ARCHITECTURAL ENVELOPE

IN TIME, UNDER LIGHT

an ecological approach
on historical architecture

MIHAI OPREANU

Architect, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
UNIVERSITATEA DE ARHITECTURA SI URBANISM “ION MINCU”
BUCURESTI, ROMANIA

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For Stefan and Gabi

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CONTENTS

1. CRITERIA, CONTENT AND STUDY STRUCTURE

1.1. GENERAL PRESENTATION OF THE SUBJECT
1.2. WHY DO WE PRESERVE THE ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE?
1.3. WHAT EXACTLY DO WE PRESERVE? PERENNIAL AND TEMPORARY
(SACRIFICIAL) COMPONENTS
1.4. CONSERVATION – RESTORATION – VALORISATION – RE-USE –
REHABILITATION
1.5. ISSUE AND APPROACHE
1.6. ANATOMY, PATHOLOGY AND TREATMENT (THERAPY)
1.7. THE STATE OF THE RESEARCH AND THE PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
IN THE FIELD. THE SUITABILITY AND AIM OF THIS STUDY
1.8. THE SUITABILITY AND AIM OF THIS STUDY
2. THE ELEMENT OF FORM: HISTORICAL ARCHITECTURAL CONFIGURATION
(ELEMENTS OF ARCHITECTURAL ANATOMY)
2.1. VOLUMES . THE ANALYSIS SCHEME OF THE CONFIGURATION AND
CONSTRUCTION COMPONENTS
2.2. STRUCTURE IN SECTION
2.3. CLADDINGS / FACE WALLS
2.3.1. APPARENT STONE
2.3.2. APPARENT STONE AND BRICK CLADDING
2.3.3. BRICK AND MORTAR CLADDING
2.3.4. MORTAR CLADDING IMITATING BRICK AND STONE CLADDING
2.3.5. SPECIFIC DETAILS FOR BRICK CLADDINGS
2.3.6. POLYCHROMATIC MORTAR CLADDINGS
2.3.7. RETRACED MORTAR CLADDINGS
2.3.8. VISIBLE BRICK SURFACES
3. ELEMENTS OF ENVIRONMENT AND TIME; REASONS OF ALTERATIONS AND
DEGRADATIONS

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 3.1. ELEMENTS OF PHYSICAL AND CLIMATIC ENVIRONMENT
(CONSTRUCTION PHYSICS AND MONUMENTS RESTAURATION)
CONSTRUCTION PHYSICS EXPERTISE
3.2. CHEMICAL ENVIRONMENT ELEMENTS: CRYSTALLINE SALTS AND
OTHER HARMFUL SUBSTANCES
3.3. BIOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT ELEMENTS
3.4. REASONS OF THE ALTERATIONS AND DEGRADATIONS
4. PATHOLOGY AND TREATMENT; INTERVENTION STRATEGY
4.1. BEFOREHAND INVESTIGATIONS (ANAMNESIS)
4.2. DIAGNOSIS
4.3. THE INTERVENTION STRATEGY: EMERGENCY, BACKGROUND,
MAINTENANCE; PREVENTIVE/CURATIVE; SYMPTOMATIC / CAUSAL
4.4. HEALING AND/OR SUBSTITUTION TREATMENT
4.5. NEW MATERIALS IN RESTORATION
4.6. THE PATHOLOGY MEASURMENTS (mapping/survey)
5. CASE STUDY (CASUISTRY)
5.1. STEEPLES: ANALYSIS AND CASE STUDY EXAMPLE
5.2. THE FORTIFIED EVANGELIC CHURCH OF MOŞNA
5.3. THE FAÇADE OF THE CATHEDRAL OF TROYES, FRANCE
5.4. THE HIGHER SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE PALACE FAÇADE
5.5. THE FAÇADES OF BUCHAREST UNIVERSITY
5.6. THE RUPESTRAL ARCHEOLOGICAL ENSEMBLE OF BASARABI
(MURFATLAR)
6. CONCLUSION
6.1. DISCOURSE ON THE INTENTION OF THE STUDY
6.2. LEARNING FROM HISTORICAL BUILDINGS
6.3. THE PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE OF ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE
6.4. THE DIRECT EXPERIENCE ON SITE (EXPERIENTIA IN SITU)
6.5.ABOUT THE PROFESSIONAL INTERCESSION OF AN ARCHITECT
RESTORER
BIBLIOGRAPHY
HISTORY BOOKS ON ARCHITECTURE AND THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE

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PROJECTS
AUTHOR’S PROJECTS
BIOCLIMATIC AND ECOLOGICAL ARCHITECTURAL STUDIES AND PROJECTS
IMMAGES’ SOURCES
COLLABORATORS ON PROJECTS AND STUDIES
ABBREVIATIONS
ANNEXES
A.1. STEEPLES OF BYZANTINE CHURCHES - ADD-ONS
A.2. ARCHEOLOGICAL ENSAMBLE OF BASARABI
A.3. ABOUT STEREOTOMY

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 ARCHITECTURAL ENVELOPE
IN TIME
AND IN LIGHT
an ecological approach
on historical architecture

(PARAMETERS OF FORM, TIME AND ENVIRONMENT)

1. CRITERIA, CONTENT AND STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY

1.1. GENERAL PRESENTATION OF THE SUBJECT

“Architectural envelope”: I propose an analysis of those surfaces that represent

above all the physical support of the architectural object image. In order to focus the
subject, I will not insist in analyzing some surfaces that make up elements of general
monumental art, the fresco paintings or other techniques, mosaic, the border between
architectural decoration and elements of monumental art is rather a support, not a strict
limit and more than everything, not exclusively. This is why I will not insist on the limit as
discussion point.
I will generally refer to the external surfaces, because they represent the interface
between object and environment. I will also highlight some exceptions, where the interior
surfaces present some specifically problems caused by the interaction with the
environmental factors.
“The skin of a construction stands as the one that provides the most part of the
charm and genuine”1 .
The image of an architectural object is important for its entire existence. The content
of its meaning can be different due to some variables.

1
Yves-Marie Froidevaux, Techniques de l’architecture ancienne, Sprimont (Belgia): Mardaga, 1986, pag.
12.

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 The interest in architectural surfaces doesn’t represent my intention to limit the
subject. It is important to know what is happening within the architectural object, as I will
present further after.
Most of the times the surfaces show us, whether we know to understand symptoms
of some phenomena that take place within and which can be dangerous for the objects
integrity. These are the first signs that can initiate a way that can lead to a correct diagnosis
or towards a necessary and efficient treatment.
Shape, environment and time factors: a complex number of phenomena can
count for this convention. The thing that interests us is the way that the architectural object
reaches its existence and particularly the utility phase (as it is called in a simple manner
according to an ecological analysis, the existence phases of any product: pre-utility, utility
and post-utility). Many historical constructions have gone through different special
existence phases, in which the utility can be modified; there can be times of abandon and
recover.
Any building, as Vitruvius has written, must possess three qualities: utility, solidity
and beauty. The second quality means keeping the BUILDING’S INTEGRITY in time. The
third means keeping the IMAGE QUALITY in time.
The BUILDING’S INTEGRITY depends on the initial qualities and on a reasonable
maintenance, furthermore conservation, repairing, renovating, functional adapting may be
needed.
The IMAGE QUALITY also depends on the initial qualities of the building’s design
and construction. A genuine architectural image is one that stands in time, as a virtual
representation of a building, which doesn’t necessarily imply remaining the same as in the
first day.
Because the “time” factor is important in the proposed analysis, buildings that have
survived time can become interesting subjects of our analysis.

The genuine architecture is that who leaves beautiful ruins...

When I started developing this project, I proposed myself to reach the theme of
contemporary facade. Along the way, I found it reasonable to focus upon buildings that
have a great life expectancy, especially historical ones. Hereby the reasons:

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- In the last few years some well documented, practical studies have been issued
about contemporary subjects. High performance of the facade, heat efficient, intelligent,
double-skin, last generation glazing, subjects that now benefit from abundant
documentation. These subjects rapidly evolve, along with objectification and generalization
of the ecological issue. Some of my colleagues have produced their own papers about the
contemporary facade (Crenguţa Bratu, Ana Maria Dabija).
- Rodica Crisan has published systematic papers of analysis, conservation and the
rehabilitation of the built fond.
Towards these existing scientific and professional informational materials, I limited
the field to facade surfaces, namely those with solid support: stone, brick, mortar. I
deliberately left off my subject skin in general, as well as the wooden cladding, raw soil,
metal or any other materials.
- I considered that my study can be important if it is based on the subjects that I
interacted with, during my study period, designing and surveying restoration works of
historical architecture. I hope to a good presentation of the causes which will make up of
the subjects that I know and those that I attended during the most important phases (study,
diagnosis, treatment, time evaluation). To say it simple, my paper, as an anatomy,
pathology and treatment study, is more a paper based on some particular “patients”.
- Most of the components of this study (architectural conception criteria mostly) are
valid not only for buildings that have already been declared architectural monuments, but
also for valuable buildings in general, buildings that have already had and will develop an
important existence. An architect must wish that his work would last in time, at least during
his life (and to look good) and why not, someday to be considered cultural heritage. I hope
this study will be useful from this perspective, within the lasting development in the
constructed environment.
- The subject “Constructions Physics”, as it is studied in architectural schools, is
continually developing within the present time. I am trying to follow this evolution and to
understand that the subject of this curriculum is close to the ecological criteria, to the
environmental health and the preservation of equilibrium in society, the built environment
and the natural one. The integrity and health qualities of the constructions become more
important in a way different than they have been before the energy crisis. The buildings

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are not any more understood as consumable products, meant to satisfy immediate
needs and then to disappear (to be “thrown away”).
Today, in the high developed countries, almost half of the investments in the real
estate field are represented by investments in the existing buildings (more or less valuable
as heritage, but also this aspect evolves…). Any architect has one chance in two, in his
professional activity to work on already existing material. And when he projects a new
building, from scratch, the elements of conceiving that are meant to make it last in time are
some of the preventive treatment criteria that I will try to present.
I hope that the present paper has a certain meaning by itself, but I propose myself to
bring it useful to the architecture education and more than this, to the technical curricula
(namely the Department of Technical Studies from UAUIM), from university, as well as The
Advanced Studies School. I hope this paper will be useful to those that are in the field of
architectural heritage, from ancient constructions to more recent ones and, why not,
contemporary.
My action evolves within the inter curricula, but has also as target the perspective,
role and the architects responsibility as project manager, from the first stage of the project,
to surveying the work and the existence of the building in time
We have to think that the environment in which we and the buildings coexist
becomes more and more aggressive because of the ecological disturbances: industrial and
urban polluting, chemical and biological polluting due to the excessive agriculture, climate
changes and degradation. The constructions we want to keep, as well as the ones that we
want to build from now on, will have to face these conditions and will have to obey more
drastic rules of ambient protection.
We must hope that the equilibrium of environment will be regained and maintained.
A lesson valid for the new architecture, for present and future must be learnt from the
valuable buildings in the past, from the modest to the impressive ones.

1.2. WHY DO WE PRESERVE THE ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE?

This introduction doesn’t aim at exhausting all cultural, historical, philosophical and
ideological criteria involved by patrimonial preservation. These ought to be familiar to
anyone who wishes to get involved in the field of historical preservation.

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 I only set forth to describe some elements that might be instrumental in the
clarification of some criteria of actual intervention on an item belonging to the architectural
heritage (irrespective of the fact that this item has been previously classified as such or
not).
When I attended the Salzburg Seminary, organized by a famous in-depth research
foundation, I took part in a conference on the ““Preservation of Art and Architecture”. One of
the leading participating professors was James Marston Fitch, an architect and a professor
of preservation at the University of Columbia, one of the founding fathers of historical
preservation in the United States. In his opening lecture, he asked the following question:
„why do we, middle-class people take an interest in the preservation of goods belonging for
the most part to some kings or princes or which have been erected to honour the gods?”
The initial purpose behind the creation of these values is no longer the same for us.
Answering this question, J.M. Fitch mentioned as a matter of course the criteria of cultural,
historical and artistic value of these objects, criteria which have been set, he said jokingly,
by some exceptional people, a number of important scholars, hence also by an elite. It
appears that ever since there has been an interest in the study and preservation of
historical monuments, this domain was somewhat apart from the general concerns of
society.
Ever since the dawn of the industrial era, society has been fuelled by its desire to
produce as much as possible and to consume whatever it has produced. When referred to
this goal, the preservation of ancient objects seems to be out of place, it appears as a
marginal preoccupation, even though it was one belonging to a cultural elite.
J. M. Fitch went on to invite all those who took part in the works of the conference to
try and settle this dilemma as the conference progressed.
Of course, one essential element when considering this issue, is that the cultural
value of the historical patrimony does not belong, as does the material value, to some
people, groups, organizations, states etc, but it generally interests all common people and
their progeny (and we know that the American people pride themselves on being made up
of middle-class people).
These last few years, since 1990, I took part in a number of conferences and
seminaries which provided a space for discussion for the various categories of scholars
involved in historic preservation.

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 A central issue was that of the balance between preservation and development.
Another problem presented itself in Ochrid, Macedonia, in 2000, when the
discussions envisioned the destructions produced by the conflicts in the area and where
some of the participants in the conference were themselves people who experienced first
hand this belligerent environment and who were going to go on living in the conflict area.
Among the topics on the agenda was the destruction of the cultural patrimony and its use
as a weapon in these fights; the conclusion reached being that those who destroy the
cultural goods of the enemy endure a comparable loss to that of the targeted population,
since these spiritual values equally belong to them and their offspring.
Suppose that someone born after a few generations won’t be able to see the
historical city of Mostar of the former republic of Yugoslavia, because it has been
completely wiped out, would he then be able to find consolation in the thought that some of
his ancestors thought they had reasons to destroy it?
On the other hand, one of the main rationales for preservation that has emerged
more and more obviously in recent years is the ECOLOGICAL reason. I have stood by
this idea as I participated in symposiums like the one in Salzburg (at the annual meetings of
the SCUPAD) and more than once in Ochrid in 2000.
One the one hand, it’s all a matter of physical preservation of some buildings for
future usage, which in turn reduces the need for new buildings, and this means that we
have a very important source of engrained energy, as was also claimed by J.M. Fitch,
quoted above, on the same occasion („billions of BTU’s- British Thermal Units, the Anglo-
Saxon unit of measurement for thermal energy).
Actually, a rehabilitation intervention on an existing building will always mean a lower
environmental impact (resources taken in, harmful ejections etc) than a new building,
resulting in a similar usage capability.
But it’s about more than this. It’s about the conservation of a certain balance in the
architectural environment between what is already extant and the new, in prospect of
sustainable development, which, as it is becoming more and more obvious, constitutes the
sole viable prospect. This balance is necessary both from a physical, concrete point of view
and from a psychological point of view.

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 From this standpoint, cultural value represents something objective and
necessary and not an intellectual luxury, which would only be meaningful to an elite
or a minority, no matter how prestigious this minority might be.
Here are some quotes from Jakob Burkhardt (Some thoughts on art, in „ Art and
history”, Bucureşti, Meridiane Publishing House, 1987)
„I have never set foot in the actual temple of thought, all my life I have lingered in its
courtyard and in the halls of the perilobos, where the concrete image reigns in the largest
sense. (pg.9)
„We could define culture as the quintessence of that which humanity achieved in a
spontaneous manner, both in order to support material life and as an expression of its
spiritual and moral life. Culture comprises all social living, all techniques, arts, poetry and
all the sciences. It is the world of freedom, of mobility, but not necessarily that of
universality, a world which does not impose its value forcibly” (op. cit., pg. 22)
„Works of art are in turn, when considered from an external point of view, subjected
to the common fate of all earthly things and of all traditions. They can either be worn down
by the passage of time, but those of them that make it are enough to give testimony to the
centuries to come of the feeling of freedom, of enthusiasm and spiritual community.
Luckily, we, late comers, are able to restore past works of art and we can guess at
the whole by analogy from the fragments. Art continues to exercise its function, even
though it only survives in excerpts, contours and simple allusions. Its effect conserves its
force even through fragments, may they be sculptures or bits of songs (...)
Most fortunately, there is architecture, which mediates the expression of the
aspiration to an ideal in its purest and most unhindered form. (op. cit., pg. 26).

And further, another quote from Jakob Burckhardt, Meditations on universal history,
Oradea, Antaios Publishing House, 1999:
„We however have not been initiated in the secret purposes of the everlasting
providence and know them not. (op. cit.,pg. 16)
Our standpoint is the only valid possible centre for us, namely that of the enduring
man striving and acting (...).” (op. cit., pg. 17)
„...the cultured individual will never be able or willing to shake off the beautiful
illusion that those who created great things must have been happy as they created them.

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These would have naturally had to make very big sacrifices in order to preserve the ideal of
their time and they would have fought their daily struggle just like we do. Their creations
appear to us like a salvaged youth which was stored away.” (op. cit., pg. 208)

1.3. WHAT EXACTLY DO WE PRESERVE?

An architectural item, like anything else in this world, is made up of substance and
information, it contains engrained energy and it exists in the space-time continuum, in the
context of permanent and complex exchanges of energy, substance and information
between the item as such, the people and the environment surrounding it.
The information is to be understood either as concrete and measurable elements,
such as the make-up of the building, in ensemble and in detail, or as elements of a lesser
quantifiable nature, but not of a lesser importance for that matter, such as expression,
meaning, individuality and cultural value.
The latter is in principle the object of historic preservation and it manifests itself in
the engrained information in the architectural heritage.

„..first axiom: the only thing being restored is the material part of a work of art.”
„...the second principle of restoration: restoration has to aim at the recovery of the
potential unity of the work of art, in as much as this is possible, without committing an
artistic or historical forgery and without eliminating the traces of the passing of time over
the work of art.2
Concerning the restoration of monuments the same principles that have been stated
above for all other works of art hold true (...). Therefore, as architecture is also a work of art
and as a work of art enjoys the double and inseparable status of both monument and work
of art, the restoration of architecture is also placed under the incidence of the historical and
aesthetic instance.”3

2
Cesare BRANDI, The theory of restoration, Bucureşti: Meridiane Publishing House, 1996, pg. 38 şi
39).
3
Ibidem, pg 109.

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 The criterion of authenticity implies preserving the substance of the local patrimony
object. The substance is the concrete support of information. With this meaning, the
reconstruction of an image (i.e. configuration) on a new support of substance is a
PASTICHE. A pastiche is different from restoration.
This contemporary understanding of the significance of cultural heritage and
restoration is relatively recent – it appeared in the 19 th century.
“… in the Dictionary of Architecture, at the entry <<restoration>>, Viollet-le-Duc also
mentions that <<our epoch, and our epoch solely from all historical epochs, has engaged in
an unusual attitude towards the past. In Asia (…) when a temple or a palace suffered from
time degradation, another one (…) was built in the proximity.>>
The idea of preserving the monument in its ancient form is therefore of recent date.
It was the consequence of a frame of opinion which counter-reacted to some excesses in
abandonment, negligence or vandalism (…). This frame of opinion led to the creation of the
Service of Historic Monuments by the monarchy in July 1837.” 4
A counter-example to the current meaning of restoration is the temple from Ise,
Honshu Island, Japan (image 1, a, b, c); it is an example which illustrates Viollet-le-Duc’s
statement, quoted above.
Indeed, this temple, which is extremely important for Japanese spirituality and where
only the emperor was allowed to enter, is rebuilt alternatively on each of the two
neighboring fields, at every 20 years, that is, with every generation. The old temple co-
exists with the new one for one year, time in which it is desacralized and open to common
people. Then it is demolished and the cycle begins anew. This process traditionally began
in the 13th century. Each time, the construction is made with identical materials and with the
same traditional techniques; this implies preserving a small universe of knowledge and
crafts, which stay alive along with small groups of people, being passed on from one
generation to another. The temple is made out of local wood, which is softwood, while the
climate of the place, in the proximity of the sea, is very humid and difficult, which offers an
objective explanation to this exceptional process.

4
DUVAL, Georges, Restauration et Réutilisation des Monuments Anciens, techniques contemporaines,
Mardaga, Liège, 1990, page 9 and 10.

