HISTORIC BUILDING RESTORATION MUSEUM BUILDINGS & TOWERS TOURIST VILLAGES ANTIQUE BUILDINGS

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1 HISTORIC BUILDING RESTORATION MUSEUM BUILDINGS & TOWERS TOURIST VILLAGES ANTIQUE BUILDINGS

2 Building restoration St Paul's Cathedral, London, clad for refurbishment - in this case, cleaning the external facade. Rebuilding of the historical city centre of Sidon in Lebanon after the civil war Building restoration describes the process of the renewal and refurbishment of the fabric of a building. The phrase covers a wide span of activities, from the cleaning of the interior or exterior of a building - such as is currently underway at St Paul's Cathedral in London - to the rebuilding of damaged or derelict buildings, such as the restoration of the Windsor Great Hall in Windsor Castle after a destructive fire in The removal of 38 layers of paint and the cleaning and repair of the exterior sandstone walls of the White House in the U.S. are an example of building restoration. Buildings are structures which have, from time to time, particular purposes. They require ongoing maintenance to prevent them falling into disrepair as a result of the ravages of time and use. Building restoration can be thought of as that set of

3 activities which are greater than year-to-year maintenance, but which by retaining the building are less than a demolition and the construction of a new building. The scope of restoration depends upon the need, and other circumstances, such as the status of the building, and the affordability of the work required. There are three main types of restoration: Building cleaning - most especially cleaning the external facade of a building, and typically needed in cities that have suffered from smoke pollution. Many granite, sandstone, and limestone buildings in the UK, for example, have for most of their existence been black in colour owing to smoke and smog. Many, in turn, have been cleaned after air pollution legislation diminished the incidence of airborne particulate matter. Any building that has suffered from fire and/or water damage needs to be restored as well. Fire and water restoration specialists can help speed repairs, whether for individual homeowners or for the largest of institutions. Major repair - especially to stonework affected by acid rain and other pollutants, and which has weathered or decayed to a structurally unsound or aesthetically displeasing condition. Rebuilding to replace severely damaged or missing parts of a building. Here, in all cases, a balance is to be struck between recreation of the original building using materials and techniques similar to the original construction, as happened at very great expense at Windsor Castle; and the use of more modern techniques and materials. Not all building restoration seeks to follow the original design of the building. It is reasonably commonplace for the shell of a building - its external walls - to be retained whilst an entirely new building is constructed within. This approach is also referred to as adaptive reuse.

4 Caspar Ott Cabin from 1837 in Deerfield, IL restored by Bob Przewlocki Although techniques of restoration are improving, the action of cleaning or repairing buildings can, with hindsight, be seen to cause problems that at the time were unforeseen. A good example is the unrestrained use of sandblasting to clean smog deposits from soft-stoned buildings - a technique employed in the UK in the 1960s and 1970s - which has damaged the external faces of stonework to the extent that in some cases, later, the stonework has needed to be replaced. Contemporary building codes recognise such problems, and (it is to be hoped) mitigate poor outcomes. Heritage Restoration In the field of historic preservation, building restoration can refer to the action or process of accurately revealing, recovering or representing the state of a historic building, as it appeared at a particular period in its history, while protecting its heritage value. Work is often performed to reverse decay, or alterations made to the building after its initial construction. A part of heritage restoration can involve the replacement of outdated heating and cooling systems with newer ones, or the installation of climate controls that never existed at the time of building. Tsarskoye Selo, the complex of former royal palaces outside St. Petersburg in Russia are an example of this sort of work. Physical materials of an earlier time, that might have been state of the art at the time of construction, might have failed and now need replacement with contemporary better functioning, but aesthetically similar materials. Restoration of buildings at the Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany corrected a failed c peat composition roof. Exterior and interior paint colors present similar problems over time. Air pollution, acid rain, and sun take a toll, and often many layers of non-original paints are applied before an attempt at restoration is made. Color spectrum analysis of old

5 paint now allows a corresponding chemical recipe to be produced. But this is often only a beginning as many of the original materials are either unstable or in many cases environmentally unsound. Many eighteenth century greens were made with arsenic, a material no longer allowed in paints. Another problem occurs when the original pigment came from a material no longer available. In the early to midnineteenth century ground mummy parts were used in making some browns. In this case organizations like Britain's National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty will work with a historic paint color recreator like Farrow and Ball to replicate the antique color in durable, stable, and environmentally safe materials. In the United States the National Trust for Historic Preservation works similarly with Fine Paints of Europe a small manufacturer located in the U.S. state of Vermont that uses mostly Dutch and Swedish pigments and binders. The polychrome painted interiors of the Vermont State House and Boston Public Library are examples of this type of heritage restoration. Emaco group is a contractor with major activity in historic and antique building restoration with following services also: STRUCTURAL DESIGN Concept and detailed design work for a wide range of structures in many different materials CONSERVATION ADVICE Recommendation on the repair or refurbishment of historic structures and buildings STRUCTURAL REPORTS Analysis of current structural condition and recommendations for repair or modification FEASIBILITY STUDIES Engineering and cost analysis of proposals for structural engineering works STRUCTURAL CHECKING design assumptions and calculations for compliance with Building Regulations STRUCTURAL MONITORING of structures to detect or measure changes in structural condition over time ON-SITE ENGINEERING SERVICES Monitoring of structural engineering construction

6 Technology in historic buildings Conservation of historic buildings sometimes means securing their future by adapting them for efficient use in the 21st Century. We have the skills to achieve this without compromising their historic character. In the heart of London, our subsidiary Emaco group Italy were asked to investigate a more efficient and sustainable building services solution for the Fishmongers Hall on the bank of the Thames at London Bridge. The listed historic monument was constructed in , but suffered extensive damage from bombing in It s building services were a combination of original 19th Century features, and 1950s replacements fitted during its post-war restoration. The building is owned and occupied by the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers, and used as office space as well as for meetings and banqueting functions. We worked closely with the Surveyor to the Fabric to assess their requirements for boiler replacement works. We suggested that the building would benefit from a combined heat and power (CHP) unit due to the year-round requirement for hot water. We undertook a detailed feasibility study, and this led to the Fishmongers Company to instruct Emaco group Italy to proceed with the design and project management of a new CHP and boiler installation for the building. A CHP unit with a 70kW electrical output and a 120kW heat output was specified. Normally CHP installations are supplied as a complete unit in a self-contained box. An item of that size would simply not fit into the structure of a building of this nature due to restrictions of access. We solved the problem by taking the unusual step of disassembling the CHP unit, and re-designing its layout so it could be installed as smaller components in the available space.

7 In addition, we provided a state-of-the-art building management system that provides control and monitoring of the complete heating, hot water, ventilation, and cooling systems throughout the building. The installation of the CHP unit is completely unobtrusive, giving all the benefits of modern mechanical & electrical design in a historic building. It has reduced the client s CO2 emissions by 1,900 tonnes per year, and reduced energy consumption to such an extent that the payback period of the CHP unit is only four years. Fishmongers Hall in London

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