Structural assessment of heritage buildings

Reliability assessment of heritage buildings is in many aspects different from that taken in designing the structure of a newly proposed building. The effects of the construction process and subsequent life of the architecture, during which it may have undergone alteration, deterioration, misuse, and other changes to its as-built (as-designed) state, must be taken into account. That is why the assessment of heritage architecture often requires application of sophisticated methods, as a rule beyond the scope of traditional design practice and codes. The two main principles for the assessment of heritage architecture may be summarized as follows: (1) available scientific knowledge and know-how including currently valid codes should be applied; historical practice and provisions valid when the architecture was built (designed), should be used as guidance information only; (2) actual characteristics of structural material, action, geometric data and structural behaviour should be considered; the original documentation including drawings should be used as guidance material only. The most important step of the whole assessment procedure of heritage architecture is evaluation of inspection data and updating of prior information concerning strength and structural reliability. Typically, assessment of heritage architecture is a cyclic process in which the first preliminary assessment is often supplemented by subsequent detailed investigations and assessment.