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 Another counter-example is the “Benjamin Franklin Memorial” in Philadelphia, USA.
The subject here is preserving the memory of a house which no longer exists, and which is
in its turn connected to the existence of a great individual. The architect Robert Venturi
images in space the contours of volumes which no longer exist (dwelling which belonged
indeed to Franklin, in that place exactly) and assembles some sort of vertical canals like
submarine periscopes, but oriented from the surface below. Through these, one can watch
remnants of infrastructures, a fountain, all that is left as an authentic substance from the
house itself (image 1, d, e). It is a venture of great flair, with sensitivity for the authentic,
even though too little consistent, which avoids with a certain subtlety the pastiche and the
commonplace memorial.
Restoration in its acceptance today implies preserving as much as possible the
substance of the historic construction, and this endeavour is not easily accomplishable, on
one hand because of the inevitable effect of time on any substance, and, on the other,
because many of the constructions nowadays deemed historic are not meant to have a
considerable lifespan, in the least unlimited. Structures intentionally built to be eternal are
only exceptional. Yet for us now, the intention of the person who created the edifice is less
important, what counts is what it stands for, for us in the present and for the future
generations.
The span of the constructions with patrimonial value has extended lately; this
phenomenon continues. Thus, there are many buildings and collections of commonplace
buildings constructed with modest means and with the intention, deliberate or not, to last as
long as their makers and their direct followers use them. If they lasted a few centuries or
even less, now we face the dilemma of prolonging their life unlimitedly, for as long as it is
possible. If not for eternity, may it be at least for the future generation, which in its turn will
pass them on.
This problem has different approaches for the various components of a building,
because not always a building is destined, in the logics of its construction, to undergo its
reasonable lifespan with all of its original components intact.
In the structure of a building there may be perennial components, which are
destined to last, in principle, all along its lifespan. But in most cases there are temporary
components, which are replaced logically several times, and sacrificial components
(spare parts).

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 In this framework, I put forward the example of the rupestral archaeological
assembly from Basarabi (Murfatlar), county of Constanta (image 1, d). Compared to the
previous two situations, it is an example of professional restoration, essentially and urgently
necessary in order to maintain the integrity of the object. It is at the same time a difficult
example, because, on one hand, the Christians who built it a millennium ago had no clear
intention of destining it to a long existence. The rock in which the elements of the assembly
are carved is a very soft chalk, and the site existed and functioned under the clear sky for
about two centuries; after it was abandoned, it was buried under accumulations of rock and
vegetal soil. After this initial depiction, I will concentrate on the discussion about Basarabi.

PERENNIAL AND TEMPORARY (SACRIFICIAL) COMPONENTS

This classification is rather obvious, it is not a novelty. I brought it into discussion

here in order to define some criteria of attitude and some pragmatic criteria which must be
taken into account when we are in the situation of preserving and restoring the original
substance (historic, that is) of a construction which, in the course of its existence, gained
for us the significance of a cultural patrimony object.
Therefore, what do we preserve?
On one hand, obviously, the infrastructures, the built masses, and what else? of
the perennial components. Each case must be judged distinctively.
On the other hand, we fatally replace the covers, which are anyway “spare parts”,
with some exceptions: the legendary golden-bronze roof of Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem,
and not many others…
The problem becomes difficult when we deal with elements less resistant by their
nature, but which gained cultural value that should be maintained: for example decorated or
painted plasters, support materials in general and even materials which concretely make up
the architectural epidermis, other than the apparent image of the construction material.
In many situations, such components were destined:
- on one hand, to protect the inner elements, assuming a role of sacrifice as well
- on the other hand, to materialize an image, usually another than (with some
exceptions) the constructive system underneath. The image itself was destined, in the initial
logics, to be renewed periodically, even altered, as it did happen in so many cases.

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 The measure in which we can preserve the integrity of the substance in such cases
will be discussed in what follows.

“It is obvious that such precious testimonies […} are really the product of a
continuous and collective effort (…), the genius of which is transmitted from one generation
to another. Following the model of a living organism which renews its cells, the monuments
are, today like yesterday, profoundly engaged in the contemporary history, whose evolution
they reflect.”
“[…] what counts is the spirit which must enliven us in approaching this art and
history heritage […]”
“You are aware that the variety of monuments and their character is of such nature
that each of them will compel to a different solution. In each case there will be no
prescriptions to apply, but a treatment which results from a sensitivity and an intuition
5
served by knowledge, method (“savoir-faire”) and culture”.

1.4. CONSERVATION – RESTORATION – VALORISATION – FUNCTIONALIZING –

REHABILITATION

I would like to focus on the importance of elements and criteria of the procedure
itself regarding conservation, restoration and rehabilitation. I will not insist upon theoretical,
historical and aesthetical issues, but on their fundamental importance regarding the
concept and planning in the restoration process. Otherwise, if only technical and practical
criteria prevail, mistakes can be made, even without being aware of them.
The intervention takes place only when necessary in order to conserve the integrity
of a building and its capacity to survive. It is considered that any action is at the same time
a trauma and a loss of information; therefore, actions are demanded only when the losses
are minimal and gains are essential.

5
FROIDEVAUX, Yves-Marie, Techniques de l’arhitecture ancienne. Sprimont (Belgium): Mardaga, 1986,
page 185.

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 The intervention must be reasonable minimal. It’s the result of building need for
stability in time and space. It’s is not the result of any other reason like “to make it beautiful”
or “clean”. Cosmetic is not conservation.
Discreet, on one hand, but also explicit and honest, on the other hand, the result
of the intervention must not be confounded by the original.
Compatibility is a fact that, when it was neglected, serious secondary effects take
place. A well-known example is the one of the XIX-th century interventions, when it was
used concrete (cement and steel).
Types of interventions:
 Conservation;
 Restoration;
 Valorisation
 Functionalizing
 Rehabilitation
 Functional conversion

The above stated in this chapter are just a short synthesis of theoretical and
professional criteria (much more complex, otherwise) for a better understanding of the
following discussions.

The following chapter will present precise criteria only for conservation and
restoration, regarding especially the cultural heritage quality of the building. Criteria must
be judged in its own context.
The maintenance of the building is considered a non-intervention and represents an
essential condition for a building to stand in time. Often, the lack of maintenance cause
much worse that time and weather. The maintenance of a historical building is a
professional intercession, with a particular concept, programme and assistance.

1.5. ISSUE AND APPROACH

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 In this chapter I will try to make a comparison to the medical approach. Few
decades ago, the attitude regarding restoration of a monument was clear about restoring it
once and for all, respecting formulas and rules.
But the approaches I’m referring sees building as a unique organism, with its own
particularities, which must be known and treated as an individual case (there are no illness,
but only patients – medics use to say).

“I suggested that there are parallels between the architect profession and the
medical one. A doctor must be very careful and wise, act carefully with his patients. My
doctor, for example, must not forget the effects of an operation I have suffered thirty years
ago. […] A doctor must know when a specialist is needed. And the same thing is available
for an architect to whom historical buildings are his patients.” [Donald W. INSALL, CBE,
Preparatory Architectural Investigation, an Illustrated Address to the Conference, in de
JONGE, Krista and Koen Van Balen (edited by): Preparatory Investigation in the
Restoration of Historical Buildings, Leuven University Press, 2002, page 127]

It was noticed that restoration seems more like veterinary medicine rather than
general (human) medicine, as a building can’t say what hurts it; the doctor must recognize
the symptoms. The observation is not just a humoristic one.
Therefore, the patient must be known as much as possible, and architectural
research becomes more and more a field which cannot be avoided (as in the German term
“Bauforschung” – (op.cit., p. 5)).
The steps which must be followed are:
 Anamnesis: as complete as possible; this may involve carefully and complete
investigations, using advanced methods if necessary, but it request always an accurate
interpretation of the results of investigations.
 Diagnosis: precise and thoroughly checked; the correct diagnosis is extreme
complex involving knowledge, experience and intuition. For identifying an illness, using
precise techniques and advanced investigations, you must know not only the symptoms,
but also causes of its state; otherwise, a diagnosis can’t be given.
 Treatment: is the purpose of previous stages. We will discuss about treatments in
the following pages.

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 The sequences anamnesis – diagnosis – treatments are operational facts. In the
following chapter we will review the “treatment” sequence from a different perspective.

1.6. ANATOMY, PATHOLOGY AND TREATMENT (THERAPY)

We will try to understand - as all doctors do – the anatomy of our patient. I will
discuss the anatomy of a building referring to practical elements starting from geometrical
and constructive configuration until details, profound and visible ones.
Part of this research is represented by anatomic analysis of buildings constructive
elements, starting from the analysis of architectural space and volume and insisting on the
surface elements (from practical reason).
Chapter 2 about anatomy (configurations) may resemble – as my intention was –
to an anatomy dissertation, in which chapters about bone system and muscular system are
briefly reviewed and the chapter about skin is thoroughly debated.
The architect – and the constructor as well, must see through the skin right through
the body of his patient, just like an X-ray, and must understand what he sees in order to
explain.
The real experience of construction sites makes the architect see and understand
the existing problems. This research intends only to help specialists in their process of
seeing /understanding problems.
Obviously, studying carefully ruins, may be helpful, because ruins are (unfortunately,
actually) anatomic parts and reveals living sections, ready-made, usually through the most
sensitive parts. Let’s think of students in medical school who study anatomy in their first
year; for them, the contact with the “subject” in discussion is difficult, from obvious reasons,
but for us, the subject is beautiful, even poetical.
About pathology, we’ll discuss in chapter 3 and also in chapter 4. Chapter 3 will
present causes of pathology phenomena and chapter 4 will present symptoms of pathology
related to specific treatment. I considered this structure to be more comprehensive that
separate sequences about pathology and treatment.
Therefore, I will not be very strict in presenting different sequences of subject. There
will be comebacks and references to different sections of this work; I did so in order not to
have it too much simplified, but to stay as close as possible to reality as I know and

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understand it. Reality is much more complex and diffuse than a syllogism of geometry, for
example. On the other hand, I do not claim having a perfect structured work of this subject,
rather than an approach that helps understanding in further developments.
The case studies, presented in chapter 5, will help clarifying real elements of anatomy,
pathology and treatments.

1.7. THE STATE OF THE RESEARCH AND THE PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE
FIELD. THE SUITABILITY AND AIM OF THIS STUDY

The quantity of information published in the field of research and practice is colossal
in the more advanced countries. However, it is my belief that there is one problem. Whilst in
practice, in these countries, there is a certain coordination and collaboration on a vast scale
between research, experiment and the current, actual intervention, on a design publications
level there is, in my opinion, a difference.
There are relatively few books on actual restoration works, written by active
professionals, compared to the great number of books belonging to researchers, scientists
and investigators. Throughout the scientific communication type of publications there is a
tendency towards a certain balance, however practitioners still write less then researchers.
The important thing is that they communicate in regards to concrete, on site developments
and concrete professional undertakings, as well as in the scientific setting of symposiums
and advanced learning.
This kind of communication and particularly the coordination will find a much needed
development space in our country, in the near future. There are high level specialists in the
fields of science and investigation, and also architects and engineers of the same level. All
that is missing is a better structured space for communication and coordination, and here is
where the decision factors must come into play. But this is an entirely different debate.
Falling back on the matter of existing books, those of Yves-Marie Froidevaux and
Georges Duval, specified in the bibliography and quoted herein, are both exemplary and
somewhat unique. These are works of practitioner restoration architects, and, at the same
time, of teachers at the Chaillot School in Paris (CESHCMA). The book of Yves-Marie
Froidevaux was in fact put together by his former students, after his death. He worked and
taught until the end of his life.

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 „...Yves-Marie Froidevaux had the passion to transmit the experience and
knowledge that he had acquired: if conserving all architectural values was one of his
fundamental principles, even more important for him was to be able to convey the inmost
thrill of the stone, and to learn how to bring forth from within the soul and creative force of
people of all ages””6

During the years I spent studying at the School of Chaillot (1991-93) I did not have
the opportunity of meeting Yves-Marie Froidevaux and Georges Duval, which had already
at the time created their own legend. I followed the classes of great personalities, such as
Benjamin Mouton, practitioner architect of the highest level, and Jean-Pierre Adam,
research architect and author of important books.
I do not claim to have had completely read the huge amount of information
contained in the strictly technical publications specified in the bibliography. It is my opinion
that, for the practitioner architects and engineers, these are mostly reference information
and a possible basis for dialog, rather than works that should be thoroughly read.
Moreover, I will mention for this field mainly the works of authors with whom I had the
opportunity to talk personally, such as Rolf Snethlage, Ippolito Massari, Krista De Jonghe,
Ingval Maxwell.
Also, it should be mentioned that, in the countries I visited personally, France,
Austria, Germany, The Czech Republic, and even Macedonia and Bulgaria, the historical
architecture patrimony enjoys a real prestige within the society, and a maintenance and
capitalization effort that we should strive to achieve. It is the show-window of a country, the
concrete affirmation of a cultural identity. And the public or independent organizations
responsible and/or involved in conserving the patrimony should be a real model for
earnestness, high scientific and professional level and fairness.

1.8. THE SUITABILITY AND AIM OF THIS STUDY

6
B. Voinchet, ACMH, Preface, in FROIDEVAUX, Yves-Marie, Techniques de l’architecture ancienne. Sprimont
(Belgium): Mardaga, 1986, pag. 7

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 The present study is, as far as my intentions go, a draft for a professional approach
of the architect, restorer, but also creator of „new houses”, and for a dialog with the partners
in the multidisciplinary team that should exist in this ample and dynamic field.
It is also an attempt to gather and present concrete data, up to a detailed level,
about an architectural patrimony still mostly unknown with the exception of a few
specialists.
Architecture is an art, and also a technique, and also a science? Too ambitious? Not
in my intent. I am making an attempt to contribute to the knowledge in this field so rich in
tangible beauty. I did not want to create an arid paper, such as is sometime the case with
the medical ones, as far as I can tell. The subject of historical architecture, of valuable
architecture, is so broad, that I hope some of its values will indirectly reflect on this paper.
Indeed, even if the subject of this study is mainly focused on medicine for buildings,
it is far easier for a book on this topic to be more "beautiful", than a book on human
medicine, and this is not the worth of the author, but that of the subject.

2. THE ELEMENT OF FORM: HISTORICAL ARCHITECTURAL CONFIGURATION

(ELEMENTS OF ARCHITECTURAL ANATOMY)

As the goal I have proposed is not a complete treatise of architectural anatomy,

with some elements and criterion for the study of this field, I propose an example of a
family of historical constructions, namely the churches of Byzantine tradition in Romania.
I have had the chance to participate as an “apprentice”, even when I was a student,
to an analysis approach, which I am going to use as a departing point, namely the paper
“The typology of the religious monuments in Walachia and strategies of restoration”,
authors; prof. engineer Alexandru Cismigiu, prof. architect Sandu Miclescu, collaborators

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architect Mihai Opreanu, engineer Mircea Crisan, study presented at several scientific
sessions, in Bucharest, Skopje, Tokyo etc. From this paper I would like to present the
images from image 2, which I designed three decades ago.

2.1. VOLUMES . THE ANALYSIS SCHEME OF THE CONFIGURATION AND

CONSTRUCTION COMPONENTS

(IMAGE 3)

At this level we are dealing with an analysis of a spatial, geometrical and

constructive organization at the same time, structured on layers of complexity. It is both an
instrument for analysis and representation, intentionally on a professional and didactic
purpose at the same time, according to the study level.
I won’t insist here upon the volume configurations; at this level, the study is only
schematic. Even if we deal only with surfaces, in this paper, on the whole, in reality we
must be aware of what is lying beneath, both in the geometrical structures and in the
constructional ones.
The image number 3 presents images of virtual moulding in three dimensions,
following the same pattern, of the most faithful and completes representation of some
complex, constructive and spatial relations. These virtual moulding exercises have helped
us a lot in the concrete spatial moulding of some architectural elements which we
completed or restored in our restoration works: roofs as the spire tower of Berislavesti
Monastery in Valcea county (image 49 a), or steeples, which I will take into discussion
largely in chapter 5.1.

2.2. STRUCTURE IN SECTION

(IMAGE 4)

The image represents designs from the study cited above: there are presented some
characteristic types of structural walls specific to historical constructions from the
architectural family which makes the subject of this paper.

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 The first category presented (image 4) is that of the walls of equal brickwork made
of natural stone, in diverse forms and levels of processing, from body stone to stone blocks
used as such.
The second category (image 4 b) represents schematically a very vast category of
structural walls with built faces and emplecton; the faces can be body stone or stone in
different types of processing. Many times, the faces of the emplecton walls were in raw
stone and brick, in alternating strata; the bricks, having regular forms, assured the
connection of the brickwork through systematically weaving and the raw stone would go up
strong, with equal balance between effort and result. The more important constructions
would have faces of processed stone, shaped and sculpted, with images which regularly
reproduced the elements of the trilitic structures from the classic Greek ancient times (the
orders), but without any structural function. This is how it has been constructed all over the
world where the ancient Greek civilization spread, until the 19 th century and even later on.
We’ll discuss about brick farther on.
The core of these walls, the emplecton or the blocking, is, actually, the so called
Roman concrete. This is a mixture of water cement with aggregates like sand, gravel,
broken stones etc. In order for the lime to become water cement, it is mixed with
“puzzolana”, a volcanic stone from Puzzuoli, not far from the Vesuvius. This was little
accessible and quite expensive at long distances from the source, but there were other
procedures, too.
Thus, the lime which contains a certain quantity of clay becomes also water cement.
Raw clay has been used in such mortars, in less demanding constructions, but generally
there have been used dust and grains of brick. A lot of pounded ceramics had been used
in all the areas where the Romans built, then the Byzantines and then the most mortar
constructions of all times before the industrial period, when the concrete of Portland
appeared and the reinforced concrete as we know them today.
The Ancient Rome may have not invented the “Roman concrete”; though it is
certain that they improved it and used it at a bigger scale according to the grandeur of the
Empire. At the important constructions, the faces of the walls were usually made of body
stone.
The structure walls were generally made of brickwork faces and emplecton; the
brickworks were most times of raw stone and brick, in alternating strata; the bricks, having

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a regular shape, insured the connection of the constructed mass through systematic
setting, and the raw stone increased the resistance and the constructed mass, with a
balance between the effort and the final result. The more important constructions would
have faces of processed stone, shaped and sculpted, with images which regularly
reproduced the elements of the trilitic structures from the classic Greek ancient times (the
orders), but without any structural function. This is how it has been constructed all over the
world where the ancient Greek civilization spread, until the 19 th century and even later on.
Coming back, in a chronological order, after the Ancient Rome, the Byzantium took and
processed the Ancient Rome’s construction systems, but it changed the language of forms,
giving up the classical décor. Thus, the brickworks of alternating raw stone with brick
foundations remained apparent; this image became through custom a representative image
for the religious buildings. I shall develop this topic later on, during the discussion about the
faces of the walls.
Image 4 c shows homogenous brickworks in section, without emplecton, but with
alternating foundations of raw stone and brick.
Imagees 4d and e represent brickworks made of brick, homogenous, with apparent
faces (d) and respectively with faces made of mortar with several surface treatments.
Image 5 represents the system of wooden belts within the brickworks, in a spatial
representation of virtual synthesis. (The wooden elements can be seen in section in all the
schemes in image 4).
These belts were necessary to ensure the resistance of the aggregate, especially
towards the pulling, bending, torsion and dynamic charges. They are horizontally disposed
at the most critic levels, for example at the level of making the vault or the spire of the
church. It may be supposed that they were necessary especially in the first months or years
of life of the construction, as the lime mortars used in masonry had first of all an important
volume, practically equal to that of bricks. Secondly they were mortars with slow
maturation, meaning that they had a long time for becoming hard.
In most of the cases, these wooden pieces (oak) have rotted partially or totally, and
they can no longer fulfil their role so important in the structural stability of these
constructions. In the case of the structural consolidation interference, this problem must be
analyzed and solved, as long as it exists.

