Learning objectives
Knowledge and understanding capabilities:
At the end of the course, the student will have a wide and critical view on the methods and techniques for the knowledge of historical architectural heritage and of its conservation status, as well as of the instruments for its restoration and strengthening, in connection with the current cultural debate.
Proficiency:
At the end of the course the student will be able to identify all the metrological, material, structural, pathological aspects which characterize a historical building and to assume the mas a base for the design of its restoration and strengthening.
Independent judgment:
The student will have to develop the capability of evaluating critically the conservation status of a historical building, identifying the most suitable techniques for the specific case, looking for an equilibrium between conservation, safety and functionality. Moreover, the student will be able to interpret and assess the quality of any restoration and strengthening design.
Communication skills:
During the course, the student will improve its correctness of speech, with specific reference to the technical terms of restoration, in order to communicate in an effective and precise way a restoration design.
Learning ability:
The materials and the techniques for the restoration and strengthening of historical building change continuously. Therefore the student must be able to select, once the problem has been identified, the most suitable intervention, even evaluating options not specifically explained during the course.
Prerequisites
It is helpful if students have attended the Restoration course, as the base knowledge of restoration theories and of historical building elements are taken for granted during the course.
It is also useful to have some knowledge of computer aided design (e.g. Autocad), spreadsheet (e.g. Excel) and multimedia presentaions (e.g. Powerpoint).
Course unit content
The course is organizaed in two parts: a theoretical one and an applied one.
The theoretical part, given that the knowledge on restoration theories and historical buildings elements should have already been acquired, is focused on the following subjects:
1. Basic concepts: restoration, conservation, strengthening
2. The normative system
3. The knowledge path
4. Art and science of building
5. Timber structural elements
6. Masonry structural elements
7. Arches, vaults and domes
8. Seismic and structural strengthening
9. Building’s HVACs system
10. Restoration and strengthening examples
The applied part foresees the restoration and strengthening design of a real historical building.
In the first period, the students will make surveys (divided in groups) on their case studies, in order to acquire the knowledge level needed to define the interventions, later designed in detail.
Full programme
1. BASIC CONCEPTS: restoration, conservation, strengthening
2. THE NORMATIVE SYSTEM: Heritage Conservation Act, Guidelines for heritage preservation from seismic risks, Technical laws for existing buildings, historical manuals.
3. THE KNOWLEDGE PATH: Historical measuring units, proportions and original geometry, historical inspections (archives documents, building manuals, historical "reading" of the building); the survey of geometry, architecture, structure, materials, disorders, decay phenomena, crack pattern; experimental tests, structural monitoring.
4. ART AND SCIENCE OF BUILDING: some concepts of building science and technique, equilibrium, graphic statics, stress-strain relations, strength, no-tension materials; hyper-static structures; ultimate state assessment on empirical basis.
5. TIMBER STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS: Materials characteristics, decay phenomena, structural problems, timber floors and roofs, post trusses.
6. MASONRY STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS: Materials characteristics, mechanical behaviour, pillars and columns, walls, seismic behavior of traditional masonry buildings.
7. ARCHES, VAULTS AND DOMES: building typologies, static behaviour, disorders and crack pattern, collapse mechanisms, graphical methods for the limit state analysis, finite element analysis, strengthening techniques.
8. STRENGTHENING METHODS: traditional and innovative techniques and materials for the structural and seismic strengthening of historical buildings; the difficult equilibrium between safety and conservation; theoretica, aesthetical and functional issues in the strcutural restoration.
9. BUILDING'S HVAC SYSTEM: HVAC addaptation, with specific reference to the compatibility problems
10. EXAMPLES OF RESTORATION AND STRENGTHENING: design and project references, in the frame of the complex cultural debate ongoing in this field.
Bibliography
Suggested books:
- Rodolfo Antonucci, Restauro e recupero degli edifici a struttura in muratura. Analisi e interventi sul costruito storico, Maggioli Editore, 2012 (disponibile al prestito una copia nella versione 2009 presso la Biblioteca di Ingegneria e Architettura, collocazione ARC4 0316)
- “Linee guida per la valutazione e la riduzione del rischio sismico del patrimonio culturale” (scaricabile dal sito del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali: http://www.beniculturali.it/mibac/export/MiBAC/sito-MiBAC/Contenuti/Avvisi/visualizza_asset.html_1141304737.html)
Research books:
- AA.VV, Manuale del Restauro Architettonico, Mancosu editore, Roma 2001.
- S. Mastrodicasa, Dissesti statici delle strutture edilizie, Hoepli, Milano 1989
- A. Giuffrè, Letture sulla meccanica delle murature storiche, Roma, 1988.
- E. Benvenuto, La scienza delle costruzioni e il suo sviluppo storico, Sansoni, Firenze 1991.
- Giuriani Ezio, Consolidamento Edifici Storici, Utet Tecnico, 2012, ISBN: 9788859807636
- G. Tampone, M. Mannucci, N. Macchioni, Strutture di legno: Cultura, conservazione, restauro, Edizioni De Lettera, Milano 2002.
More didactic material (AVAILABLE ON THE COURSE’S WEB SITE):
Course slides
Teaching methods
The course is composed of traditional lectures (tought class), also with Powerpoint presentaions, and reviews.
During the course, also some seminars with external lecturers will be held, to inspect more deeply specific issues.
For the applied part, the students will be divided in groups (3 to 5 people). Each group will develop a restoration and strengthening design on a real historical building and will be followed by the teacher with periodic reviews. The reviews are made in groups, on printed material prepared by the students.
At the middle of the course and at the end, the printed material must be handed down to the teacher.
Moreover, during the course there will be two collective reviews, one at the end of the knowledge path and one at the end of the course: in these occasions, each group will present (with Powerpoint or similar) its own work progress to the teacher and to the other students. These occasions are important both to exercise the communication skills of the students and to exchange and compare experiences among the different groups.
Assessment methods and criteria
During the course, the students will have to hand down their work twice to the teacher, in order to check and possibly correct the design process: one at the end of the knowledge phase and one at the end of the course.
Moreover, the two collective reviews, with public presentation of the designs, will allow a first evaluation of the correctness of speech and of the communicative skills.
These intermediate checks, although are not directly linked to the final grades, are in any case fundamental to demonstrate the profitable attendance to the course.
The single module has no autonomous judgment, but the learning assessment will be made altogether in the final exam of the Laboratory of Conservation and Restoration, which is oral and consists of:
Discussion of the restoration design (by each group component)
- 50% of the overall grades.
Oral examination on the theoretical part of the program:
- Theoretical strengthening aspects (module of Restoraion and Strengthening): 25% of the overall grades;
- Theoretical materials conservation aspects (module of Lithology and Geology for Architecture): 25% of the overall grades.
To pass the exam each of the three parts must receive a positive judgment.
Other information
As for all the laboratories, attending the courses is compulsory.
