Strengthening of Historic Buildings in Post-Disaster Cases

Abstract

The 96% of districts in Turkey, which includes many historical monuments, is under seismic risk. Historic buildings and monuments are an important part of our cultural heritage that we must protect and provide their sustainability. There are many cause of decay in materials and structure of historic buildings. Earthquakes which are the external cause of damage are different from other natural disasters. The earthquakes, which we cannot predict in time and intensity, may cause major structural damage, and the collapse of historical buildings and monuments. Whenever an earthquake occurs we give more importance to the great monuments rather than the vernacular architecture which constitutes the urban fabric. The timber and masonry buildings constitute the vernacular architecture of Turkey. However, most of the traditional wooden constructions succeed in reach our time even they are partially damaged. Timber structures are the most earthquake resistant among other traditional forms. The aim of this paper is to show the resistance of traditional buildings, especially timber construction against the earthquakes. Unfortunately, the examples of timber construction, which constitute the biggest part of the traditional houses architecture in Turkey are decreasing. For this reason, the strategies for the preservation and strengthening of the historical timber structures should be prepared without losing time. As a consequence, the original and damaged condition of a historical construction should be analyzed. In order to learn the values that we possess and the existing conditions of these buildings, the inventory of the whole timber construction in Turkey should be documented. Preserving and strengthening programs could be done on the basis of this documentation and conservation strategies could be developed according to them.