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 The structural consolidation as a sole domain is not the topic of this paper, but
knowing the construction in deep, as well as the solving formula for the structural problems,
are obviously part of the logic of multi subject process.
Before going to the discussion about face walls, let us give a few more explanations
about materials.
When we presented the emplecton walls, we gave information about the mortar
from the composition of the emplecton. The same data is available for masonry mortars.
The stone and the brick are left to be discussed.
I won’t insist upon the stone, as there is a lot of information on this kind of material,
studied under all aspects. I shall give only a few specific examples in chapter 2.3.1.
I now find it useful to give some more information upon brick.

“Not without reason has Genesis made clay the substance which generated man,
image reiterated by many mythologies; reputation justified by the amazing mechanical
qualities of this matter, plastic and malleable, when it is soaked, maintaining the shape the
hand has given it and becoming a solid body when it is dry.” 7

This wide spread substance with exquisite properties has become important for man
early in his evolution.
Because of its great affinity towards water, malleable in mixture with it and rigid
when it is dry, it can pass through one of these states as many times as possible, at
temperatures of less than 450 degrees. It is permeable at vapours and with good thermal
qualities (protection, accumulation) in dry state, and waterproof when it is soaked ( this is
why there are ground water layers). Hardly in the last decades had the people produced
synthesis materials with characteristics similar to water ( for example the “Gore-Tex” sheets
and generally the hydro isolation permeable to vapours – which “breathe”).
At over 450 degrees, clay suffers an irreversible transformation, becoming
ceramics.
It is believed that people have discovered this phenomenon by chance, and they
started to use it immediately. The potters were the ones who did this the first; after several

7
Jean Pierre Adam, La construction romaine, Picard, Paris, 3rd edition, 1995, p.61

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centuries, the constructors used burned clay too (J.P. Adam, op. cit.), after having built with
raw clay for a long time.
Broadly speaking, there three types of constructive systems with raw clay: the rough
cast on wooden structure (fr. “torchis”), the walls from dense clay put in shuttering (fr.
“pise”), and raw bricks or wattle (“adobe”). We stop here with the discussion about raw clay,
as the topic we have proposed is burnt brick.
The brick construction has developed in times and places where people wanted and
could accomplish perennial, there where the stone was more difficult to be found, and
where there was the necessary combustible to burn the brick.
After ancient Mesopotamia and other ancient civilizations, ancient Rome was the
one to develop these techniques to an unprecedented level, both regarding to the
dimensions, number and diversity of the constructions, and also the geographical
spreading.

“The most outstanding visual memory of a visitor of Rome and its suburbs, is that of
a monumental universe of bricks, from where rise, here and there, pieces of travertine or
marble. It is indeed remarkable to notice how the most wonderful accomplishments of the
imperial architecture in Rome owe, at least beginning with Nero, the essential of their
architecture, the brick. (J.P. Adam, op. cit, chapter 7, La brique, l’opus testaceum, p. 157)

That, as many stone walls have disappeared, and there remained only the built
masses, made of brick, stone slightly processed and emplecton, the so-called Roman
concrete which we have already brought into discussion.
Brick is in several aspects similar to stone, at least to a great variety of stone, as
the majority of limestone, grit stone, some tuffs etc, the mechanic resistance, the density,
the porosity, the sensibility, respectively their stability towards environmental factors, are
similar characteristics. Obviously, there are several types of stone very different from the
brick, as one from another.
I think that what makes stone different from brick in its use and appreciation is the
different nature of the processing: brick is moulded before using it; it is maybe the first
prefabricated the first product in series made by man, millenniums before the industrial
era and before the “invention” of series production.

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 The stone, on the other hand, is a material which bears on every part, on every
surface, the trace of the direct and unique interference of man.
In the common approach, stone is a “noble” material, precious, and brick is a
common material.
It is an approach which may suppose a snobbish component. 8
I think that the direct processing itself, the quality (rather than the quantity) of the
human work included in the stone of these buildings is, most objectively, a valuable
reference point, rather than the price itself of the material.

2.3. CLADDINGS / FACE WALLS

2.3.1 APPARENT STONE
(IMAGEES 4a, and from 5 to 12)

I shall give here only a few examples of architectural components from apparent
stone. This topic has been well –documented in books and other forms of publication and
documents from different eras, so I haven’t proposed to discuss it entirely in this chapter,
but to present some particular examples.
In image 6a and b we can see a wall of defence of a medieval construction made of
stone and emplecton, in ruin ( strengthened); we can see the structure in section and the
wall with a very vigorous processing, which by the nature of its surface has survived during
time, without losing its expression, on the contrary.
In images 6c and d we can see the surfaces processed roughly and vigorously, with
a texture and a way of catching the light very characteristic and determined. The one from
the Old Post Office in Bucharest (6c) is relatively young, and the one in Vicenza, (6d), at
half time from the first example. These different surfaces have passed well through time,
although they had substance losses, proportional to their age. But their ample texture
makes that these losses do not affect either the integrity or the quality of the image.
The western façade of the fortified church of Harman, Brasov county, (pl 6 e, 13 th
century), is made of local volcanic stone. Probably it was painted at its origin, as it can be
seen at Cisnadioara and in many other places (pl 46) and there can be seen the holes like
8
G. M. Cantacuziono, in The architecture and the scenery, Simetry, Notebooks of art and criticism, I,
Bucharest, summer, MCMXXXIX, p. 30

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the tips of the lifting tool (safety tongs), traces which, in the intention of those who had built
it, weren’t supposed to be seen, if there had been a polychromatic decoration. Now, this
image of scratched surface (“ecorseu”) doesn’t upset the eye, on the contrary, it represents
an element of authenticity but it is nevertheless distinct from the initial image. In this state of
the surface, the construction still endures the granular degradation quite ample, due to
the capillary ascension water. But this surface which expresses with dignity some kind of
suffering must draw a signal, because suffering can more serious deep down.
In image 6c we can see o surface made of apparent stone, perfectly processed, but
with some horizontal grooves pretty extensive, which suggest some foundations but which
do not coincide with the original foundations of the structure of the masonry (a “curiosity”).
An important element in stone construction, then when the stone is a sedimentary
rock , is the placement of the pieces on the “bed”, namely on the plan of the sedimentation
layer (which is also that of the “quarry bed” ) on the horizontal if it can bear a gravitational
load. If the pieces are breeze blocks in an arch or vault, then they are put with the bed in
the radial plan of the arch and vault. In the image from image 7a, on the façade of the
Roman arenas in Arles, France, we can see both situations, the progressive alveolar
degrading has clearly shown the sedimentary structure of the rock, as the strata have had
slightly different densities and porosities and they have degraded differently.
[We can see, at a more attentive look, some new pieces of stone, from a recent
intervention, which were surely put in the place of some lost pieces or too degraded, these
new pieces have the original profile reconstituted.
Thus, an attentive viewer would identify the intervention and he can, at the same
time, rebuild in his mind (understand) the complete image.]
Returning to the placing of the stone in the “bed”, a different placement is called in
professional language, “in delict” (lictus means bed in Latin and lit means bed in French).
At the stone house belonging to Udriste Nasturel from Hieresti, on the original surfaces we
can see clearly the quarry bed on each stone, still because of the weathering, as well as at
Arles, but the stones are placed at random, each of them in a different place. Of course, the
people who had made this construction had no idea of this rule of stone work, and they
haven’t marked on stones their quarry bed, which may not be obvious on new surfaces.

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The construction is very robust, with walls with emplecton 9, and this disposition of the stone
does not affect in fact the qualities of building, and it is an atypical particularity, but not
unique, because there are still other cases like this.
Another special example is the lintel from the portal of Saint Michael Cathedral in
Alba Iulia (pl 8). It is a demonstration of virtuosity in the conception an making of stone, in
order to make it work at compression on every piece, even if the aggregate works at
bending. At the same time, it is a challenge for the careful observer, an interesting secret, of
which the solution is an extra satisfaction.
Still an exercise and at the same time a demonstration of virtuosity is the lintel in
“straight cap piece with double false cut” 10, as it is that of palace Rohan from Strasbourg
(image 9). I have first seen it in 1992, when I didn’t know the “secret” yet and I solved it,
which was indeed a satisfaction. It is true that I had seen and had already found out the
principle of “even vaults”(ibidem) , as we can see in image 10.
A few references to stereotomy are given in the appendix 3.
A big stone face wall on a wall of brick masonry represents a quite usual formula and
it can be made all at once, as the masonry is built as a whole, as well as it has been made
at the Palace of the Superior School of Architecture (image 11b, c, d), or, the veneering can
be made later on, as it was the intention of the constructors of San Lorenzo church in
Florence (image 11a). But here, as in many other cases, the face wall hadn’t been after all
and it can be seen that the brick masonry with progressive foundations (“strepi” in the slang
of the constructors) in order that the veneering should be “woven” with the masonry. At
architecture, when I used to make the project for the restoration of the façades, I had
noticed that the pieces of stone which were cut had different width deep within, and this is
how I understood that the system was the same.
But there I noticed another detail, namely that at the interior façade the operations of
joining together and the provisional wooden wedges used to wedge the pieces have
remained there in the work, and the holes remained opened, which puts the masonry into
danger through time.

9
After Vasile Dragut, Encyclopaedic dictionary of Romania medieval art, Editura Stiintifica si
Enciclopedica, Bucharest, 1976, p 59
10
MOUTON, Benjamin. Stereotomie, Cours de Chaillot, CESHCMA, Paris, 1998

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 In image 12 we can see an example of degrading characteristic to certain limestone
which keeps in its structure the traces of some marine worms which have existed at the
time when the rock formed, as much limestone has shells. The trace of these beings has
appeared in time after the alveolar degrading, on the initial surface newly processed, the
forms didn’t exist.
This image of the vermicular alveolar degrading has a certain character and it has
been imitated in many places. There are examples of face walls made of carved stone,
where this “model” has been carefully carved by human hands, piece by piece, for
thousands of elements. This is how the inferior face wall of The Big Louver is, for example.
The most surprising such example I know is the palace of the Ministry of Agriculture
in Bucharest, building from the end of the 19 th century, made by Louis Blanc. The face wall
of the inferior level, made of artificial stone has a decoration printed in the wet mortar,
which reproduces the characteristic image of alveolar degrading of the natural stone.

2.3.2 APPARENT STONE AND BRICK CLADDING

(IMAGEES 4B, C, D AND FROM 13 TO 19)

Several times, the Byzantine churches weren’t decorated on the outside surface.
The seen image was that of an apparent brickwork which was frequently made of brick
mixed with stone. The scenery hasn’t disappeared, but it has been changed. They have
been developed nature like elements made by different disposing of the bricks. The
language became abstract, without figurative, vegetable or other types of suggestions.
Typically are the brick cornices arranged at 45 degrees against the plan of the wall’s
surface, with angles in the console in successive foundations. Then, the horizontal profiles,
the elements of placing on horizontal and so on. There have appeared bricks with special
shapes with which there have been made various profiles and other architectural forms.
I’ll further discuss about some evolutionary elements of the religious architecture
from Walachia, and to set a limit in a way to this material, but also because in here the
architecture of Byzantine influence has been developed in a particular way.
In some geographical near regions, in Balkan countries and in Greece, the evolution
of Christian churches architecture has been interrupted almost completely in the same time
with the Ottoman conquest, in the 15th century. In our country, it has still continued almost

Page 32 of 107
half a millennium, until the modern age. In Moldavia and Transylvania it has taken more
particular directions. It was the same in Russia at another level of development and feature.
In Walachia it has remained the closest to Byzantine tradition, without decreasing the
originality, the diversity and the interest.
In the 14th century and in the 15th century, we can find churches with walls in
foundations mixed with brick and raw stone (or slightly broken) apparent, which keep
the structural and constructive logic, as well as the typically image from Byzantine
environment. In image 13 there can be seen characteristic examples, both the Domneasca
church from Curtea de Arges as well as the church from Brădetu.
If we look behind, to the structure in its profoundness, generally, it is hard to
establish if the walls are with emplecton or they are homogeneous in section, without
having boreholes or “anatomical” opened sections. The most examples I know, medium-
size structures, are with homogeneous walls. Logically, the big ones can be with emplecton
(as Saint Nicholas Domnesc from Curtea de Arges and as many others from Moldavia.
These statements can be told taken as true after the surveys made for works of structural
consolidation, or even after the drillings for consolidation). Of course, there are a lot of
buildings with walls with emplecton in Transylvania.
Another category of examples “a contrario” is that of the churches from Medieval
Athens, small-size churches, and where the pieces of stone are remade rectangular, so
the logic of the structure isn’t the same any more. The bricks aren’t any more the only
pieces with rectangular shapes from the brickwork’s structure. The image seems to be what
counted first – it should be stone and brick mixed in certain schemes, required by the
tradition of the image sooner than the construction rules. (The Saints Apostles, at the
bottom of the Acropolis, image 14 c).
Another example in which the image seems to have been more important than the
structural logic is that of the churches from Meteora (image 14a, b). Climbed on high and
steep mountains and of stone, they could be totally made of rock, as the inside walls and
the annex buildings are generally made. But the churches here are also made of alternating
foundations, even though the bricks had to be brought and lifted with ropes and pulleys,
with substantial efforts. The typically image of permanently alternating and in the “cachet” it
got an impressive prestige. Probably for those people this was the way a church should
look like, and not in another way.

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 The same phenomenon can be observed at many churches, generally small-size
churches, from the Byzantine Balkan environment, for example in Macedonia (image 14d,
e, f and 17a, b, 19) and in Bulgaria (image 17c, d, 18).
The Precista Church from Galati is an example from a different field, but very close
as a structural formula and as an expression.
What is interesting is that the use of the stone in the constructions of the churches
in Walachia, in this constructive logic, had practically disappeared in the 17th century, as
we’ll see in the next pages. However, it has remained till late, in the 17 th century. It is
generally used to inside walls and auxiliary buildings, where the surfaces were initially
covered with mortar.
Precisely in these cases it is structurally justified the arrangement of the bricks “standing”
between the horizontal foundations that is to say to enclose like in a cachet stones with
irregular shapes or even round, like the river boulders (rocks), rocks which otherwise could
destabilize the masonry (brickwork).
It is interesting this evolution from a constructive system, usually covered, to a
“sincere” image, which expresses this system, and back to a hidden structure. On the other
hand more interesting it will be to see this characteristic image, made from other materials,
“imitated”, like we will see below.

2.3.3. BRICK AND MORTAR CLADDING

(IMAGEES 4d and from 20 to 26)

Referring to Walachia again, we note an even more special phenomenon (though

not unique). Soon the stone is not used for church building any longer (16 th century), but
the image stays the same. The brick layers and the bricks placed “standing” which mark the
cachets are as before. The stone pieces are imitated by rectangular mortar panels applied
on surfaces where the bricks had been placed in isolation towards the general plan of the
façade, 2-3 cm, meaning the exact mortar layer thickness which imitates the stone surface.
The outline of the mortar rectangle is polished with fluid lime as well as the rostrum
between the bricks; the inner space defined by raw incised mortar is cleaned in order to
reproduce the texture of the stone. (Mărcuţa, image 21, Mihai Vodă, image 23;
Polovraci, image. 25, the last one having the mortar face wall rebuilt).

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 Why have the builders in our country given up stone?( except for borders, columns,
steps and floors).
This question has already been asked before. What I am going to state forward is
not completely new.
Certainly in some places the stone could hardly be found.
Later on, then, there were vast forests that had to be cut down in order to leave
room for agriculture because of the population growth. So, the fuel was ready. The clay was
also at hand.
There is also the fact that the water has generally a hygrothermal behaviour less
favourable than the brick: it is thicker, less permeable to vapour sand with a thicker thermal
transmission. The thermal resistance discontinuities in brick laying represent ample thermal
bridges which could lead to degradations of the inside fresco paintings (observation made
by arch. Sandu Miclescu).11
Probably this is the reason why the stone disappeared entirely from the walls of the
churches and other types of buildings, but it stayed inside the walls of the halls and
utilitarian buildings where the thermal regime was not important.
We can also presuppose that the people of the those times did not suffer from the
snobbery and the prejudices referring to the construction materials and they didn’t think that
an image materialised in brick would be inferior to one made of stone (about the ‘ snobbery
of materials’, wrote G. M. Cantacuzino)12

2.3.4. MORTAR CLADDING IMITATING BRICK AND STONE CLADDING

(IMAGEES 4e and from 27 to 33)

A next step is the one that manifests starting with the 17 th century; now the entire
surface of faces of the exterior walls is covered with mortar. There is a reproduction of the
old face on the mortar surface; the drawing is made in fine incision on the raw mortar and
11
CIŞMIGIU, Alexandru. Sandu MICLESCU, Mihai OPREANU, Mircea CRIŞAN. The typology of the
religious monuments in Wallachia and strategies of restoration Study
12
Architecture and scenery, în Simetria, Notbooks of art and criticism, I, Bucharest, summer MCMXXXIX, p.
30

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the red colour of the false bricks is done by the fresco technique. (Varbila, s. 27 and 28,
Golesti, s. 30 and 31, Dintr-un Lemn, s. 32 and 33, Plataresti, s. 77)
This formula is generalized during the period of Matei Basarab because of reasons,
mostly analysed by and discussed with a number of specialists.
The quantity of the constructions built during that time was very big, in a relatively
short time, and the quality of the brick and the work decreased comparing to the previous
eras. They probably also observed the degradations the face brick suffered because of the
climate in our country, a lot more rigorous than the Mediterranean one where those
architectural formulas developed. In these environmental conditions, the face “of
sacrifice” which is the one made of mortar, protects the mass of the wall and it can be
periodically replaced or renewed. In reality, in most cases, it was repainted (chromatically
renewed) a few times during the time, using the dry technique with colours in fluid lime,
tempera, in different compositions ( as we have noticed at Plataresti while boring the faces
of the walls and the restoration works of the surfaces of the remained faces- restoration
painter Viorel Grimalschi).
We can understand again that for the people of those times, this image of bricks and
stones interwoven stones were in fact the image of a church. Otherwise, why would anyone
think of painting bricks? They painted the image of the structure of an ideal church on a
church that was in fact built in reality.
In fact, the multiple examples if the imitations of faces of walls that can be found in
the history of the architecture of old times, in different periods and places probably had
similar reasons. The interesting fact is, that is most examples, “noble”, expensive materials
are imitated, such as coloured marble or at least faces of high stone. This family of faces of
walls reproduces an image in which not the preciousness| of the material counts, but a
certain sensitive quality of the expression originally materialised with severe means.
Starting with the 19th century, these polychrome images were simply covered with
mortar without decorations. People are no longer interested in the traditional image of the
churches. Many suffered changes, even mutilations ample enough and systematic.
The passing from the option for the face bricks to the mortar faces of walls was not
sudden. I have reasons to believe that the change happened, in other cases, in Plataresti,
where I have recently made the restoration and also at Apostolache-Prahova. Here, I have
found under the recent mortars, undecorated, remainders( ample enough at Plataresti) of

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original mortar with typical decorations, two-tone ( white-red), in imitations of “ cachets”
Under that, on the inferior register, the bricks are the ones appropriate for the face bricks of
the face walls and panels of plaster that imitate the stone. This face of wall was not realized
any longer, but it was entirely covered with mortar decorated in imitation, as we have
already mentioned before. Probably, after they had done the first register, they were not
satisfied with the quality and the brick laying and they decided to cover it all. At Plataresti, I
preserved and restored the remained portions of mortar and, as for the rest, I kept the face
brick (treated) and I did the mortar panels. I didn’t rebuild the parameter in imitation where
there wasn’t any, because of authenticity.
What is interesting is the fact that some of the churches which initially had
parameters with face bricks and mortar panels were then entirely covered with mortar on
which the image of the same type of face of wall was represented, but “ in imitation”. This
happened to Cornetu, where we can compare the image of the beginning of the 20 th
century with the recent one. The same, at Mihai Voda, images from image 23 a, b, c before
the restoration of the 1940s compared to the recent images. The intervention of restoration
removed the mortar that covered the surfaces and rebuilt the face of the wall of face brick
and mortar panels, as it was at the origins, but made of completely new materials.
We must also mention that other more restoration interventions of the 20 th century
left the faces of walls made of face bricks, even if at the origins they were almost certainly
plastered, but the original mortars did not last.

