Gevelbehandeling van erfgoed: erg of goed? Façade treatments of built heritage: bad or good? WTA Nl Vl Symposium, October 8, 2010.

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1 Gevelbehandeling van erfgoed: erg of goed? Façade treatments of built heritage: bad or good? WTA Nl Vl Symposium, October 8, October 8, WTA Nl Vl organized its second symposium of this year. The symposium subject, façade treatments, clearly attracted a wide interest of the restoration industry. 136 People participated at the symposium. The symposium took place at the porter s house of the farm abbey of Herkenrode, at Kuringen (B). Figure 1: the farm abbey of Herkenrode at Kuringen (B) How to reach an optimal facade treatment of built heritage? What is required or excessive, what is possible, what is allowable, what is prescribed and based on what information, how is it executed in practice, what type of control is performed on site and is that control sufficient? The theme was broadly presented by Bert van Bommel (Atelier Rijksbouwmeester/TUDelft). Subsequently, several parties all involved into obtaining an optimal façade treatment within restoration projects, gave their view on the topic: The government: Jos Gyselinck, Monument en Erfgoed Monument and Heritage; The restoration architect/designer: Stijn Thomas, Team Herman Van Meer; The contractor/executor: Ben Massop, Restauratie Architectuur BBM Monumentwatch Flanders: Carolien Goeleven, Monumentenwacht Limburg; Research institute: Yves Vanhellemont, BBRI (Belgian Building Research Institute); Producer: Rudy Keppens, Reginald Arnaert: Rewah NV. All of them are parties that are closely involved in the decision process within a restoration project, in this symposium focusing on façade treatments. In the end, the objective is a durable and compatible

2 treatment. The success of which is depending on a multitude of factors. Attention specifically goes to the preparation of the façade substrate (cleaning), and different possible façade treatments, such as: painting, hydrophobic treatment, anti graffiti, As such, this symposium addresses both the principal choices to be made, the underlying decision processes, diagnostics as well as practical choices of products and techniques, both illustrated with case studies. Besides the symposium topic is dealing with façade treatments, the underlying central theme is quality improvement (of the decision process) in obtaining an optimal conservation strategy. Therefore, each of the participants addresses the theme from her/his own viewpoint. From that, clearly 3 suggestions arose from the different presenters: A pre investigation in case of important heritage buildings is to be performed beforehands, and thus clearly is to be separated (in time and also financially) from the restoration dossier. The overall cost of the restoration process and quality of the restoration are expected to benefit from a profound pre investigation phase; A logbook, a medical fiche, centrally managed, at which all information related to preceding restorations, state of the building, planned and executed restorations, would be beneficial. In case of façade treatments the restoration architect would benefit from the information of preceding façade treatments, including: products used, execution procedure followed and (sub)contractor, product consumption, environmental conditions at time of execution, etc. The communication between all parties involved in the restoration process, both top down as well as bottom up is to be improved to enhance the quality in the restoration processes. The aforementioned database or logbook could form an essential part of the communication. Involving all parties from the beginning of the restoration project (from on the pre investigations) can prevent additional and or unnecessary iterations during the execution phase. During lunch break, the abbey farm was visited under guidance of Sven Ignoul and Kris Brosens (Triconsult NV engineering office) and the restoration architect Herman Van Meer (Team Herman Van Meer bvba).

3 Figure 2: attic of the porter s house a perfect scenery for the symposium. Figure 3: Forenoon session: left to right Bert van Bommel, Jos Gyselinck, and Stijn Thomas.

4 Figure 4: Sven Ignoul introducing the site visit at Herkenrode farm abbey (left) participants at the porter s house (right).

5 Figure 5: Yves van Hellemont, Carolien Goeleven, Ben Massop, Reginald Arnaert afternoon sessions. The following WTA Nl Vl will take place at March 25, 2011, covering the topic of safety and loadbearing capacity of the built heritage. Again the underlying theme will focus on quality (in the decision process) aiming at reaching a compatible and durable conservation of the built heritage. Luc Schueremans, Rob van Hees, Bert van Bommel, Yves Vanhellemont