The effect of spatial interventions on historic buildings’ indoor climate (Case Study: Tire Necip Paşa Library, Izmir-Turkey)

Abstract

The indoor climate of historic libraries should meet rigorous requirements related to human thermal comfort and conservation of books, manuscripts and cultural proper-ties. Paper based collections in historic libraries can be deteriorated chemically, mechanically and biologically because of inadequate indoor climate conditions. In this paper, Necip Paşa Library, the historic library located in Tire-Izmir, Turkey, was selected as a case study. The chemical, mechanical and biological degradation risks on the manuscripts were evaluated based on the indoor climate parameters measured for one year period. The Library, consisting of a main hall, a manuscript zone and an entrance hall, was modelled via the dynamic simulation software, Design Builder. Calibration of the model was conducted with respect to the measured indoor temperature and relative humidity values. The portico/Revak at the south facade of Library was converted into the entrance hall by wooden framed windows in 1930. To be able to see the effect of that intervention on the indoor climate (correspondingly on degradation risk of the manuscripts), a new model, namely semi-open model, was created and simulated. A remarkable change has not been observed on chemical degradation risk when the results of semi-open and existing library models were compared, while mechanical and biological degradation risks were less in semi-open model.