2.3.5. SPECIFIC DETAILS FOR BRICK CLADDINGS

(IMAGES 4 c, d and from 34 to 38)

To this religious edifice, the prominences of the facades are done with very severe
means, meaning the different dispositions of the regular bricks. Thus, elements of climate
protection and those of architectural and decoration order are realised. Many times, these
are the same architectural components that take over two or more roles in the constructive
building and the protection of the climate and expression.
The cornices are made of brick layers in successive brackets. Usually the bricks are
placed at 45 degrees, which gives the image of the cornice a characteristic vibration. It is a
different image from the classic profile, which is usually expressed in stone or mortar.

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 The bricks with special forms appeared in early times (in fact they existed in other
architectural channels from older times). Indeed, if the raw clay can be easily modelled,
what can be more natural than to model it in the forms you want it to have in that work. At
least as they are relatively simple forms, as easily to be realised as the parallelepiped
bricks.
The bricks with angle profile (“sharp”) probably appeared as a result of the intention
of making cornices in arches. The arches are always present in steeples and many of the
times, in the façade order. (ex. The church from Borlesti, image 29). In such situations
the rectangle bricks placed in angle would give an approximant enough image.
The sharp end of this bricks has a 60 degree angle; this way the vibration of the
resulted surfaces is more intense than the one resulted from the crossing of the straight
angles.
The ’sharp’ bricks got generalised to a large extent both for the horizontal cornices
and those for the arch. And the “tail” ones in the form of a trapeze were surely invented in
order to produce a more subtle image at the turn of the cornice at the corners of the
building (image 34 b, d, f; 37;).
This fan-like turn formula is very popular, but also the easiest, but also the one in a
straight angle remained.( for example the church of Corbii Mari, image. 35d, e).
Sometimes, the two formulas surprisingly meet on the same church, for example at Golesti(
image 31) or Sf Nicolae Dintr-o Zi church (image 34 e, f)
The “sharp” bricks and the ones with “tail” flared toward the exterior, are necessary
for the making of the arches in the shape of a truncated cone that I described at the chapter
about steeples (cap.5.1 and images 74-81, especially the images of image 76).
Other types of special forms are:
 The ones with semicircular convex profile used for semi cylindrical profiles panels
and arches ( as in image 36 a, d, e and other examples)
 The bricks with conrupestral quarter circle profile (as in s. 23 g, 36 d)

Other forms are rare, for example Precista from Galati which is still a more special
object of architecture which absorbed more complex influences (image 15 d). There are
more others, but they are rather exceptions.

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 The extremely different associations of these few formulas of order of regular
rectangular bricks and of those a few types of special bricks represent a remarkable
phenomenon of architecture and abstract art. Different unlimited compositions made of so
less elements represent an artistic performance of a much different category from those
that use the vocabulary of forms of classic architecture. In the latter, profiles and elements
that developed by elaboration of forms of constructive elements and practical details
(drains, gargoyles) are associated with figurative elements, vegetal, animal, human
presentations.
The face brick architecture is more austere, poorer at the first sight, but it developed
a more abstract quality, more “intellectual”, in any case more austere of the composition
and architectural expression. It is remarkable the fact that more churches of this type have
a very warm expression, not at all rigid or “stiff”, the means are austere, the results are
most of the times exuberant in a coherent way.
In image 38 a, one can see a detail of the façade of the big Romanic church Saint
Philibert from Tournus, France. I was there in 1992 and I was surprised of the similarities
between some details of mouldings with those of the Byzantine architecture and post-
Byzantine of brick. One can notice only two elements of direct comparison in images 38b
and c. Apparently, the workers who worked at Tournus were used to work with brick and
made a paradoxical thing, they cut the stone into dimensions specific for bricks in order to
use it as they knew how and obtain the architectural image they could realise.
This example is extraordinary enough, but not unique. I include it here and I also
mention the fact that this topic is still under research and documentation.

2.3.6. POLYCHROMATIC MORTAR CLADDING (IMAGES 39 – 47)

In the next time sequence, the mortar wall decoration has become more and more
complex, with geometric, vegetable and animal pattern, in red- white, then, towards 18th
century, has become polychromatic and figurative, as we can still see at the Biserica cu
Sibile on Calea Mosilor, Bucharest, at the main church of Cozia monastery (s. 45a), at
nursing home’s threshold from Bistrita monastery (s. 39 b, c), at many 18 –th century
churches, as the ones represented in image 40. Also from Cainenii Mici, Valcea district

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(image41), to Targu-Hurezi Church (image A4, c, d), to Berislavesti (so far only in probe)
and many others.
Image 42 shows a hypothetical reconstruction study of the polychromatic decoration
at Berislavesti monastery’s church. The study has been made during the French-
Romanian school- workshop (UAUIM- CESHCMA) from 1998-99. The images represents a
didactic exercise based on the result of partial sounding and many analogy studies, and not
an intention of concrete restoration.
The outside painting of Walachia churches is a lot less known than the one from
Moldavia; it is true that generally more recent, it has not the exceptional figurative
complexion of the other and unfortunately it has kept less.

I have analysed from point 2.3.2 till now the distinctive face walls for post-byzantine
churches in Walachia. This singularly analysis refers to firm vocabulary, but regarding the
materials, the concrete, the technical degree criteria are generally valid.
We go further to examples from Transylvania.
Very many historical edifices from central-European cultural area have had mortar face
walls with chromatic decoration, simpler (two-tone) or more complex, imitating face walls
more „precious” then their own constructive system, often with various images, inscriptions,
symbols, decorative or figurative elements.
In image 43 it can be observed, on fortification’s walls from Saschiz, a strange
representation, at first sight: under the console arches under the sentinel road, in retiring
zones and better sheltered from bad weather, and, harder to perceive, they’re zones which
preserves genuine surfaces. They are faked shooting hollows represented, to intimidate the
opponents. They’re the characteristic hollows in shape of „ turned-over key-hole”, drawn
with framing and shadows, that on certain distance, the illusion to be as total as it can. On
its surface it is represented a body stone face wall drawing, with framing, drawn and
coloured, at the windows. The church’s properly masonry is made of summary processed
stone, the mortar has lost from almost every surface, except this ones, in the shadow of the
arches. It is a typically case for many historical buildings from the hall region, formerly
daubed and decorated, that today look like bodies without skin, an image to which we are
used to a great extent.

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 Another typically case is that of faces with chromatic decoration , subsequently
covered with layers, even many of them, of paintings. In image 44 can be observed on a
house facade from Sighisoara, at a closer look as well, under exfoliate paintings, an almost
wiped off inscription, with gothic characters. This image calls the attention on the necessity
of careful stratigraphic investigations, before an eventual intervention on such historical
surfaces. There can be cases in which precious surfaces, covered, won’t be visible at all by
naked eye, and will get lost completely in an hasty, careless intervention. Unfortunately, this
probably happens more that we can know in the present state of things.
Image 45 shows pictures of Deer- House in Sighisoara, before restoration (45a),
and after (45b). The restoration has been coordinated by Dr. Christoph Machat. Here have
been made stratigraphic investigations and the chromatic surfaces found out under ulterior
multiple paintings have been restored (the areas surrounding the deer head, with
inscriptions and pictures). The stone framings that have been kept had red marks, colour
found on these ones as on the ones retraced instead of the lost ones (detail, image 45c).
Image 47 shows pictures of Fronius House on School Street in Sighisoara, before (47a)
and after the recent restoration, which has kept and reintegrate the ornament from under
ulterior paintings ( restoring painter Romeo Gheorghita).
In image 46 we can see the remains of chromatic ornaments from the portal’s
archways of Romanic church of Cisnadioara. These marks were left still in areas
protected by the retracted archways’ reliefs, and the edifice’s restoration has kept them
without completing. Professional researches should establish if these few conserved marks
are original, which to me seems likely, if I try to compare this with Romanic polychromatic
churches that I’ve seen in France and Germany. Nevertheless, these carry-overs are
extremely precious and must be protected and cherished.
At the fortified church from Hosman, (s. 46 c, d), the elements of sculptured stone from the
Romanic portal are painted; probably here the painting has been brushed up sometime
recently , maybe even several times.

2.3.7. RETRACED MORTAR CLADDINGS

(IMAGES 48 - 53)

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 The mortars, partly or totally degraded, or vanished can be replaced with materials
and techniques compatible with the historic ones. Images 48 and 49a, b show examples
of handcrafted mortars, with manual flattened surfaces, without lute. Such surfaces present
a characteristic image, of a special plasticity. It is important for the restoration to identify
dates about the technique and originally aspect and to realize something compatible. The
motivation for the surfaces’ reconstruction plan is slightly outside this presentation, because
it depends of historical, theoretical or other kind of criterion, which can be essentially
different from one case to another. An actual reason for retracing these mortars is assuring
the continuity of protection for profound elements. Certainly, this criterion should be
coordinated with others that can be important in a concrete case. The images I am
presenting show the plastic quality of surface and the way they „catch” the light. They are
daubs of limestone mortar, some of them painted with lime- water. The lime mortar has
interesting characteristics towards the incident light, it is rather translucent, almost like
porcelain, and the surfaces are bright. The lime painting is also bright, completely different
than synthetic paint; the acrylics, the acetates and even silicates, the last ones more
compatible than the first one, give opaque surfaces, „heavy in light”, even if they’re white on
colours blade. It is true that a „badijon” (wall painting) made of lime is harder to lay on than
a synthetic paint, it has less coverage power, it implies a more trained manpower.
In image 49 c, d are shown the restored face walls of Galati Cathedral. Due to
some consolidation works traumatic to facades, the current field daubs have been actually
completely recovered. It has been used a material compatible with the original one,
limestone mortar of very good quality, with marble powder instead of sand, in the skin-deep
layer. It is a surface different than the ones from previous examples as processing way and
expression; the mortar is rigorous flattened, with lute. But catches the light as nice as the
others. It was not painted, but it received a hydro repellent treatment with siloxanic polymer,
and after five years of smoke in Galati, it behaves very well. The treatment should be
normally refreshed after ten years.
We have realised face walls retraced of lime mortar also at the neo-Gothic church of
Floresti- Vaslui Monastery. In images 51-53 we can see the main stages of intervention.
Originally mortars were obliterated because of the bad condition and multiple structural
fractures that have been identified and consolidated. I have specially asked to utilize lime
mortar without cement, harder to use, because it has a longer plug time, and longer

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stabilization time, and is more sensitive to thermal extreme when it is raw. In image 51c can
be seen the south facade protected by sun during the plug, and the drying. The result is still
positive, after more than ten years, without painting and without treatment; it is an
impressive shining white. It’s significant that the edifice is in a relative unpopulated area.

2.3.8. VISIBLE BRICK SURFACES

(IMAGEES 54, 54’, 55)

Here are presented brick surfaces that were not apparent in the initial intention of the
builders.
Some oh them have remained without plaster because the edifices have never been
finished, as the impressive „interior” surfaces of great unfinished Slimnic basilica (image 54
c, d, e). Impressive elements of constructive anatomy are still visible, reminding of
Caracalla’s thermals ruins from antique Rome, specially the „strepi” from areas that should
have born arches.
Many historical wall surfaces have been daubed and many of them have had
chromatic ornaments. The surfaces and the mortars have been partially or fully degraded,
so we have in front of our eyes „living bodies without skin” ( as in image 54a, from Valea
Viilor fortified church, or 54b, the outside surface of Slimnic precincts, 54’a, d, south tower
of Mosna precincts ). On these surfaces sometimes can be read as on a palimpsest event
from edifice’s life, which normally would not have been visible. For example, at Mosna we
can see the wooden console imprints from initial sentinel road, that was a wooden arbour,
as the one from Viscri (54’c), Cincsor (54’c) and many others. Mosna’s Tower has been
overbuilt with a homogeny brick wall, different from the old part’s mixed masonry. The
sentinel road was made on masonry consoles, as the parapet. This certainly was a useful
« upgrade » in times where firearms just started to evolve and the wooden arbour was
initially too low and too frail to assure a useful protection.
An historical construction reading can be often fascinating and evidently after a
restoration such information can be lost, at least at a straight perception level. In case of
intervention the protection criteria of the surfaces should be weighted, along with the
theoretical and historical ones.

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3. ELEMENTS OF ENVIRONMENT AND TIME; REASONS OF ALTERATIONS AND
DEGRADATIONS

3.1. ELEMENTS OF PHYSICAL AND CLIMATIC ENVIRONMENT (CONSTRUCTION

PHYSICS AND MONUMENTS RESTAURATION)
CONSTRUCTION PHYSICS EXPERTISE

Definition: construction physics expertise is the coherent expression of the

construction’s physical state, at a certain time, in a certain context, implying elements of
time and environment.
Purpose: establishing a complete and correct diagnosis, and the conservation/
restoration strategy.
The area is, especially, that of the non-structural pathology phenomena, but there
isn’t a clear separation between structural and un-structural; this wouldn’t be desired, as
the phenomena should be studied and understood as a whole.
Environment elements can be classified as mechanical and climatic; or physical,
chemical and biological.
Necessity of expertise
A very obvious, but important truth: a construction can’t speak, or say when it is ill.
THE SYMPTOMS
The symptoms are those who tell the state of a construction. Sometimes, its users
or the ones responsible for it, too, but still after (correct and careful) observations.
Structural expertise is now compulsory in Romania, but the construction physics
expertise - not yet. In Germany, for example, it is necessary to present all the data of the
expertise, even if it is not always compulsory, as a self-standing part of the documentation
(according to Dr. Cristoph Machat). In France, it is usually done at the request of the chief
architect (according to Stefan Manciulescu, ACMH).
There are other kinds of expertise that might be necessary: geological, geophysics,
hydrologic, petrographic, biological, or analysing its characteristic artistic components:
murals, integrated sculpture, stained-glass. The list could go on, and it shows, once again,
the multidisciplinary character of preservation of historical architecture.

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 The promoter can only ask for an expertise if he is/ is informed, or on the advice of a
trusty consultant, who should also be in charge of the project.
Otherwise, we risk coming across rather vague or exclusive intervention ideas, such as
'eliminating humidity’.
I shall begin analysing the content (of content, not necessary of image) of the
expertise with
THE ELEMENTS OF THE CLIMATE.
Do historic monuments escape the laws of physics?/ Les Monuments Historiques
échappent-ils aux lois de la physique?” – is the subtitle of the communicate Pierre Diaz
PEDREGAL has stated in September 2006, at Saint-Flour, in France. The title is revealing:
„Historic monuments: the problem of the climate / Monuments historiques: la
question du climat”13
On the other hand, the author quotes Richard Feynman, winner of the Nobel Prize
1965, Lumière et matière, Paris: InterEditions, 1987, p. 192: Nature always has the aspect
of an extremely complicated group of knots, but, with a little patience, we can distinguish
structures and create theories: a little clarity appears and things simplify.
A beforehand condition for an expertise is knowing the climate. According to
Pedregal (op. cit.) , these are:
- EXTERIOR CLIMATE, mentioning astronomical, weather, regional geographic
elements (p. 9); these come useful: wind map; sun exposure length; solar
energy global fluxes on differently oriented surfaces; rainfalls; temperature
values, meaning: absolute maximum, average maximums, tri hourly
averages, average minimum and absolute minimum, all of these on a
significant period of time; relative humidity values. Daily, seasonal , annual
variations are also important.
- INTERIOR CLIMATE: determined by the inter conditioning of the exterior
elements, the human interventions and the construction, and concretised in
temperature, relative humidity, air movement, and so on.
The outer skin of a building works like a filter between the outside and the inside
climate (op. cit., page 21).
13
Cf. bibliografie, poziţia 93.

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 Pedregal shows a few examples, such as the rupestral in Lascaux, the Church of
Saint- Danis, and others. I found it was necessary this brief presentation of the problem, by
a famous specialist, and, so, I end the references to the quoted work.
Obviously, we need the recordings and the processing of the weather reports: these
should be made available by the weather services from each country and region, as, in
what we call ‚normal’ countries, these organizations are considered public services. In our
case, these data is now becoming available; INMH (The National Institute for Meteorology
and Hydrology ), as public service ( nowadays, also very well endowed, from public and
external funds), should make available the data it has to the ones requiring it, for the public
interest ( we can say preserving cultural patrimony is, obviously, of public interest, no
matter the property regime of the architecture monument).
The inside and outside weather conditions, and the building’s characteristics, can be
studied through direct observation and specific investigations. It is assumed the
observations are direct, as complete as possible and done by specialists, in a well-
organized team. The documents showing the results of the investigations are part of the
expertise, but only as necessary appendage annexe, as just they are not enough. It is
compulsory that the results of the investigation should be justly interpreted, using all the
gathered data.
Investigations shall be discussed furthermore in chapter 4.1.
The expertise should be regarded only as an objective support for the diagnosis, so
its purpose is to underline THE CAUSE OF THE DISRUPTION AND DEGRADATION.
Sometimes, in the reference material, the weather elements are mentioned as the causes
of the degradation. This is certainly true, but it is more useful to our purpose to try and
understand these causes as an imbalance between the weather elements, the building
itself and the actions (or the lack of actions) of the people.
The environment elements, heat, light, air, water and others, can be harmful in
certain situations, but they keep us, and our homes, alive. We do not stand a chance
fighting these elements, but we can try to understand the causes of these imbalance that
cause the disease, and try to re-establish a balance. FIGHTING THE FORCES OF
NATURE would be like Jacob fighting the Angel; there is no chance of winning, the angel is
stronger anyway, and there is no point in fighting, as he does not seek to destroy us. If he

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would really want to, he could do it immediately. Let’s just believe he is putting us to a test,
and hope we shall overcome it, and the angel will be pleased.
I don’t feel we should consider water, for example, an enemy, a cause of degradation, but
rather we should understand the circumstances that can turn excess water (or in some
other unwanted situation) in a degradation mechanism; then we should try to take apart
this mechanism, rather than to eliminate ’the water out of the construction’, because this
would be even more that damaging than excess water.
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BUILDING represent, along with the
environment elements we’ve discussed so far, a type of elements to be analysed in the
construction physics expertise.
MATERIALS and CONFIGURATIONS are parts of this category. The materials will
be analysed considering their nature, their part in the construction (and decoration) and the
way they change in time.
The main mineral materials used in a historic building are stone, brick (ceramics, in
general), mortars, then metal, glass and others (and I did not leave out clay).
Among the organic materials, wood is the most important, but not the only one.
Inorganic materials are those that make most of the structure, outer skin and
compartmenting.
They are usually porous structures, more or less rigid.
It is necessary to know them by their nature, provenance, mechanical
characteristics, specific weight (density), thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity, vapour
permeability, and, not in the least, porosity.
The characteristics of the outer skin, as a whole and in detail, thermal resistance,
vapour diffusion, absorption atmospheric humidity and behaviour obliquely incident water,
are also elements that must be known.
The thermal inertia of the whole and the thermal inertia of the outer skin are
essential in the way the building behaves, especially in our rough climate.
I shall give a concrete example, that is the case of a facade stone or/and brick and
mortar wall, separating the interior, with a certain degree of occupancy and use, and the
exterior.
There are configurations and constructive components that have certain roles in
protecting the roof, as a whole, the attics, as climatic buffer spaces, roofs, waterspouts and

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drain columns, eaves, cornice, water drops, jambs, plinths etc. it requires analysing their
role, integrity and ability to function, coming up with measures to cure and, if necessary,
stipulating additional systems and climatic protection, ambient control treatments, that the
building did not have originally, nor in any other historic period of its existence. Such added
components can be arguable, from the point of view of the historic truth the restoration
must respect, but they can also be necessary; we can group these reasons in three general
categories, regarding:
- Age: the building has a certain age and, in order to save as much of the
original as possible, we must help her survive by adding new ones; otherwise, a
great deal of the original elements would have to be replaced
- The environment: in most cases, the environment of the historic monuments
have become more and more difficult and harmful in the last decades, due to the
degree of pollution, of the degradation of the climate and other changes ( such of
those determined by the growing urban density, the disappearance of vegetation,
and so on)
- use: in this category, we can include a large series of elements, even those
not related to the functional conversion, which I shall not discuss (my subject
regards preserving and restoration); there can be elements or interventions required
by reasons of fire safety, in cases of panic, perimetral circulation (snow guard
systems);
Any other extra elements will have to be justified and sustained by an open
argumentation, regarding the fundamental criteria of the restoration theories.

