Approach to the Structural Analysis and Seismic Protection of Heritage Buildings based on the Characterization of their Distinctive Technical Features

Abstract

The structural behavior of heritage buildings is now a priority for restoration architects and structural engineers, because of the loss of human lives and the damages in the constructions caused by earthquakes. The conventional intervention, which applies the Colombian code for earthquake-resistant constructions (NSR 10), affects the conservation of their heritage values. This is a proposal for a structural analysis applying traditional methods, but including the integral knowledge of the building, as well as the structural principles that their behavior and the development of intervention proposals based on their own structural principles. A group of doctrinal churches in the high lands of Boyacá and Cundinamarca in Colombia (1579-1616) were selected as cases of study , using a basic architectonical church model, which maintains the constant geometry, but modifies its constructive technique, with the purpose of understanding the differences and result interpretations for this type of constructions. The evidence shows the importance of involving the comprehension of distinctive technical features, as a way to achieve seismic protection solutions for human life, in the same way as historical construction values