Treatment of Out-of-Context Buildings During the Restoration of Historical Territories Using Green Structures

Abstract

There are historical places with out-of-context buildings, often of low quality. To restore the places, destruction requires heavy machines and may cause strong vibrations and excess load on the historical pavement intensifying destruction and ageing. Giving the appearance of historical objects requires expensive decoration. Hiding by living plants is the most perspective way with positive side effects: thermal insulation, passive air-conditioning, solar radiation control, urban heat island prevention, air cleaning and sanitation, carbon sequestration, noise absorption, better rainwater management, increasing biodiversity, etc. The approach is shown in an example of a bank at the historical centre of Byczyna, Poland. As the building is too large, using a context collage is proposed to show the results. The fears of damage to the structures by fungi and attraction of biting insects are debunked using three ways – analysis of the facing state under the greening, estimation of the critical air state around the greening, and by field studies of the relative humidity under the greening. CFD simulation shows a significant heat insulation effect of the greening in the heating period. The problem of penetration of moustaches into the facing can be solved by winding the ampeleous plants on a wooden lathing or a grid.