Survey of the Facade Walls of Existing Adobe Buildings

Abstract

Adobe construction was very common in Aveiro district, Portugal, until the middle of the 20th century. At present, there are still many adobe buildings in use, a significant percentage of which have social, cultural, and architectural value. Many of these buildings, however, are in a poor state of conservation. The existing problems are partially the result of a lack of knowledge about the materials and building systems traditionally used. To contribute to this knowledge, a visual and dimensional inspection of the facade walls of twenty one adobe buildings located in Anadia, Murtosa, and Aveiro municipalities, in Aveiro district, was conducted. This article presents a description and analysis of the construction details, common defects, and state of conservation of the facade walls studied. This work aims to contribute with preliminary information that may help support the preservation and rehabilitation of existing adobe buildings.

Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of Portuguese Adobe Buildings

“…The factor that led to the upsurge in adobe as a construction material of choice, especially in the central region, is credited to the Art Nouveau movement that spread across Europe in various forms. This movement had a significant influence in some Portuguese cities [18], particularly in Aveiro, where it is estimated that 30-40% of the buildings are still adobe buildings [19]. The Southern region of Algarve, where the seismic hazard is relatively high [20], has a high density of adobe buildings, as shown in Figure 1.…”

“…Three building surveys pertaining to earth-based buildings in continental Portugal were examined in this study, namely, the Algarve survey report [21], the Alentejo survey report [22], and the survey of façade walls in Aveiro [19]. From these surveys, it was concluded that it was essential to segregate these earthen buildings according to the primary, secondary, and tertiary construction material that was used to build the external walls and then the internal walls, respectively.…”

The Use of Contact Sponge Method to Measure Water Absorption in Earthen Heritage Treated with Water Repellents

“…A series of recent interventions in earthen heritage have used cement plasters as a solution for water protection resulting in disastrous consequences. Cracking, detachment, and efflorescences are some of the main degradation phenomena induced in earthen structures when covered by this type of plaster [37]. Cementitious coatings are incompatible with earthen materials, since it blocks the normal humidity cycles and promotes more damage in the original layers [36].…”

Vernacular Caramel´s Adobe Masonry Dwellings – Material Characterization

“…Samples from case study 267 show a standard deviation far superior to the other samples which confirms the higher heterogeneity of the material that was previously visualized. Silveira et al (2016) for stabilized adobe in the Aveiro region (Table 1). These values are both lower and higher than the ones obtained for Caramel´s adobe, being generally higher, with a global value of 1764±268 kg/m 3 for the three case studies.…”

“…Until the end of the first half of the 20th century, adobe masonry construction was very popular in several regions of Portugal, being used for external and internal walls, as is the case of the Aveiro (Silveira, Varum, and Costa, 2016) or Leiria region (Parracha et al, 2019). Masonries were also layered with an earth mortar, similar to the material of the adobe masonry, with the objective of achieving a better interaction between the different materials (Costa et al, 2018).…”