INSTRUMENTS OF THE EXPERTISE

PERSONS (SPECIALISTS) THAT TAKE PART IN THE EXPERTISE
COMPONENTS OF THE EXPERTISE

- BEFOREHAND INVESTIGATIONS (environmental, properties of the materials, their

physical condition, pathology)
- ANALYSIS OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL ELEMENTS
- ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF THE INVESTIGATIONS

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- THE PURPOSE OF THE EXPERTISE is to render possible and to support a correct
and precise DIAGNOSIS

3.2. CHEMICAL ENVIRONMENT ELEMENTS: CRYSTALLINE SALTS AND OTHER

HARMFUL SUBSTANCES

The nature of the salts found in the building’s components

Sulphates: plaster, CaSO2+2H2O, mirabilite , Na2SO4
The most widely found is calcium sulphate (plaster), as a construction material and a
finishing, but also as a substance coming from sources outside the building, especially the
atmosphere, where high quantities of sulphur compounds can be found, as a result of
burning fossil fuel.
Nitrates (azotates): nitro calcite, Ca(NO 2); nitro kalit (or potassium nitrate), KNO2
They usually come from two types of sources:
- Decomposing of organic materials and other biological processes
- Artificial composts (fertilisers), used excessively in agriculture these past
decades; thus, the nitrates have reached surface water, carried by rain off the cultivated
surfaces into the underground waters, ending up in areas far out of the reach of treated
agriculture fields, then in the capillary ascension water around the infrastructures and built
areas.
Carbonates: calcite, CaCO3; Magnesite, MgCO3; dolomite, CaMg(CO3)2 etc.
They can come from many sources, and the biological processes in closed spaces must be
identified and controlled (for ex. The human breathing – or from other live beings, plants)
There is also a great variety of salts; Arnold (quoted below) mentions chlorides and
oxalites.
In a concrete example, it is necessary to do chemical analysis to determine the
nature of the salts, of the quantities and of the specific reactions. The analyses will show if
there are also other potentially harmful chemical substances (acids, bases etc). Generally,
sulphuric acid is one of the most commonly found and most harming, due to its corrosive
character, but also because, after reacting with other substances found in the construction
materials or in the ambience, it generates sulphates.

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 The names and the chemical formulas are taken from Arnold, Andreas, „Évolution
des sels solubles dans l’altération et la conservation des monuments”, in, Enduits
dégrades par les sels: pathologies et traitements, ICOMOS France, dossier technique no.
6-2004, page 196 (where it also posts, in a chart, more substances and their formulas; I did
not find it useful to mention them all here).
Next, I shall introduce a few quotes and references to the materials that appear in
the volume, which puts together the works of the conference: Journée technique
internationale, Paris 14 December 2004. At this conference took part colleague Ştefan
Mănciulescu, ACMH, with whom I have debated related to the shown materials and the
discussion.
Ways to access and transit of the salts in the building
The main carrier of the salts, as of other substances that can cause degradation, is
water, in all the states of aggregation it can be found in the soil, in constructions and in the
environment, as we have shown in the chapter that dealt with matters of construction
physics (atmospheric humidity, meteoric water, capillary action, seepage etc.). Knowing the
hygrothermic a phenomenon is important, as evaporation, sweat and freezing can add up
to become the main causes of degradation.
Sulphates: sulphur oxides that come from burning fossil fuel combines with the
water in the atmosphere, thus resulting in sulphuric acid (which, finally, becomes acid rain).
The acid is corrosive and can cause degradations of the surface of the building’s outer skin,
particularly the surfaces that come in contact with the atmospheric humidity and fog, but
are not „washed away” by rain.
Humidity, fog and the first quantities of pluvial water contain more acids, but they can also
carry dust, smoke particles and other impurities. These first „showers” clean the
atmosphere, this way the rain water becomes cleaner. The architectural surfaces that are
washed away by the falling rain are, generally, cleaner, as far as chemical substances
(such as the acids mentioned above) and dark particles (sediments or black crusts) are
concerned.
Nitrates: Special attention should be given to the potassium nitrate, also known as
saltpetre (Saint Peter’s salt), because it is commonly found in basements or other wet and
insanitary spaces. It is known that St. Peter was imprisoned in Rome, before being
martyrised. Also, it can be referred to as “rock salt”. As we can very well observe, the

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School of Avignon and the Stone Centre in Bordeaux, in the old constructions, that have
no damp-proof course, capillary ascension water goes up to a certain level, where it
evaporates, thus resulting sediment salts. The draining ideas, ventilating the wet areas, the
electric drying methods are all to be applied after a thorough examination of the humidity
problems.

„In order to extract the salts from the stone, there are sometimes applied on it
compresses of paper fiber, soaked in distilled water. The water in these compresses finds
its way inside the stone and dissolves the salts. The compresses then absorb this solution
of water and salts” (DINKEL, Rene, Encyclopédie du Patrimoine, Les Encyclopédies du
Patrimoine, Paris 1997, page 1145).

Saltpetre was used in the XVII th – XIX th centuries, as raw material for making the
gun powder was used in the preindustrial period; for this purpose, it was systematically
collected; sometimes, its development was deliberately favoured in certain spaces
(saltpetre exploits).
The nitrates that come from fertilisers usually travel, by capillary action, in
construction masses from the soil, as we have shown above.
Common salt can, in some cases, be a source of degradation. The ways of access
are circumstantial, varying on the special destination of the space, or other elements of a
certain context, that must be known.

EFFECTS OF THE SALTS:

SULPHATING is one of the most severe diseases of the limestone or marble stone
faces – generally speaking, it affects all substances that are, chemically, composed of
calcium carbonate, in the most different states of purity or crystallisation, from chalk and
chalky limestone, through all the varieties of limestone and travertine, to marble, which is
also a calcium carbonate, with a more complete and homogenous structure.
Calcareous sandstones also suffer from sulphating, as they contain calcium
carbonate; the lime mortars as well, because lime has the same chemical composition.

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 Sulphating means transforming calcium carbonate, as a result of his reaction with
active sulphur compounds, into calcium sulphate, otherwise known as plaster. This is an
amorphous material, much more responsive to water and with considerably weaker
mechanical properties.
Even though plaster knows a great variety of uses in constructions and architectural
decoration, even in Plastic Arts, it is used where its properties - plasticity in fluid state –
make it appropriate.
When stone in an historic work of art turns into plaster, it is severe, sometimes
catastrophic.
One of the most famous examples of sulphating is the ensemble of the Acropolis of Athens.
The most affected were the Caryatids statues of the Erechteion’s loggy: they were so
severely damaged they had to be taken, treated and then kept in shelter, in a environment
control space, in the museum established in the last few years in the basement of the site
(except for one of the caryatids, which remained at the British Museum). The original
statues have been replaced in the temple by hollow replicas of artificial stone. Inside the
new statues was placed a titanium structural system, as in the entablement of the building,
because other components, as well, were seriously affected.
Sulphating is a serious reason to clean restorate and apply protective treatments on
the limestone facades or other calcium carbonate compounds, when black sediments and
surfaces are affected by the sulphur compounds. They use, in this situations; water-
repellent treatments are applied, after finishing cleaning, consolidating and reintegrating.
We shall return upon these.
THE DESTRUCTURING of the porous and (more or less) rigid materials, after salt
crystallization, is also one of the main reasons for degradation.
Most of the salts that cause degradations are soluble and crystalline substances.

PULVERULENT OR GRANULAR DISINTEGRATION, ALVEOLAR EROSION

(DISINTEGRATION)
(PLATES 58,60, 86, 87, 91, 107 e, f, 108 B)
EFRITARE
CRUST DISINTEGRATION (EXFOLIATING), IN SCALES OR PLATES.

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 These degradations are generally similar to the ones caused by freezing.
Other forms of alteration and degradation are INFLORESCENCES and CRUSTS
ON SURFACES. Sometimes it accumulates impressive sediments, as can be seen at
Curtea Veche in Bucharest.
Salts that do not crystallize (don’t reach the point of crystallizing, after the water
evaporation) do not usually cause problems.

“Many of the products used, most often without much thinking, for preserving and
restoration, accelerate the degradation caused by salts” (Arnold, op. cit., page 197).
“It is obvious, but not well enough known in practice, acids neutralized with alkaline
solutions or vice-’versa always result in salts and all soluble salts are harmful” (Arnold, op.
cit., page 199).
“Should be avoided:
- Acids and alkaline substances for washing and cleaning the facades
- Portland cements that contain soluble alkalis that can migrate in the
construction masses with water
- Alkaline silicates and Portland cements for consolidating masonry and porous
materials
- Portland cements, alkaline silicates and siliconates for isolating walls against
humidity
Where it is not possible, it is mandatory to take the necessary precautions.” (Arnold,
op. cit., page 211).

In Enduits dégradés par les sels (previously quoted), Dominique Larpin, ACMH,
states: “The origin of the degradations, […] has led many times to beautifying campaigns
or, more recently, it was a pretext for hammer-roughing the surfaces and exposing the
support layers, a very widely spread technique, which, in some places today , is still
persistently used. One thing is for certain, the generations before were more tolerant than
today with the traces of saltpetre, with the maceration of the plaster at the base of the walls
… the notion of comfort, obviously, did not have the same value it has today.”
In the same volume, Eric Pallot, ACMH (whom I have met back in 1992), together
with Patrick Palem, director of SOCRA (specialised enterprise), and Jean-Didier Mertz,

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research engineer at LRMH, introduces a very interesting case in communicating:
“Validating the efficacy of the airtight layer and of the salt extraction: the case of the Saint
Philibert Church of Dijon”. “The church, as old as the XII th century, was used after the
revolution as a stable, and after, as a warehouse for military supplies, most of them
preserved in salt. After being put out of use for a while, in 1972 , a series of interior repairs
led to an under floor heating system, placed on a concrete slab, under the stone pavement.
Since 1975, there have been noticed phenomena of salt rising through inflorescence
[…] In 1977, the first stone breakings (éclatements) appeared. These, through pulverulent
and scale dinintegration, appears especially on the pilasters, and can get as thick as 10-
15cm on a 3 metres height[…] salt risings, favoured by the damp-proof course in the
ground, and also the heating system are at the root of these important degradations.” Next,
are presented the investigations and the complex draining and restoration intervention.
At the fortified Evangelical Church in Moşna, district of Sibiu (plates 82-87), in some
adjacent spaces, the community members had been storing, for centuries, ham supplies,
until four years ago, when restoration work began.
The salt used for preserving the ham dripped in the filling masses above the vaults
(the rooms are upstairs) (plates 83 c, d). One of these spaces is in a subsequent building
that hides the old Romanesque portal, of the previous Romanesque basilica, incorporated,
along with the whole eastern wall in the construction of the present Gothic Church. A
midway level on the vault was built at the level of the portal’s arch springing line. The salt
accumulated in the filling above the subsequent vault, which touches the portal, has
resulted into a vaste granular disintegration of the portal’s arcade profiles. The stone is a
sandy sandstone, and the granules resulted from the degradation have accumulated on
the beaten ground walking surface, where it can be found up to this day.
In an adjacent room in the same subsequent building (known as the „Old City Hall”),
salt has encouraged the side distortion of the cylindrical vault, and the distortion and ample
fracture of the wall that supports the vault (pl. 83d, 85 c-f).
It should brought to attention the fact that salt modifies (lowers) the freezing
temperature, which has definitely influenced the crystallizing-solution and frost-thaw cycles
to having a more dynamic character, especially during the cold periods in Moşna, where
temperatures rarely go above 0ºC in winter season. Even more, the disintegration through

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frost and through crystallizing phenomenon of the porous substance don’t happen just
once, but with each sequence of change in state and/or phase.
Common salt is, on the other hand, very hygroscopic – another aggravating element
in the degradation process.

Actually, each salt has the capacity to modify the freezing temperature of water in
solution, but it varies with the nature and concentration of each substance. There are even
salts that, in solution, raise water’s freezing temperature (excerpts from a discussion with
Miss Magdalena Banu, chemical engineer, restoration specialist approved by the MCC).
At Moşna, the consolidation intervention was on a budget; we had no possibility of
any analyses, neither to completely extract the salt. We noticed, however, by tasting, the
presence of salt in the portal fragments. The same for the salts coming out of the facade of
the next room, through the redone plaster, in the form of inflorescence similar to the
dandelion puff or to cotton. The earth filling was removed off the extrados of the vaults, that
were left open and apparent; the circulation is done with the help of perimetral walkways.
Special macro porous and anti capillary mortars, for draining, were intended to be used;
they weren’t, due to the lack of funds. The existing resources had to be used for finishing
the structural consolidation and the climatic protection. The lime mortars (without cement)
used are relatively porous and allow the vapour’s diffusion and the capillary migration of
salt water in solution. They will probably be replaced in some places, after having done
their job – absorbing all the salt. It is intended to extract the remaining salt, as quickly as
possible, with compresses, and to use special draining mortars. Investigations (chemical
analyses) will have to be done, in order to find out the quantities and distribution of salt.
Another special example come to our acquaintance thanks to professor Ippolito
Massari at Basarabi, september 2007, where Mr. Massari visited, along with restorator
Paolo Pagnin, at the invitation of the Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs, for an
expertise regarding the restoration of the incised of the stone faces. At the San Francesco
Chapell of the Orvieto Dome large quantities of nitrates were found in the masonry, with a
relatively homogenous distribution, that capillary ascension or other predictable ways could
not explain. After studying the construction site documents of the period it was built, it came
out that that certain masonry had been redone and, in that period, had been covered in
manure every night, with the purpose of protecting it from freezing. The organic substances

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in the manure remained ingrained in the masonry, some of what resulted after
decomposing having last until these days.
Professor Massari has mentioned a few more interesting things, during the period
we spent together at the archaeological site. He underlined the importance of maintaining
as much of a stable microclimate as possible; he, also, stated that it was not the presence
of the salts that should be regarded as a problem, but their crystallising. This process can
be controlled by maintaining a constant high-level humidity, as the salts begin to crystallize
when relative humidity drops under 80%, in most cases. (Andreas Arnold presents a chart
of the relative humidity values for saturated solutions, of different salts, for temperatures
between 0ºC and 30ºC – op. cit., page201).
But, as professor Massari wrote in the expertise, a constant high-level humidity
environment can lead to algae, fungus, bacteria proliferation and so on, that can also turn
up to be harmful. The bottom line is a case should be analysed and understood from all
points of view, and observed in real time. Scientific and practice experience are necessary,
along with a coherent and controllable program.

3.3. BIOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT ELEMENTS

This very important side of the environmental study will be only briefly introduced in
this project.
If physical environment elements fall under the competence of the Construction
Physics specialised architect, the chemical environment elements are influenced at a high-
degree by the first, that is why we dedicated them an important part of the present paper
work. However, it is important for the architect to consult biology and chemistry specialists.
The biological elements can be just as important in a concrete situation. In a way, it
is almost more important that the team should include biology specialists, because this of
science comes closer to the architect’s field of work even more than physics, or even
chemistry.
What we should know is that, generally, harmful biological proliferations, for humans
and for the construction’s parts as well, are favoured by unhealthy environment conditions
(microclimate) : high, constant humidity, low ventilation, little light. It comes almost as a luck

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that these entities that harm or disturb us (algae, bacteria, fungus etc) do not grow in
places we feel comfortable in, like places with sufficient light and air and normal humidity.
The draining of the biologically contaminated construction, and of the interior, related
environment, probably won’t solve the problems completely, but it is an important aspect of
treating the cause and, in perspective, of the maintenance and preventive treatment.
Thus, a biocide treatment can represent an emergency or symptomatic treatment,
perhaps necessary as a stage, but won’t solve the main problem, because either the
biological proliferation will come back after ceasing the treatment, or the treatment will
turn harmful for the humans, as well.
Therefore, an ‘what should I use to get rid of the mould?’ approach shows exactly
the wrong, superficial and, unfortunately, quite spread, attitude we face most of the time. It
is an unprofessional aspect, that people outside this profession should not be blamed for,
but rather persuaded with arguments. It does tend to become a little more difficult when
dealing with persons who think they have the necessary professional background; these
”professionals” are slightly more difficult to be convinced.

3.4. REASONS OF THE ALTERATIONS AND DEGRADATIONS

I suggest considering reasons of the alterations and degradations, rather then the
proper actions of the environment elements, certain STATES OF UNBALANCE IN THE
ACTIONS OF THE ENVIRONMENT ELEMENTS, that can unhappily coincide cu certain
DEFFICIENCIES OF THE CONSTRUCTION AND IT’S CLIMATE PROTECTION
ELEMENTS.
If we regard and analyse things in this direction, we should have more chances for
solving the problems, for RE-ESTABLISHING THE BALANCE, than if we chose fighting
the environment elements as they are, like Jacob and the angel.
The environment elements can have negative effects in certain unfavourable
contexts, but it is still them that keep, us and our houses, alive each moment.
In the previous chapters, 3.1-3.3, I have tried to underline these states of breaking
the balance, THE PROPER CAUSES AND PARTICULAR REASONS OF THE
DEGRADATIONS, and I hope that in the coming pages, especially in the case studies, I
can bring more accurate and complete data. I hope the discussion will be effected after

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having going through certain elements of PATHOLOGY, in the next chapter. Some
phenomena, much like geometry theorems, for example, can be understood only after
having ran through and assimilated all of its terms.
Strict to the subject, THE DIAGNOSIS, is the concrete, and in many cases, also
subtle, specification of the STATE OF UNBALANCE

4. PATHOLOGY AND TREATMENT; INTERVENTION STRATEGY

4.1. BEFOREHAND INVESTIGATIONS (ANAMNESIS)

Investigations are an extremely complex subject, with an essential interdisciplinary

character. There are relatively simple investigations, and quintessentially principles, like
there are advanced investigations, that request gear and complex documentation support.
The latter can be extremely useful, even essential in establishing a diagnosis and a
treatment strategy, especially for the very difficult “patients”. But we should not forget that
investigations do not cure the patient, but a correct treatment, well-done and at the right
moment, following the correct diagnosis. I am not trying to diminish the importance of the
advanced investigations, on the contrary. What I am seeking is an efficient, well-balanced
intervention strategy. There are many cases of endangered monuments, in an emergency
situation; in these cases, it requires, much like in medicine, an emergency treatment,
intensive care, and the investigations done while the patient is under observation. In other
words, you can’t treat the patient, unless he’s alive.
If we allude strictly to medicine, we should notice it is a far more ancient occupation
than historic conservation, and has been performed for ages, without our modern-days
instruments and methods, but through thorough observation, a vast and complex
experience and judgment. These are qualities that cannot be replaced, but, obviously, can
be completed with advanced investigations.

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„Investigations lead to questions…but we should avoid excesses; the general picture
should be mastered, the instruments help to interpreter, and the architect is the one that
should do the interpretations and check them…” I quoted Benjamin Mouton’s lecture on
investigations, after my own notes from 1991-93, when I attended this school.
But I don’t want to consider just the architect’s point of view. Professor Ippolito
Massari, in his expertise on the rupestral ensemble of Basarabi (November 2007), settles a
strategy of the necessary investigations, but warns that there is no need for too much data,
as it can create confusion.

4.2. DIAGNOSIS

I have already announced the important elements of the diagnosis as a key-

component of the scientific and professional intercession. I will only mention it here
together with the other steps that it has to follow (anamnesis – diagnosis – treatment).
There is also another important observation, which the diagnosis does not become
permanent, as it given. It should be verified throughout the whole intervention. It does
happen, in restoration, which new elements should come along, as parts of the building
become accessible. The draftsman has to supervise the progress of the working site not
only to check on the constructor, as should be done for each building, but also to complete
and verify his observations that led to the initial diagnosis.

4.3. THE INTERVENTION STRATEGY: EMERGENCY, BACKGROUND, MAINTENANCE;

PREVENTIVE/CURATIVE; SYMPTOMATIC / CAUSAL

THE INTERVENTION STRATEGY should be considered on certain levels:

emergency (which can focus on the symptoms, without disregarding the causes);
background, which focuses mainly on the causes; maintenance; perspective etc.
There are two types of reasons that can determine the need for an
intervention:
On one hand, there is the natural aging of the building, natural or accelerated (when
we have certain pathological phenomena).

