicos dos residentes e aferir a sua perceçãoem relação às características da unidade habitacional (compartimentos mais usados, tamanho etipo de uso, privacidade e facilidade de acesso à e na habitação e conforto térmico e acústico) e da área de residência (segurança, relação com os vizinhos, equipamentos, serviços, instala-ções existentes...). Em particular, identifica as características que os residentes mais apreciamnos edifícios/ área de residência e as suas expetativas relativamente a eventuais melhorias aefetuar na habitação que contribuam para a melhoria percecionada da sua qualidade de vida,assim como critérios que distinguem diferentes perfis de residentes relacionados com necessidades básicas e expetativas em relação à sua habitação e área envolvente.Na aplicação ao caso de estudo, esta análise aferiu lacunas na intervenção e conservação dopatrimónio edificado em análise, bem como na colmatação das necessidades básicas percecionadas pelos residentes em diferentes contextos, permitindo concluir sobre a importância de sepromoverem condições diferenciadas de intervenção no património edificado capazes de integrar(e de combinar), não só exigências patrimoniais, de segurança e de habitabilidade, mas tambémas necessidades básicas percecionadas pelos residentes

The role of a systematic analysis of building codes to support an assessment methodology for built heritage

This paper analyses and compares codes and standards that support interventions onbuilt heritage of three Southern European countries with similar cultural approaches, Italy, Spain andPortugal, and confronts these documents with technical expert opinion. This discussion recognizes theimportance of incorporating flexible criteria on code application, but also that such criteria should be sustained by inventorying and cataloguing processes based on multidisciplinary assessment methodologies.When dealing with inhabited built heritage, this assessment methodology should not only be supported bysafety and housing conditions criteria embedded in technical codes and standards and local guidelines oriented to the local characteristics of the constructions, but should also include the assessment of the needsand expectations of residents. This work is part of a vast study that includes and sustains the developmentof a multidisciplinary assessment methodology to be applied on built heritage

Bituminous waterproofing mortar applied on masonry walls of 19th and 20th century buildings in Porto: an analytical study in the context of urban building rehabilitation

Bituminous mortars characterize the traditional buildings of the city of Porto and northern Portugal, especially those built between the end of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century. This article aims to determine the composition of this bituminous mortar through an analytical study by micro-FTIR and Py-GS/MS, and to assert experimentally its effectiveness as a waterproofing material though a series of tests including capillary tests, saturation content and water permeability. The present study is still a starting point for a more in-depth study on this subject, but the present investigation constitutes a further step in the characterisation of the constitution and function of bituminous mortar

Evaluating the efficiency of membrane's refurbishment solutions to perform vertical extensions in old buildings using a multicriteria decision-support model

The initial premise of this research is that the relative efficiency of refurbishment solutions with architectural membranes needs to be measured in order to allow its comparison with conventional solutions, helping decision makers to select the most efficient solutions. The evaluation of this efficiency depends on economic features, but also on functional, technological and environmental ones. This study presents a model to solve this problem, using decision trees, multicriteria decision-making methods (SAW and AHP) and a sensitivity analysis. The selection of the criteria and the assignment of the corresponding weights was attained through an expert group survey for a baseline scenario, aiming maximizing functional performance (such as energy savings) and minimizing employed resources (materials, costs, etc.). The most efficient refurbishment solution among the set of alternatives was reached using the developed model. The methodology was applied to a case study - an old building from the nineteenth century, located in Portugal, which was refurbished with a vertical extension. The result reveals that the proposed model is successful and illustrates the potential of this evaluation methodology to compare and quantify the efficiency of a series of different lightweight constructive solutions. It also underlines the advantages of using lightweight building technologies, especially with architectural membrane materials, in building refurbishments.This research was made possible by the support of the: Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science (MCE) and European Social Fund (ESF) with the reference grant SFRH/BD/104891/2014; the Project UID/AUR/04509/2013 by FCTMEC by national funding and FEDER co-financing under the new PT2020 partnership agreement - Lab2PT, School of Architecture/University of Minho, Portugal; and Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007457 - CONSTRUCT - Institute of R&D In Structures and Construction of Faculty of Engineering/University of Porto, Portugal, funded by FEDER funds through COMPETE2020

Assessment of the seismic behaviour of Gondar church using a continuum damage model

Stone masonry elements compose a large number of constructions not only in Portugal but in many other countries. The analysis of such this type of constructions is a complex task, mainly due to the large variability of the material properties. This analysis becomes particularly important when the structures are submitted to dynamic type loads, especially seismic loads. In this paper, an ancient Portuguese XII century church (Gondar church) located in the northern region of Portugal is analyzed using a numerical model in order to assess its structural behaviour and vulnerability when submitted to a seismic load. This analysis was performed using the finite elements program Cast3M (CEA, 1999) and considering non linear material characteristics for the masonry walls. The stone masonry behaviour was reproduced using a continuum isotropic non linear damage model originally created for concrete structures, while for the roof wooden structure a linear behaviour model was adopted. The church was tested considering a rigid foundation and submitted to its self-weight and a ground motion accelerogram matching the church site conditions. The results are presented and discussed in terms of the church deformation, damage pattern and stress state, indicating the most vulnerable zones. These types of studies highly contribute to the definition of more effective retrofitting and strengthening solutions

Análise de pavimentos de madeira através de ensaios in situ. O caso dos edifícios antigos do Porto

O Centro Histórico da cidade do Porto foi considerado em 1996 Património Mundial pelaUNESCO, devido ao valor excepcional do local, cuja malha urbana e edifícios históricos são umtestemunho notável do desenvolvimento, ao longo dos últimos mil anos, de uma importante cidadeeuropeia. De forma a permitir que este conjunto com elevado valor patrimonial, arquitectónico,construtivo e histórico seja preservado, contrariando o gravíssimo problema de degradação dopatrimónio edificado, assim como os sérios problemas sociais e o abandono por parte da população,o NCREP-FEUP tem participado em inúmeros projectos, avaliando o estado de conservação doselementos estruturais dos edifícios (paredes em alvenaria de granito e pavimentos e coberturas emmadeira) A presente comunicação focar-se-á nas estruturas de madeira destes edifícios, abordandoos passos e ferramentas das fases de inspecção e diagnóstico, como o recurso a diversos ensaios nãodestrutivos (NDT) e a alguns ensaios semi-destrutivos

Experimental assessment of the structural behavior of a masonry wall under horizontal cyclic loads

This paper presents a numerical and experimental study on the cyclic behavior of a masonry wall from a house that collapsed during the July 9, 1998, earthquake in the Archipelago of Azores. It is divided into three parts: the first one contains the description, analysis, and interpretation of the outcome of the laboratory tests; the second one describes the walls numerical model adopted for the simulation of the tests and presents the comparison with the experimental results; the last part concerns tests made on the wall after being reinforced