Conservation of 20th Century Concrete Heritage Structures in Cyprus: Research and Practice

Abstract

The conservation of 20th century concrete heritage structures poses a major challenge worldwide. Whilst these structures possess a remarkable architectural value and a rather experimental character in terms of the use of materials and technologies, at the same time there is admittedly lack of recognition of their cultural and historical value by the wide public. More often than not, such buildings are left to deteriorate and often they are even demolished. This paper follows the workings of the project “CONSErvation of 20th century concrete Cultural Heritage in urban changing environments” (CONSECH20). The aforementioned international interdisciplinary project aims to investigate concrete constructions built until 1965 in four different European countries (Cyprus, Italy, The Netherlands and the Czech Republic), in terms of their architectural, social and historical value, and to address their restoration and re-use potential. The paper initially presents the significance of 20th century concrete heritage structures in general, and describes the methodology proposed in order to ensure the protection of such buildings from demolition, and facilitate their restoration and re-use (if and where possible) for the benefit of the society. The focus is on the structural assessment and restoration of 20th century concrete heritage buildings in Cyprus, following the methodologies described by modern codes for the assessment and retrofit of existing concrete structures. A new practical analysis approach is described and compared to the force-control approach of the pushover analysis of Eurocode 8:3, which significantly overestimates the demands for seismic upgrading. The two aforementioned approaches are examined for a specific case study concrete heritage building in Nicosia, Cyprus.

Full document

References

[1] Heinemann, H.A. Why historic concrete buildings need holistic surveys. In: Proc. Int. FIB Symp. 2008 - Tailor Made Concr. Struct. New Solut. our Soc., (2008), pp. 103–8.

[2] Macdonald, S. Concrete: Building Pathology. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., (2008).

[3] ICOMOS ISC20C. Approaches for the conservation of twentieth-century architectural heritage. Madrid Document. (2014).

[4] EN Eurocodes. Assessment and retrofitting of buildings. EN 1998-3. Brussels: CEN/CENELEC; (2005).

[5] Japan Concrete Institute. Guidelines for Assessment of Existing Concrete Structures (2014).

[6] fib Bulletin No. 24. Seismic Assessment and retrofit of reinforced concrete buildings. Lausanne, Switzerland: International Federation for Structural Concrete (fib), (2003).

[7] NZSEE. The Seismic Assesment of Existing Buildings. 1st ed. New Zealand: Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and the Earthquake Commission, (2017).

[8] FEMA P154. Rapid Visual Screening of Buildings for Potential Seismic Hazards: A Handbook. 3rd ed. Washington, D.C. ATC: FEMA, (2015).

[9] ASCE/SEI 31-03. ASCE 31-03: Seismic Evaluation of Existing Buildings. American Society of Civil Engineers, (2004).

[10] ASCE/SEI 41-17. Seismic Evaluation and Retrofit of Existing Buildings. Reston, Virginia, (2017).

[11] Priestley, M.J.N. Myths and Fallacies in Earthquake Engineering, Revisited. Pavia Italy, Rose School, (2003).

[12] CSI. SAP2000: Static and Dynamic Finite Element Analysis of Structures v14.0, (2009).

[13] Fotopoulou, M., Thermou, G.E., Pantazopoulou, S.J.. Comparative evaluation of Displacement-based vs. Force-based pushover analysis of seismically deficient R.C. structures. In: Roeck, G. D., Degrande, G., Lombaert, G., Muller, G., editors. Proc. 8th Int. Conf. Struct. Dyn. EURODYN 2011, Leuven, Belgium, (2011), pp. 427–33.

[14] Syntzirma, D.V., Pantazopoulou, S.J. Deformation capacity ofR.C. members with brittle details under cyclic loads. ACI Spec Publ 236 (2007).

[15] Wyllie, L.A.J. Structural Walls and Diaphragms - How they Function. In: White, R.N., Salmon, C.G., editors. Build. Struct. Des. Handb., New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., (1987), pp. 188–215.

[16] EN1992-1-1. Eurocode 2. Design of Concrete Structures. . (2004).

[17] ACI Committee 318. Building Code Requirements for Reinforced Concrete and Commentary ACI 318R-08, (2008).

[18] Corley, W.G., Cluff, L., Hilmy, S., Holmes, W., Wight, J. Concrete Parking Structures. Earthq Spectra (2003), 12:75–98.

[19] Pardalopoulos, S.J., Thermou, G.E., Pantazopoulou, S.J.. Screening Criteria to Identify Brittle R. C. Structural Failures in Earthquakes. Bull Earthq Eng (2013), 11:607–36.

[20] Moehle, J.P., Hooper, J.D., Meyer, T.R.. Seismic design of cast-in-place concrete diaphragms, chords, and collectors: a guide for practicing engineers. NEHRP Seismic Design Technical Brief No. 3, produced by the NEHRP Consultants Joint Venture, a partnership of the Applied Technology Council and the Consortium of Universities for Research in Earthquake Engineering, for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, NIST GCR 10-917-4 (2010).

[21] Pantazopoulou, S.J., Imran, I. Slab-wall connections under lateral forces. ACI Struct J (1992), 89:515–27.

[22] Philokyprou, M. Cyprus. In: Time Frames: Conservation Policies for Twentieth-century Architectural Heritage. Carughi, U., & Visone, M. (Eds.). Routledge.

[23] Docomomo Cyprus. Cyprus – 100 Most Important Building Sites and Neighbourhoods. (2014).

[24] Georgiou, A., Ioannou, I., Pantazopoulou, S. Rehabilitation of 20th Century Concrete Heritage Buildings : the Case Study of the Municipal Market in Nicosia, Cyprus. SEDEC 2019 Conf. Earthq. Civ. Eng. Dyn., Greenwich, London, (2019).

[25] Georgiou, A., Ioannou, I., Pantazopoulou, S. Contribution of slab wall connections to the seismic resistance of structures. 4th Hell. Conf. Antiseism. Des. Eng. Seismol., Athens, (2019).