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 On the other hand, the environment is no longer the one the building was
planned for and has been living in until the last two centuries, that is until the age of
industrial development and pollution. Ecological degradation, densification and, most of all,
pollution (and now, obviously, climate degradation) are phenomena that create a more
aggressive life environment for the historic building, thus the need for new treatments and
protective components it didn’t initially have. Here, the criterion of authenticity can
contradict with the necessity and chance of conservation. The concept of the restoration
intervention should find the most appropriate, well-proportioned, solutions.
In perspective, with the re-establishing of a balance state, a careful monitorisation
strategy should be considered, if we think that it is far more reasonable and easier to
prevent than to cure; we should remember it is not enough just to pay attention, we must
also want to do something, and, in the case of a historic building, we are talking about the
willingness of many persons and organizations, that should act together.

4.4. HEALING AND/OR SUBSTITUTION TREATMENT

As for the treatment given to the proper substance, we have a healing treatment,
for the “ill” historic substance, and the substitution treatment, that removes what we can
no longer keep for objective reasons, and replaces it with a compatible material, through
discrete and, as much as possible, harmless procedures.
Quoting Georges Duval (op. cit., page 16):
“The first method, known as HEALING, […] replaces the substance incapable of
performing its function, with a healthy and, if possible, identical, one. This procedure is the
oldest and the most used.
The second method, by SUBSTITUTION, replaces the weak element with a different
one.”
Whenever possible, we shall use the healing treatment; therefore, substitution is the
last method to be adopted, and should be backed by objectivity and competence.

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4.5. NEW MATERIALS IN RESTORATION

We usually call a historic building a construction with a cultural value that should be
preserved for as much as possible (usually, it requires a legal protection and control
system).
The cultural value is based, partially, on the configuration of the building, ensemble to
detail, and partially, on the materials it uses.
The criterion of authenticity in architecture requires preserving, for as long as we
can, the proper historic substance, if possible, without substance loss or outside
interventions. This could imply that using new materials in the historic substance is
problematic.
To simplify the discussion, we should remember that the theory (as does the
ideology) of restoration requires clear, almost definitive, criteria.
The intervention should not go beyond the minimum necessary. So, the intervention
should come from the need of stability, in time and space, of the monument, and not the
from another intention ( to “put order” or to “beautify”, for example).
The criteria mentioned earlier (that appear in various documents, not all complete or
unanimously recognized, the Charter of Venice being the best-known), mention using new
substance in an old building only when necessary for preserving its stability. But, then too,
only traditional materials and techniques, like the original ones, should be used. Only when
these are not enough, we can use new materials. But there are certain conditions here, too,
although not always definitive. The conception of the intervention can and has to change
according to the real case.
An important criterion for choosing new materials and technologies is that of
compatibility. Just like the one of necessity, mentioned above, this also goes for the
intervention on the entire building, not just for new elements.
When the compatibility criterion is not fulfilled, the intervention is not theoretically,
nor technically, correct. There can appear rejection phenomena, more or less severe, in
result. Sometimes, much like in medicine, an incorrect or excessive treatment, can have
effects more damaging than the “disease” itself.
We show, for now, a series of examples, of the stone facades.

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 A “noble” material, stone should generally be preserved, as much as possible,
apparent (even if sometimes it was covered by more or less protective layers)
The pathology board of the exterior stone facades is particularly complex. The
simplification I propose here may seem excessive; its purpose is not instrumental, but
purely to help the debate.
The stone structure is more or less porous; built massive and surfaces are, usually,
crossed by complex and variable fluxes of substances, particularly water, which carries
most of the other implied substances. Water can be found in any of its three states, and
frequently transforms from one state to another, according to the dynamics of the energy
fluxes, especially thermal energy. It is already accepted the fact that proper knowing and
understanding of the substance and energy fluxes is crucial for a correct diagnosis and
treatment.
One of the causes of the so-called degradation mechanisms is the frost-thaw
alternation in the pores of the stone; iced, water grows in volume, with a huge mechanical
force. Each frost-thaw sequence enhances the fracture in the structure of the material.
The crystallization of salts in water has a similar effect; water, carrying salts in
solution, evaporates when in certain conditions, leaving the salts that crystallize. This
happens with a remarkable force, damaging the stone structure.
This is not related to direct chemical exposure, biological degradations, etc. I should
mention sulphating of the limestone, as a widely spread and severe phenomenon,
wherever there is pollution as a result of burning fossil fuel. The most prestigious – and
most severe – example is the ensemble on Athens’ Acropolis, especially the caryatides of
the Erechteion, that had to be taken to pieces and replaced with replicas – an extreme
solution, adopted in extreme cases.
Experience of the last decades show us that hydrophobic treatment (or hydro-repellent) of
the surfaces can be a solution, especially when the source of degradation is carried can be
found in incidental meteoric water, as rain, fog, etc. Many years ago, these treatments were
done with casein (from milk), animal or vegetal fat, etc. Now, we use more and more
substances from the large family of the silicones. They have anti capillarity properties (the
superficial tension of water does not manifest on the surfaces of these substances, like in
the case of most of surrounding surfaces).

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 These surfaces (generally, siloxanic polymers) are macromolecules in the shape of
long, thin threads. They form (if not applied in large quantities) a very thin layer, practically,
with the thickness of a molecule, a layer that covers the pores, without filling the empty
spaces. This way, the water can’t enter from the exterior thanks to the anti capillarity effect
(it appears as a “pearl effect”: incidental water rolls of in the shape of little spheres, and the
surfaces remains dry).
This is one of the treatments given to facades of historic stone, especially in polluted
environments, and is an invisible treatment. What is apparent to us is just the removal of
the black crust. The criterion of the aspect is, sometimes, the one that determines the
intervention, but, as stated before, this is not correct. The need for cleaning is where the
black sediments are connected to other degradation factors, according to the nature of the
stone, factors that more or less visible at first sight. The cleaning, unless associated with a
preventing treatment, can even harm the stone façade, because, weakened by the
treatment, is now exposed to more powerful degradation. Studies reveal on lab analyses
and accelerated aging tests, seem to indicate that, after a while, the substance disappears;
the treatment would have to be renewed, but what is important is that it follows another
important criterion – of reversibility. Other, imprudently, tested substances, until a few
decades ago, were not compatible, nor reversible treatments, and the results were
sometimes disastrous and unrecoverable.

Draining, anti capillarity and hydro-repellent treatments

Any construction treatment, especially those for valuable cultural heritage, should
follow a few strict rules, as in human medicine.
Loosing or deteriorating components and characteristics of the building that give it its
cultural and historic value is not allowed, since every loss is, in essence, unrecoverable.
Cultural heritage is an non-renewable type of resources.
The treatment strategy must target the causes of degradation, and not limit to a
symptomatic treatment. The latter can only be necessary in some cases (emergency or
healing treatment), but it is not enough.
In the case of degradations caused by capillary ascension water, if the source is the
excessive humidity at the base of the building (water with no hydrostatic pressure), the

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answer is usually a perimetral, anti capillarity, ventilated draining system. It is necessary
collecting and discarding the meteoric water of the roofs of the building and the surrounding
surfaces.

«The parameters involved in the deterioration of the masonry, due to sediments of

soluble substances in the masonry. The masonry, M, comes in contact with a tank of
solutions, T. The soluble substances sediment at δ distance inside the stone, at h level
above the tank. The radius of the pore that opens near the sediment is r; the medium
radius of the channel the solution migrates in is R; the length of the channel is L. »14 (image
56 c)

If, on the other hand, capillary ascension water comes from underground water
(water at hydrostatic pressure), draining is not very helpful. Creating a vat under the
infrastructure is out of question in this case. A damp-proof course can be created above the
ground (therefore, the source), “sacrificing” what is built under that level. It shouldn’t be
underground water here, but a geo-hydrological study is necessary.
A horizontal damp-proof course, obtained by injecting hydrophobic solution
(siloxanic polymers, potassium methyl siliconate etc), in drilled holes in the masonry, at a
level above the humidity source.
The injection holes, with a diameter of 16-30mm, are made at the base of the wall,
on one or two lines, parallel with the ground. The distance between the drilling holes varies
with the porosity of the masonry, analysed after some investigations (Dicosil, Freezteq
systems and materials etc).
Such a barrier, in the case of water with no hydrostatic pressure, is, normally, no
longer necessary, if the draining can control (and keep away) excessive humidity from the
ground.
Special draining mortars; they are porous mortars, with an anti capillarity addition,
that allow the diffusion of the vapours, but not the capillary ascension of liquid water. It is
applied on interior or exterior surfaces, through which water tends to evaporate, causing
„dampness”, permanent humidity, favouring unpleasant, unhealthy biological proliferations

14
Seymour Z. LEWIN, „The Mechanism of Masonry Decay Through Crystallisation”, în Conservation of Historic Stone
Buildings and Monuments, pag. 123.

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(fungus, algae, multiple allergenic factors etc), salt inflorescences, pulverulent degradations
etc. These treatments allow the “breathing” of the building and are very useful after creating
a draining system that would control the water source. In the absence of such a basic
treatment, the mortars can become temporary symptomatic treatments and, actually,
accelerate the transit of water through walls.
There are temporary draining mortars, expendable, that are applied only until the
excessive humidity in the building is eliminated, and the salts and other harmful substances
are out; then, they are removed (after a year or two) and replaced with permanent mortars.
If there aren’t large quantities of harmful substances in the walls (determined
through analyses), then permanent, anti capillarity mortars can be applied.
There are additives (siliconates, foamants etc.) for mortars, which give them anti
capillarity properties; there are also already prepared mortars which can be applied after
mixing with water.
All these treatments are used after testing and studying small portions of surface, on
a warm, dry weather, respecting the technical specifications and agreements.

4.6. THE PATHOLOGY MEASURMENTS (mapping/survey)

(PLATES 65-73, 89, 90, 99, 104, 110 and 111)

It is a graphic representation of the degradations of surfaces seen in plane Cartesian

coordinate system (facades, sections, even plans, when necessary). Pathology drawings
are used at finding and quantifying the degradations, in order to achieve and support a
diagnosis (especially in the beforehand study phase), but first of all as documentary and
technical support for determining and quantifying the interventions.
They are working instruments to be used on the working site, for documenting the
intervention and surveying the results, step by step, according to the nature of the problem
and the applied methods.
Representing elements of pathology is, usually, done by written indications, on photos,
through graphic grids, sometimes even through colours. These are conventional
representations, explained by legends and other ways of drafting the information, adapted
to a certain case.

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 Pathology measurements are not independent, graphic representations; they are
used in connection to other parts of the project, written, drawn or photographed.
Representations and indications are not standard, they are chosen by the draftsman
according to each case.
5. CASE STUDY (CASUISTRY)
5.1. STEEPLES: ANALYSIS AND CASE STUDY EXAMPLE
(IMAGE 74-81)
Out of all the traditional churches of Byzantine influence, of Wallachia, many have
lost their towers because of the great earthquakes of the first part of the 19 th century (1802
and 1839). As cause of this loss, as well as of other degradation, they have undergone
restorations, modifications, completions and, in many cases, wide configuration and
expression alterations. This kind of interventions, of the second part of the 19th century,
followed a quite typical scheme:
- If replaced, the lost towers were improvised, covered in tin on wooden structure. The
worst part is that in general, their quality is null, if not negative (with some exceptions: Dintr-
o Zi church in Bucharest, Frunzăneşti, Negoeşti and others).
- The windows were widened, the framings were taken off, the façade code and
ornamental features were modified (mutilated). The resulting image had a hybrid character,
as the alterations were made in a modest architecture, vaguely classical or eclectic, with
more of an under product character, rather than a provincial character.
All I am doing now is to shortly remind you, referred to my subject, a few restoration
theory elements, generally known in our professional environment.
It is difficult to reprove the result of an intervention that has its own historical
perspective in itself as well. Especially because most of the times, in a professional
restoration intervention, of the 20th century, the choice had to be clear: coming back, as
much as possible, to the initial image, meant the definite damnation of the 19 th century
stage: by opposition, the conservation of the recent image meant the loss of the major,
original image and expression, for an indefinite period of time.
The restorers have often chosen the first option (usually after close analyses and
discussions, which took shape in the Monument Commission). The works of Horia Teodoru
(Curtea Veche church and others), of Ştefan Balş (Kreţulescu church and many others), are
major examples for a series of other works, mostly known.

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 On the other hand, it can be considered that the general image of the 19 th century
religious architecture in Wallachia does not suffer serious losses because of these
interventions. Whatever we may think of the value this architectural category has, it is
rather widely represented through churches of this period, fairly numerous and more
characteristic in general, better handled than the ones of prior periods, modified as shown
before.

Examples of our works

The restoration projects and works for the churches of the Plătăreşti monastery, Ilfov
County, Berislăveşti hermitage, Vâlcea County, the Verneşti village, Buzău county, the
Plăviceni monastery, Teleorman County, now in different stages of study and making,
represent some of the cases we have mentioned. They date back to the 17 th and 18th
century and they have suffered losses and alterations of the type sketched above. The
restoration interventions were started out of major conservation motives: their critical
physical state, both structurally and as climatic protection. The loss of the integrity of the
churches implies as well the danger of losing the paintings, extremely valuable in these
cases.
The motif of a restoration intervention should not be to correct the image, to beautify,
or similar others, but the necessity of physical conservation of the historical architectural
object.
When intervention is necessary, it’s obvious that besides the rescue, conservation and
integrity solutions, another problematic comes up many times: that of the restoration plan,
of choosing the components and characteristics to be conserved, of the ones to be
reintegrated and of the ones that simply cannot be conserved due to various reasons, and
that are to be removed.
For the four cases mentioned I have proposed the reconstruction of the lost towers,
on the basis of definite facts: the foundations of the preserved towers, debris of the towers,
images of the votive paintings.
The elements that could not be reconstituted entirely based on facts, have been
established as a result of studies that have started to review the analogy with comparable
items stored in the cases of other churches of close age and typology. The vertical

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configuration of the towers, from the overall proportion all the way to the details, especially
at the top, usually represents such an item.
The image of the votive painting of the church, a possible source of documentation,
is not a fair representation; anyway is not an orthogonal projection. The painter had not
sought to send a document, but a state, an expression; he had no systematic knowledge of
geometric representation.
The only way we use to understand and judge more completely and more accurately
the real image in space, before it existed, is the virtual modelling, computer aided.

On virtual modelling
These virtual graphic documents are not just purpose in itself, but they are also
support for studies and projects that become professional reality. They are as well useful
study material for students.
There is still much to do to achieve a coherent virtual museum of historical
architecture in Romania; but there are increasingly more items, and of course that not only
here.

The steeple of the church from Plătăreşti: from study to making

The subject is the St. Mercurie church of the Plătăreşti monastery, Ilfov County (now
in Calarasi County).
The steeple proposed for Plătăreşti had already been approved - in the project -
before we had the site, the scaffolding on the church, and the possibility of making
systematic surveys. The discussions in the National Historic Monuments Commission were
complicated. The late professor Grigore Ionescu, then Chairman of the Commission, said:
we will return to the original configuration, we cannot have the 17 th and the 19th century at
the same time; further he said (I can also hear him now): "allow the architect to do his job."
The construction started and then I was able to climb the towers, to carefully break
the “parasite” masonry (added in the 19 th century) and find the original tower’s column
foundations. We found the first brick horizontal layer of each column, with the precise
configuration of the horizontal section.
It was confirmed that the tower had 12 sides; we saw clearly that the vertical sides of
the columns, namely those in successive withdrawals, were radial and not parallel.

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 I already assumed that I could find such a configuration, as I had previously seen in
a long article of the architect Horia Teodoru in BCMI (old series, no. 113-114, July-October
1942); here, a study on the towers of the old church Flămânda of Campulung Muscel was
presented, a perspective restitution. The church no longer existed, it had already been
demolished, and Horia Teodoru had undergone the study based on a stored photo.
Let's not forget that, not only a great architect restorer (St. Anton Church – Curtea
Veche, for example), he was also a professor of Perspective at the School of Architecture.
From him, we keep a book on perspective, very comprehensive, systematic and
accessible.
Returning to the article, the author describes three types of tower configurations:
polygonal, circular-polygonal and cylindrical. The Flămânda church tower, which is the
subject of the study, was of the circular-angled type; the withdrawn faces of the vertical
pillars are not in parallel plans, as in the polygonal type, but in radial plans, converging to
the central axis of the tower. The archways that are born on these pillars are not made of
cylindrical arcs, but truncated cone arcs. These arcs are developed on a series of virtual
conical surfaces, actually some horizontal cones halves, all converging to the axis of the
tower, at the birth plan.
The archways, the "brows" of the tower, look up, open like spatial fans, toward the
sky, unlike the cylindrical archways. Considering the data we have so far, this type of
configuration is typical for the church architecture of Wallachia. If it is indeed so, it may be
proven as a result of comparative studies, studies that are to be done in the future.
When I found and studied this article, I could have not known yet what type the
tower of Plătăreşti was, especially because Plătăreşti (1646) is over a century older than
Flămânda (1765); but I already had a systematic base of the geometrical analysis.
For several years already I had been trying to observe existing towers as close as
possible, some original (based on the facts I had), some reconstituted after known
restoration interventions (Kretulescu in Bucharest, Brebu, Prahova County, and others). I
tried to understand precisely the configurations, by direct observation after measurement
drawings or project elements that we could find, after 1990, in the reconstituted archive of
the Department of Historical Monuments on Ienăchiţă Văcărescu Street. The study of Horia
Teodoru was the clearest tool of analysis of all.

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The pillar foundations of the tower of Plătăreşti, which I found through the survey that I
mentioned above, were clearly radial-configured; I now had the exact geometric picture of
the tower, with some small variables: the exact height of the drum (of all pillars) and the
exact number of the cornice of the tower. The number of the sharp brick circular horizontal
layers, that represent the "brows" of the archways, was certainly three, because the pillars
have three successive withdrawals (sketch 75).
We set the height of the cylinder after making a comparative study on as many examples of
related types as possible. The most similar example I found to be Gura Motrului, of the
same period as Plătăreşti, which very likely keeps the original towers.
As for the crown cornice of the tower, I have determined that it most likely had three
rows of, as I also found both on the main body of the church, and at the foundation of the
tower: the remains of the old sharp bricks in successive cantilevered horizontal layers. The
latter were broken during the 19 th century intervention and then covered with drawn profiles,
with a vaguely neo-classical character, but the polls that I did shown clearly the original
configuration, by the sizes and the characteristics, which can be identified very clearly
based on the broken debris (tails) of the cantilevered bricks, remaining in the wall.
I now had the tower configuration, a complex one, subtle and refined.
But if I was to reconstitute this configuration, I had an even bigger problem: how could
some masons in the 1990s be able to understand the geometric relations, even from the
greatest drawings? And then transform them into reality, bricks and mortar?
I then proposed that a group of students make the 1/1 scale model of one of the 12
arches of the tower, as the practice exercise for the 5 th year. We also made real-size
models of the casings on which the arcs were to be built. The casings were made out of
thick packaging cardboard and the real-size bricks, of expanded polystyrene: regular
bricks, rectangular, about 28 x 14 x 4.5 cm (nominal 30 x 15); special-shaped bricks, with a
12 cm wide semi-convex profile; 60-degree angled bricks, 12 cm wide as well; the "tails"
that narrow like a trapeze, that are to be placed in the truncated cone archways, and make
the fan-like turn around the corners, at the horizontal cornice of the crowning. All the brick
shapes were identical to witness that we had the luck (and care) to seek and find on the
site.
The polystyrene curved brick horizontal were aligned on wire rope, like marbles, but
on two wires each, with distance-pieces of different thicknesses between them, which

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would concretize the space for the mortar, necessary between the bricks. We came to this
solution because the model had to be dismountable as well, in order to carry it to the
construction-site and re-install it there, in the exact position, to serve as a model (sketch
76).
It is clear that if you make a sided horizontal-layered radial arc, out of parallelepiped
pieces such as bricks in general, the mortar between the bricks should have a variable
thickness on the ray direction. Moreover, if the arc has a truncated-cone shape, and not a
cylindrical one, the space necessary for the mortar will have a variable thickness in the
direction of the arch depth as well. It took a very precise marking of these varying sizes on
these two directions in space.
The execution contract (S.C. DEDAL BAHAMAT from Galaţi, restoration-specialized
company) took our board casings and re-made them out of wood with tin truncated-cone
surfaces, in two copies, and they brought them to the restoration site.
I had asked the craftsmen to stop the work when they got to level where the pillars
meet the arcs, and then I came with the students and the dismantled model, and we
installed it (sketch 75 c); at first, the masons looked at us surprised, but had it clear when
they saw it done, and slowly began to build along the first true arch. It came out perfectly,
and then the other 11 as well, one by one. The main craftsman, Mr. Ion Preoteasa, had told
me, before seeing the model, that it is not possible to aside the bricks "the way I want, in
the shape of a fan or a dove tale”. After making it from the model, he said: "This is a
sculpture, sir - and we did it." It was one of the most beautiful achievements we had had
before with the craftsmen, under many difficulties and critical moments. This happened in
1994-95.
Several years later, in 1999, I took part in one of the editions of the French-
Romanian restoration workshop, with our friend Benjamin Mouton, ACMH, IGMH, professor
at the "School of Chaillot" with his students and students from our Restoration Advanced
Study School, on the restoration site of the Berislăveşti monastery, near Călimăneşti. We
made documentary travels to several monuments in the area, among which to Hurezi. The
scaffolding on main church was high up to the towers; there were restoration works (project
architect Professor Dr. Virgil Polizu). I climbed up the scaffolding with my colleagues and
students, and I had the certainty that the Hurezi towers have the same configuration
(Annex A1, towers, sketch A5). We were able to touch the surfaces: the archivolts and the

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truncated cone-shaped interior curves of the arches, we could measure them, and
discussed the configuration with the students, to whom I also proposed a deduction
exercise, which worked.
Since then I've made some steeples reconstitutions, in projects, for the churches in
Verneşti, Buzau County, Plăviceni, Teleorman County and Berislăveşti, Vâlcea County.
For these topics, I did not have such clear witnesses as in Plătăreşti; I have not
found any elements of the original towers. Even their foundations were lost, at least the
upper parts (at Berislăveşti) or even entirely (in Verneşti and Plăviceni). Instead, I found
votive paintings, which in Plătăreşti we did not have. In these cases we opted for the
reintegration of the church volumes by restoring the towers on light wooden structures, and
mortar surfaces light support.

The church of the Plăviceni monastery, Teleorman County, the 19 th century (image
78-81).
Plăviceni is a monastery that was abandoned in the 19 th century, as Plătăreşti and
many others, during the secularization of Cuza, because it had been subdued to Mount
Athos. The church became a “Holy Oil” church.
The ruins were partially consolidated and reconstituted at the level of the main body.
This time, the tower was made on a light wooden structure.

The Church of Verneşti, Buzau County, the 19th century

The steeple of the church of Verneşti is actually a bell-tower over the pronaos. As
supporting elements of the volumetric reintegration plan, I had the certainty of the existence
of the tower – a bell-tower at its origin, proven by the existence of the staircase that leads
to the thickness of the pronaos wall, and represented in the votive painting, which I found
after drilling under later paintings.
The tower is made on light structure, with face walls of lime mortar on galvanized
wire net. The configuration was determined by analogy studies (Dr. Arch. Hanna Derer and
Arch. Silviu Gogulescu), and by virtual modelling.

5.2. THE FORTIFIED EVANGELIC CHURCH OF MOŞNA

(IMAGE 82-87)

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 The presentation of the topic as a whole is made in the publications listed in the
bibliography.
Elements of analysis of the architectural development were presented in Chapter
2.3.8.
The non-structural pathology problems were presented in Chapter 3.2.

5.3. THE FAÇADE OF THE CATHEDRAL OF TROYES, FRANCE

(IMAGE 88-96)

THE SAINT-PIERRE – SAINT-PAUL CAHEDRAL OF TROYES AUBE, FRANCE. THE

RESTORATION OF THE STONE FACE WALL, THE NORTHERN FAÇADE OF THE
SAINT-PIERRE TOWER

The cathedral is an imposing Gothic building, the construction of which lasted from
the 12th century until the 17th century. As a general scale, it falls in the second size order,
after the series of great cathedrals of Europe.
Like many similar buildings, the cathedral is an almost permanent period of stage
restoration, according to the emergencies.
The Saint-Pierre tower is the only one which has actually been completed, in
flamboyant style, to the height of 42 meters; from there up, it was continued in the 17 th
century.
The northern façade face wall, in Gothic style, was in danger regarding the
sculptured stone elements, which were cantilevering over the overall mass of the tower. It is
yet another example of the influence the shape factor had in the evolution of the building’s
physical state.
One practical emergency element for the intervention was that some fractured pieces were
falling, risking to endanger the human life (public service areas were right at the base of the
facade).
The substantial motivation of the intervention is conserving the integrity of the
monument. Also, the subject is a typical case for a series of important similar monuments
and for their state at that time - the 1980s-90s. The intervention we are dealing with was an

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important “dress rehearsal” (not the only one) for a series of interventions on important
façades. The most prominent issue is the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, where the
restoration works of the face walls began shortly after the intervention from Troyes (under
the leadership of Bernard Fonquernie, ACMH, IGMH).
The project was developed under the leadership of Jean-Michel Musso, ACMH,
IGMH, the responsible architect for the area where the monument is. I participated quite a
lot in the drafting phase of the Architectural and Technical Project (PAT), as a trainee in the
agency Jean-Michel Musso, with a French scholarship (October 1991 - October 1992).
The study consisted in a close analysis of the physical and pathological state, identifying all
types of degradation and their causes, as well as in setting the treatment methods and the
reintegration interventions.
The meteoric water infiltrations, along with the alternative frost and the salts
crystallization and the limestone sulfatation, were the main causes of the significant weight
loss degradations (fractures especially). Also, the surface phenomena, caused by the
deposition of dust and smoke particles, combined with chemicals in the incident meteoric
water (fog and rain), led to the deposition of black crusts and powdery and alveolar
destruction of the skin, the destroying of the calcite on extended areas and to the loss of
substance in general, as well as its alterations when in contact with the external
environment.
In conclusion, the damages were caused by the joint actions of the water, the
physical and chemical harmful factors in the environment and the biological aggressions.
The chemicals in the atmosphere, especially the sulphur compounds that came from
the burning of fossil fuels residue, penetrated to the depth at which the main transport
vector was active, namely the meteoric water.
Algae, lichen and muscle proliferated in the areas with reminiscent moisture and
especially where the epidermis had already been aggressed by the physical and chemical
factors mentioned above. Fractured and destroyed gargoyles, damaged pluvial columns,
dislocated parts of climatic protection components, such as cornices and water drops,
favoured the concentration of remaining moisture in certain areas.
The black particle deposits were accumulated especially in areas with complex
configuration, on the interior faces of the elements, generally in the parts that were not
washed by incident rain water.

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Overall, the damage is more extensive and more serious on the carved and grooved
elements, which are the most valuable.
THE STRUCTURAL MASS PATHOLOGY is relatively low in scale and risks, in
short perspective; due to the total absence of seismic movements, the identified causes
were mainly differentiated ground sinking. The structural fractures are only local.
THE LOW AREA NON-STRUCTURAL PATHOLOGY (infrastructure and above
ground level) were to a lesser extent the subject of this study phase, as there already
existed an operating pilot construction-site on the inferior register, under 16 m high.
The damages, caused by rising capillary water and the surface water in the soil, were
treated symptomatically by scarring and replacing the material where necessary.
The most important works in this area were related to the causal treatment. They were
works of sanitation and land drainage in the infrastructure, collection and management of
meteoric water on the building elements and adjacent areas.
THE VOLUME PATHOLOGY – on the low-massive and complex structure, is
stressed in all cases.
Besides the degradation mechanisms already mentioned above, a characteristic
phenomenon is caused by steel implants placed in general in the 19 th century, as
consolidation pins and clips for fractured pieces. These steel pieces were put into work in
combination with cement mortars. The enthusiasm the professionals of that period had for
using material and technology under development at that time, is well known; Viollet-le-Duc
was an fan of steel and cement. But in a relatively long time, the cement mortar suffered
infiltrations and destructions, and the steel, deprived of the essential protection of the
cement, started to corrode. Rust is an increase of the substance volume, from steel to
oxide. This volume increase is an important mechanical power, comparable to that of frost,
and determines stone disintegration. This is a typical, very widespread rejection
phenomenon, an example of incompatible intervention, and treatment with negative side
effects, often more important in the negative meaning than their possible positive effects.
THE FACE WALL PATHOLOGY is a pattern in which various elements concur:
black deposits, sulphates, nitrates of biological origin, the calcite and skin loss (with
valuable patina and traces of processing tools).

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 THE PATHOLOGY OF THE JOINTS: the cement mortar interventions at the end of
the 19th century caused irreversible degradation due to the differences in vapour
permeability and salts crystallization.
THE HIGH AREA PATHOLOGY: the join destruction especially, due to incident and
stagnant meteoric water, even snow. Pieces of stone were deployed because of plant
proliferation, favoured by the damages mentioned above.
INTERVENTION AND TREARMENT
DISMANTLING. The dismantling of those elements (sculptures in particular) that
threatened to fall, or could not be dealt with in opera, but only in specialized areas
(workshops or laboratories). Some of these pieces were put in place after treated; others
too sensitive even after restoration, and too valuable in itself, were kept in the museum and
replaced by replicas (discreetly but clearly marked and expressed).
PRE-CONSOLIDATION AND PRIOR PROTECTION for those elements and parts
too degraded to support cleaning in their state. Pre-consolidation led to a more difficult
cleaning operation in these areas, since the “dirt” had been relatively preserved at the
same time, but provided optimal preservation of the elements.
CLIMATIC PROTECTION
In the high areas and on the exterior faces of the elements: correction slopes, water
repellent treatments, lead sheet clothing.
CLEANING the black deposits and alkaline salts, as well as other harmful
substances, visible or not to the naked eye, was the result of investigations and carefully
developed tests. Washing was done with fog-like spray, under the lowest pressure, and in
the smallest quantities possible (image 91, 92). The black deposits were removed with the
soft brush. The washing resistant black crusts, especially in the areas of complex relief,
were removed by micro sanding under low pressure (sketch 93e).
A WATER REPELLENT TREATMENT, based on a silicon solution, was applied on
all the face walls; it creates an anti-capillary protection, without closing the pores. This way,
the surface “breathes”, remains permeable to vapours, but the outside water, along with the
impurities and harmful substances it contains, no longer enters the epidermis.

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5.4. THE HIGHER SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE PALACE FAÇADE
(“Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urban Planning, Bucharest, the old
building, historic monument).
(image 97-101)
The presentation of the topic is made in the publications listed in the bibliography.
The restoration site was stopped in 2000, when the works were finished in the parts around
the fountain, all the way to the central part of the building (this one included). Some
cleaning operations, in different stages, were made on some parts of the adjacent areas,
but there were not applied water repellent treatments. Seven years after the seizing of this
work, the finished surfaces are clean and healthy; in three years’ time, the treatment
warranty expires, and it will have to undergo checks, eventually be refreshed.
Cleaned and untreated areas are gets dirty in a more visible way and alter more
rapidly than if it had not been cleaned, which shows that the treatment cannot be stopped
at any time without unforeseeable consequences. The patient cannot be left lying on the
operating table in the middle of the intervention.

5.5. THE FAÇADES OF BUCHAREST UNIVERSITY

(image 102-105)

The presentation of the topic is made in the publications listed in the bibliography.
The face walls of the construction are almost entirely made of artificial stone, made of water
cement with grains of marble aggregate. I’ll show an excerpt from the project, for this case:
THE MAIN DEGRADATIONS are caused by
(a) black deposits (dirt: dust, smoke and other impurities in the air, meteoric water etc.)
(b) biological colonies - deposits and aggressions
(c) water infiltration (caused primarily of the damaged seals, the blockages on the
terraces, troughs, pouches, gargoyles)
(d) capillary water: visible degradation in the skirting board area, all around the
perimeter, with varying intensities
(e) harmful chemicals in the environment, of the building elements or from current or
vicious use

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 (f) previous interventions are noticeable in some areas, where the degrading is
probably more obvious; these interventions are not correct though and the effect of
the deterioration in depth is negative in most cases.

5.5.1. THE MAIN INTERVENTION PROPOSALS FOR THE ARTIFICIAL STONE AND
MORTAR FACE WALLS

5.5.1.1. Cleaning
After the completion of the roof and the pluvial columns, the stone elements will be
cleaned with clean water, water without any addition (detergent or anything else).
Water is applied by gentle spraying or with fine and clean textile pads, avoiding the running
of the water or the excessive moistening in the depth of wall, limiting to strictly necessary
both the amount of water and the time of watering.
The remaining deposits will be removed with the soft brush, then the surface will be
left to dry, for water to bring the salts to the surface. The operation is repeated until the
removal of both deposits and salts in the harmful substances.
Drying time between two moistening sequences is assessed to two hours; it will be
adjusted through tests, depending on the ambient temperature and the state of the
pathology in that place.
The operations will be performed during dry and not cold periods of time (the
ambient and surface temperature will be monitored).
For cleaning the areas that could not be washed, micro sanding will be used.

Abrasive processes are not to be used.

The cleanup will not be excessive, but only to remove visible and invisible (harmful
chemicals) impurities. The complete removal of these will be verified through tests, for each
feature individually.
The skin texture and patina will be conserved.
Laboratory tests were conducted on previously taken samples, to highlight the presence
and nature of the harmful substances.
It was found that after washing, the harmful invisible chemicals were almost entirely
eliminated, along with the visible "dirt".

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 5.5.1.2. Biocide treatment
The colonies of algae, fungi and lichens will be eliminated after cleaning, using
biocide substances that do not harm the face wall. Herbicides or other harmful
chemicals are not to be used. Treatment will be done during dry periods of time. The
deposits will be removed with clean water and soft brush. It will be washed with clean water
until the biocide products are completely removed.
5.5.1.3. Local additions
Local additions will take the form of compatible mortar fillings, powder and stone
granules. They will be reinforces with stainless metal clips (brass or stainless steel),
anchored in holes in the stone elements.
5.5.1.4. Replacements
The excessively damaged pieces will be replaced with identical pieces, made of a
material compatible with the existing one. They will be marked, and placed on the façades
of the “rising” drawing.
5.5.1.5. The surface consolidation will be made with ethyl silicate or any other
compatible product.
5.5.1.6. Waterproof treatment
It will be made with ethyl silicon on all surfaces that are exposed to meteorite water.

5.6. THE RUPESTRAL ARCHEOLOGICAL ENSEMBLE OF BASARABI (MURFATLAR)

(IMAGE 105-111)

The presentation of the topic is made in the publications listed in the bibliography 15.
The rupestral ensemble is located at about 20 km away from Tomis (Constanţa) and
35 km of Axiopolis (Cernavodă), occupying a dominant position south of the Carasu valley
(a Danube bank that occupies a former valley steeped in the Pleistocene, evolved through
warping and side alluvia toward an inosculated valley, with numerous puddles covered with

15
OPREANU, Mihai. „Ansamblul rupestru din Basarabi (I), (II),Basarabi Rupestrian Ensemble (III)”.
ARHITEXT-DESIGN 4 (111)/2002, 5 (112)/2002, 6(113)/2002.

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swamp vegetation "- V. Cucu, Florica Bordanc, Geologic Studies and Research,
geophysics, geography - Academia-R.S. Romania., vol. XXXII, 1985, p. 45).
The steep chalk cliff, located southwest of the Basarabi town, revealed, in 1956,
during the excavations for the opening of a quarry, a wide rupestral ensemble, conserved in
a relatively good state. The ensemble, dated in the 9 th-11th centuries, located in an ancient
Roman quarry; it includes places of worship, branched galleries, tombs, houses, graves.
The ensemble consists of a series of rupestral rooms including six small churches,
houses, tombs, galleries, all grouped in several areas, linked between them. Carved into
the chalk massif, they reproduce and amplify in sculpture, space and volumes that are
known in the built architecture of the 7th-10th centuries.
Secular and religious drawing were incised, with a knife or a spike, on both the face
walls of the monuments and the old quarry: various animals, horses, fantastic snakes,
ships, weapons, horse riders, people praying, crosses - a wide variety of forms. In
conjunction with the drawings, old Greek and Slave inscriptions are incised, inscriptions
which, if read, throw a ray of light on the events that took place around the year 950 AC in
the settlement of Basarabi. Most of the inscriptions are in an enigmatic writing that has not
been deciphered so far; it is similar to runic writing, from Scandinavia, but also in
completely different areas, like Central Asia and Asia Minor.
Some of the rupestral rooms were painted in red; the background of the architecture
elements, archways, capitals is highlighted by strips of darker colours.
Closely connected the rupestral ensemble, a small settlement consisting of houses built
above ground out of local materials, bonfires and a cemetery, were revealed in the
immediate vicinity.
During the investigations, there have been found tools that were used in the
rupestral rooms and in the old chalk quarry: axes, pickaxes, trowels, chisels, household
items: ceramic pots and pans, of a wide variety, knives, steel flints, fusaiole, grinder stones,
as well as guns, arrow points and a halberd.
After discovering the ensemble, in the '60s, the partially crushed rock elements were
repositioned in a reinforced concrete and cement mortar structure. A protective reinforced
concrete construction was partly made, on less than half of the site; the rest remained
under a provisional wood and cardboard asphalt protection. The provisional construction

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has recently been replaced by polycarbonate indicators on a wooden structure, which is
that of the old building, with the necessary repairs.
These buildings don’t have a suitable microclimate and the ensemble suffered
multiple degradations, particularly at the incised face walls level.
The project provides a set of conservation and restoration progressive measures for
rock components, the making of a new protective construction and interventions on the
existing one, in order to create a favourable microclimate with controlled natural means.
The monument is in an extremely critical stage, given the sensitivity of the rock in
which it was built, chalk; this rock was damaged in an accelerated pace after the discovery
of the ensemble. For this reason, exceptional protection measures are urgently needed.
Ever since the 1960s, a permanent protective building was planned; it was to protect the
entire site from bad weather, variations of temperature and humidity and other factors likely
to compromise the monuments.
After four decades of restoration and consolidation studies and works, supervised by
former I.S.L.G.C. Bucharest, today PRODOMUS, and designed by a team led by arch.
Liana Bilciurescu, we are now in front of a restored and strengthened ensemble, in terms of
the monument in itself, the protective reinforced concrete construction being achieved on
about 30% of the area. A temporary wooden protective construction, covered with bitumen
cardboard, comes to supplement it. It was repaired in 2006, and the bitumen cardboard
was replaced with polycarbonate.
The temperature variations and excess moisture, the vandalism shown by recent
and aggressive inscriptions, as well as the stealing of substance from the monument and
the constructions, threat these monuments.
The proposed project will be set to continue project made by arch. L. Bilciurescu’s
team, regarding functional plan and the enclosure dimensions, but it will be updated in
terms of architectural expression and materials, choosing a reversible solution by using
lightweight structures (metal).
However, the project will take over the already built construction, improving the
performance of environmental control, without changing the architectural image.
Accomplished work: emergency intervention to remove excessive moisture and sanitation;
the main mechanisms of excessive and fast degradation have been put under control; the
necessary environmental conditions to begin the treatment on face walls has been

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achieved, as well as the repair of the wood provisional protective construction and the
replacement of the asphalt cardboard with polycarbonate.

REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE SUBJECT - THE PROGRAM AND THE GENERAL
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

REASONS:
The rupestral ensemble of Basarabi, is a unique monument in Romania and a
exceptional example of Christian rupestral architecture in Europe. Unlike the rupestral
examples in the Republic of Moldova and Bulgaria, but also the father located Christian
rupestral monuments of Cappadocia, the ensemble of Basarabi is made in a quarry, by
excavating a hill made of chalk, an extremely friable material, soluble in water and therefore
with high risk of being totally destroyed in a short period of time.
OBJECTIVES:
Developing a special system that ensures on the one hand, an aesthetic image of
the site, aggression free, to integrate as good as possible in the context, highlighting the
monastic ensemble, and on the other hand, to ensure protection against bad weather,
uncontrolled human access and harmful actions of extreme climate and other harmful
factors.
The newly created protective construction, which will replace the current provisional
one, must meet the following requirements:
A.
- to provide a suitable microclimate for conserving the ensemble and the
details of the epidermis (summer solar control, solar input control, controlled natural
ventilation);
- to prevent the penetration of meteoric water (rain, snow, fog etc.);
- to ensure proper conservation temperatures, as constant as possible in the
seasonal oscillations and day-night succession;
- to provide acceptable relative humidity levels, avoid condense both on the
surface of the ensemble skin and on inner surface of the protective construction,
avoid frost-thaw phenomena;

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 - to draining the meteoric water (a drainage system at the calotte and at the
upper slope, including the existence of a intermediary interceptive channel (in the
underground);
- to avoid water infiltrations on the perimeter;
- to control of rising of capillary water;
- to avoid overheating in summer and cooling below the frost temperature in
winter;
- to avoid the development of microorganisms capable of altering the
surfaces;
- to avoid the development of mushrooms, moss or other biological
pathogens;
- to avoid accidental entry of birds, bats, insects – as far as possible.

B.
- the structure will be built of modulated, demountable elements (it has to be
reversible).
- glued laminated wooden structures are accepted, if treated in factory and
long before being put into work, so they do not issue such substances capable of
influencing in a negative way the interior environment, the ambient control devices
will be adjustable and adaptable;
- the new building must allow air exchange between inside and outside
environment;
- visitors’ access will be clearly marked –alleys or stairs, so that the contact
with lime elements to be minimum.

THE ACTUAL STATE

Up to the construction of the permanent protection, scheduled for the summer-
autumn of 2008 the soonest, the provisional construction has to complete its part the better
possible, because of the extreme state of the ensemble on the one hand, and because of
the necessity of ensuring particular controllable conditions for the prior consolidation of the
face walls, on the other.

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We remind you that the repair works of the existing provisional wood construction, as well
as the replacement of the extremely degraded asphalt cardboard enclosures, with
polycarbonate, has been done in the summer 2006, however without ensuring a parallel
consolidation the face walls; they became extremely friable from drying out, and therefore
exposed to an additional danger. Unfortunately, the unwarranted degradation of the
valuable incised face walls still continues, this time because of the destruction of the
extremely breakable rock.
The physical state of the ensemble is critical to the highest degree. The damage is
extremely intense, which indicates that the onset of their time is relatively recent. Otherwise
the incised face walls would be a long time gone. The pathology is obviously caused by the
extremely negative concurrence of the environmental factors and the microclimate the
protective buildings create, both the provisory and the permanent one.
The rupestral monuments develop on an area of 2 684 square meters, of which 924
are protected by a permanent building, built of reinforced concrete as a 30° tilted terraced
roof tilted, construction made between 1971-1977.
The works during that that stage had an exceptional character, both in magnitude
and by the approach that was taken, namely the conservation of the architectural ensemble
in situ, revealed from the soil accumulations that kept it hidden for so many centuries but
also protected it. This approach included the reconstitution of some fragmented volumes
(fallen and fractured when discovered). The need to protect the ensemble with a
construction that would cover it, was obvious because of the fragile essence of the rock
and from the intention of leaving the ensemble publicly accessible.
The remaining 1760 square meters have been covered with a temporary protective
construction, made of wood and reed, covered in asphalt carton. This building was
supposed to protect the monuments against rainfall and wind, but also against temperature
and humidity variations.
The chalk massif which the rupestral monuments were carved in, was consolidated
in the areas that were fractured or damaged by water infiltration and frost, by reinforced
concrete elements. The fractures were injected with fluid cement mortar with sand addition,
and jointed with a mortar of a colour similar to the chalk.
The original protective construction was to develop along the chalk massif, covering
the entire rupestral ensemble, and would have been divided into seven sections to

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correspond to the zones of the monument. These sections were to be defined by edges,
drains and dilatation joints.
In the first phase, sections 1, 2, 3 and part of the foundations of the 4 th were completed.
Sections 4, 5, 6, 7 would have been executed in the subsequent phase.
The wooden structure of the provisional protection construction has been repaired, and the
asphalt cardboard has been replaced with glass fibre reinforces polyester (spring 2007).
Hydro-geological works
The proposed investigations are:
 6 drillings of 15 to 20 meters in depth, located outside the site, with hydro-
geologic and geologic research purpose. They will investigate the underground
water level, the hydro-geological conditions around the site, the water accumulations
in the quarry and the possible leak of leachate from the garbage storage point
towards the quarry. They will be also a control of the geophysical measurements and
will ensure tests made on altered and fresh rock.
 the analysis of the general physical properties of the drilling samples, in order
to know the general physical properties, especially micro fissures, porosity,
capillarity.

The hydro-geological investigation will achieve the knowledge of the hydro-

geological characteristics of the site, the position the underground water levels have from
the target, the migration of underground water to the target, or the possible
ascendant migrations that it may have around the target area.

Data processing, interpreting and drafting the final survey

The achieved data will be interpreted, integrated, correlated to produce the most
complex image on the geological condition of the monument and the surrounding area.
They will also give the most precise conclusions and recommendations on the
geological condition of the area in which the objective is located, the geological safety
surrounding area, the foundation conditions, which will form essential geological knowledge
elements, necessary to establish the conservation and protection measures for the

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rupestral ensemble of Basarabi, recommendations for the geological environmental
protection, on long-term.
The Annex presents the environmental investigations that INOE (National Institute of
OptoElectronics) planned (and partially completed) under a research program conducted
along with the National Museum of History and Archaeology of Constanţa and the designer
UAUIM – CCPEC.
Also, the annex shows the investigation plan, tests and attempts to consolidate and restore
the face walls, primarily the incised ones.

5.7. ‘CURTEA VECHE’ ENSEMBLE – BUCHAREST

PATHOLOGY. NON-STRUCTURAL DEGRADATIONS. CAUSES OF DEGRADATIONS

AND SCHEME OF INTERVENTION.

1. The preserved ruins of Curtea Veche ensemble are reconstituted in open air.
Above the vaulted basement, on the main level of the former palace, an open air terrace
was realized, having a marble floor on multiple layers of mortar.

Water infiltrations washed salt and other chemical substances from mortar layers
and brought them to surface, shaping stalactite.
Massive alkaline salted deposits as well as other substances deposits can be
observed on the access arcades towards the former basements (above them is the terrace
mentioned above).
[IMAGE]
The cement mortar joints caused this tremendous degradation of the brick masonry,
up to 2-3cm depth. Causes are: reduced permeability of mortar by comparison to bricks
and the high level of salt in the cement mortar.
[IMAGE]
[IMAGE]
The old masonry and its initial lime mortar is still good shape…
Proposal:

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 1) The removal of all existing concrete elements – where it is structurally
possible. All further intervention will use concrete with low salt level.
2) The removal of the existing stone floor from the main courtyard (main access
from Domneasca St.) and restoration of the necessary layers (gravel, concrete
plates, natural stone flooring). On sides, joints will be made (15cm) filled with gravel
(anti-capillarity).
3) The removal of flooring above basements, with all its layers up to the
structure of the vaulted ceiling. The new filling layer will use broken foam glass; a
professional damp-proof layer will be also made.

[IMAGE]
Some defects of joints, channels, marble flooring, etc. allow water infiltrations to the
basements.

4) The removal of salts from the structure; salt will be washed with sprayed
water, on low pressure. Walls are impregnated with water up to the depth of the
affected area and then are naturally dried. Salts are washed to the surface and this
operation is repeated until salt is removed completely. Afterwards, a waterproof
treatment is necessary.
5) The remove of all cement mortars, particularly the one used in joints. Also,
special waterproof plaster will be used.
6) Horizontal waterproof barrier will be used by injecting waterproof substances
in drillings.
7) Waterproof treatment of all surfaces which are exposed to rain.

6. CONCLUSION

6.1. DISCOURSE ON THE INTENTION OF THE STUDY

The main purpose of this study is not the preservation of the architectural objects
with historical importance. This is just one of the tools.

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 The main purpose is the preservation of the balance in the environment. Both in
the physical environment and the mental environment, that is the cultural environment,
perceived in the most objective and open way possible.

„Man needs to be surrounded with objects that give him the feeling of stability and
continuity beyond his ephemeral destiny. He seeks everywhere objective proof of this
thought. Architecture gives the civilizations their features and expresses in a valid way the
history. This is why it is a prolific theme of thinking 16.

The character of the exchange of substance, energy and information that

take place in the environment, between people, the built environment and the natural
environment, is dynamic and evolutional. The state of balance is more and more dynamic,
and we must hope that the dynamic of the changes will not exceed by too much the limits
of this state of balance.
In the natural environment the balance has a certain cyclic character that is
extremely important, that makes possible the evolution based upon a limited quantity of
resources. The human society has developed in a way that can be perceived in a certain
sense as linear: the accelerated boost of the population, the increasing intensity of the
resources usage, the balance is obviously in danger.
We want to hope that us, the people, will be able to maintain the balance, because
the impact of the humankind on the environment has reached a level of spread that is the
principal factor of risk, so we can no longer hope that nature will resist for much longer and
that it will heal itself indefinitely of the diseases (the states of imbalance) that mankind
continues to cause.
We hope, but it is not enough. We must understand and succeed in operating for the
preservation of the balance,
We are in the situation of the sorcerer’s apprentice who unleashed forces that he
can no longer control, and the old good sorcerer will not come in a miraculous way to solve
the problem, to admonish the foolish apprentice and that all would come back to normal,

16
Architecture as theme of thinking, article signed „S”, in Simetria, Caiete de artă şi critică, II, Bucureşti,
summer MCMXXXX, pag. 98.

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just as in the beautiful tale from the valley of the Rhine. Only we will have to understand
where the “spell” got out of control and how we may restore the balance. I will say it again:
the main purpose is the preservation of the balance.
Regarding the approach of this essential purpose, the present study is an attempt in
the intention of knowing and better understanding the architecture with qualities, the
buildings that managed to survive successfully, both in the physical environment and also
in the interest and affection of people. Because they survived, these buildings, only
because they were solid and accurate build, and eventually well reconditioned. They
survived mostly I’m convinced, because they kept their significance for the people,
along the time, they remained “interesting”, virtually, appreciated beyond their material
value and their usage, this being their most important performance.

6.2. LEARNING FROM HISTORICAL BUILDINGS

There is a lesson to be learned from these buildings that maintained a certain

physical integrity and meaning, qualities that modified during periods of time but were never
lost, in most cases they even amplified. This lesson is essential and complex, difficult in any
case.
„To perpetuate old monuments is a task endlessly delicate, because these, built with
a lot of daring in a hostile climate, they managed to reach us due to endless work.” 17

6.3. THE PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE OF ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE

I hope that this study can contribute to the knowledge of the architectural
heritage of our country in a better and meaningful way. It is about knowing the physical
and material qualities, from the whole to the detail. At the same time, it is an attempt to
analyze the information contained in these components and characteristics of the
substance, starting with the objective elements of the information (texture, colour,
configuration, physical state) towards some elements more complex and even subtle, like

17
FROIDEVAUX, Yves-Marie, Techniques de l’architecture ancienne. Sprimont (Belgia): Mardaga, 1986,
pag. 185.

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patina (here is a concise and objective definition of the notion of patina: “We group under
this name the ensemble of evolutions superficial and non-destructive” 18). I have tried also a
certain analysis of the elements with a more important role in the expression of the
buildings, and the actual contribution of these elements to the quality of images, the beauty
of the buildings.
I also hope that I have also reached certain issue regarding those particular
interventions that diminish or even destroy some of these qualities, or at least a part of the
information contained in the substance and the image of the building, existing before the
intervention. This last is a difficult subject; it’s hard to analyze with objectivity, and it is even
less appropriate to pretend that there is a formula.
We can find some valuable conclusions after the analysis on the examples, and
also, after the analysis and the direct experience on site.

6.4. THE DIRECT EXPERIENCE ON SITE (EXPERIENTIA IN SITU)

From this angle of approach, one of the purposes of this study is that of bringing a
direct experience on site, of study but even of action, one step closer to the interested
persons, especially colleagues and potentially younger collaborators, and so on.
I stand here convinced that the direct experience is absolutely necessary, it cannot
be replaced by any kind of information. Just as a person that does not study can make
profound mistakes on the site, also the actual experience and the direct understanding are
necessary for the process of knowledge.
The present study it is a modest contribution of an architect of which purpose wasn't
exclusively restoration, but I had the chance of meeting extraordinary people, who helped
me to begin understanding things. I want to mention especially the former architect, Paul
Emil Miclescu; it was such an honest-mindedness to meet him, to listen him and to work
with him over many years.(from 1976 till 1991).
I'm interested in inscape architecture, and I have found it in historical buildings, but
not only. I'm interested in ecological architecture, and I think that, this type of architecture
won't be something unique, even more, I think there will be a real new balance between
18
EANNETTE, Daniel. Structures de porosité, mécanismes de transfert des solutions et principales
altérations des roches des monuments, Cours de Chaillot, Paris, CESHCMA, 1997.

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buildings and nature ,a balance that was in primordial times. Before the industrial era the
houses that have managed to get through years, and are still standing, deserved to get our
attention and understanding, especially from us, the architects who wishes to rise
meaningful houses.

“The world is heavy-laden with imposture, but we aren't guilty of that, sometimes it
suddenly goes away (out of vogue).We are never filled up with authenticity. The authentic
is never enough. The truth, the good and the beautiful must never have to suffer if we look
at it properly. The things which are truth and beautiful are coloured and conditioned in
different sorts of ways by time, but also consciousness is conditioned by time; but devotion,
especially the one bond by danger and sacrifice with temporary conditioned truth and
good, is monumental.”19

This study is about historical architecture, and it is the outcome of an architect

unversed in history of architecture. These kind of study aren't a lot, as i already said in the
first chapter(1.8)This fact, isn't a valuable argument, but it might be an argument for the
existence ,in our professional field of this study full of information and integrated
experience.
I'm an architect, specialized in some technical sciences, but I'm also a practician. I
hope that, the architectural technological experience had helped the practician to avoid
making big mistakes an vice versa.
I want to emphasize again that the architectural heritage is an interdisciplinary
professional field, because, like I said, in architecture likewise in medicine, the mistakes are
irreparable. It is essential to have someone to put heads together in matters like theory and
history of architecture, art, and not merely. As an architectural restaurateur, I disagree with
the idea that when you reach a sort of level of experience and knowledge ,you don't need
specialists in architectural history anymore .In every filed, no matter that is theoretical,
scientific, technical, ideas and knowledge evolve , and you cannot know if there is anybody
that knows something for sure.
Likewise, it is very important to have specialists in investigations and science and
concrete disciplines that can be necessary (specialist like geologists, physicians, chemists,
19
Jakob Burckhardt, Consideraţii privind istoria universală, Oradea: Antaios, 1999, pag. 21

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biologists). This is not the case for trying to establish some sort of order inside the
interdisciplinary team, and the architect is the most important in the team, he is the one that
has all the responsibility (also the authority) not for leading the members of the team, but to
coordinate the intercession, the activity and the finality of the team effort – he is the
conductor.

6.5. ABOUT THE PROFESSIONAL INTERCESSION OF AN ARCHITECT RESTORER

There is a certain conception about the restaurateur architect that is that he is

condemned to abstain from any type of creation. I hope that I understand the role of the
architect in restoration and I think it is useful to make some determinations.
The intercession of restoration is a professional intercession, the result being an
architectural object, that has to be (after Vitruvius) useful, beautiful and safe, as in not just a
museum exponent. Like any work of art, the restored building has to be the result of a clear
and coherent composition. The principles of restoration have to be followed, obviously, but
mostly in their spirit but in their character, like any other law. The theory of restoration is not
immutable, but it has a coherent evolution, that we have to permanently try to understand,
and never imagine that we own the absolute truth.
But what I want to say is that the conformation to a principle of restoration can never
be an excuse for a more poor result in the architectural quality of the object. The architect
restaurateur is a creator in the way that he creates a coherent opera, a composition that is
both unitary an meaningful in which the qualities of the historic subject are in harmony with
the elements of the intervention and with the result as a unitary work. In this sense I repeat
the famous affirmation of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, for who it is not necessary to invent a
new way of making architecture every Monday morning.
I have come to believe, after observation a studies along the years, which the
information contained in a valuable object of architecture is, in a certain way, endless. Any
work of art can be the subject of a lecture, of an unlimited understanding, in contrast with,
for example, a geometry principle. I am convinced that we have to do all that we can to
assure ourselves that we have researched and understood all the concrete data about the
building on which we are intervening, but at the same time to try to understand also the

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more subtle elements, less quantified, but with the same importance in the meaning and
the value of the architectural object.
I haven’t said in this study a lot of meaningful things about the complex and subtle
qualities of the work of art, definite, in which we can subscribe any valid architectural
object. I have tried to underline the importance of the understanding of these qualities, and
I hope that I’ve managed in a certain way also with the images I present to you. In any
case, I have tried to enlighten the complex relationships that I had observed between what
can be and what has to be measured and weighted, and what can be only felt in the
professional experience.
I hope that I have accomplished a coherent picture, although not complete, of
the objective elements that take part in a certain field of the existence of any valuable
building, whether it exists for some centuries, or that it is in a project phase.
For any professional intervention on a building that has had a time of life, it is
important to obtain the data of a more complete expertise, that is, as I have tried to show
during this study, a physical expertise of buildings, that it is wanted to become also in the
professional and scientific field of our country a clear and concrete component of the
professional intercession.
It is necessary that these components to become more clearly concrete components
of the frame - content of any intervention on a building with cultural value, actually on any
building of a public interest. Of course the promoters in the private sector may be
convinced of the necessity if a better professional performance in this practical area.
The thing that is mostly missing in the life of buildings is the professional
conception in the current maintenance and in following the state of health. Just like in
the medicine for living beings, it is easier to prevent than to treat. Much too many times
houses are left “to decay” much too bad before they can be treated, and again many times
they are treated wrong (even if with good intentions).
I will end with an example that I have commented upon in my study, and who
deserves to be studied and understood by us, the architects, and by all the professionals,
by the promoters and the clients of our times. The architects that built in the years 1930-40
in Bucharest and other places in the country often placed their names on the buildings they
have designed. After more than a half of century, many of these buildings have passed the
time with at least decency, if not with a surprising performance of surviving quality. They

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were mostly built correctly, but with reasonable means, sometimes even modest. Mostly,
the performance they have proved it is due to the quality of conception.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY:
HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE AND THEORY – BOOKS:

1. BRANDI, Cesare. Teoria restaurării. Bucureşti : Meridiane, 1996.

2. BURCKHARDT, Jacob. Artă şi istorie. Bucureşti : Meridiane, 1987.
3. BURCKHARDT, Jacob. Consideraţii privind istoria universală. Oradea: Antaios,
1999.
4. CHOISY, Auguste. Histoire de l'architecture. Paris: Vincent, Fréal & Cie, 1954,
(1991).
5. CHOISY, Auguste . L'art de bâtir chez les Byzantins. Paris: Librairie de la Société
anonyme des publications périodiques, 1883.
6. CHOISY, Auguste. L'art de bâtir chez les Romains. Paris, 1923.
7. COCHE DE LA FERTE, Etienne. L'art de Byzance. Paris: Edition d'art Lucien
Mazenod, 1981.
8. CURINSCHI-VORONA. Gheorghe. Arhitectura, Urbanism, Restaurare, Discurs
asupra istoriei, teoriei şi practicii restaurării monumentelor şi siturilor istorice.
Bucureşti: Editura Tehnică, 1996.
9. DIEHL, Charles. Manuel d'art byzantin, 2 volume. Paris, 1925-1926.
10. DIEHL, Charles. L'art chrétien primitif et l'art byzantin, Paris, 1928.
11. DINKEL, René. Encyclopédie du Patrimoine. Paris: Les Encyclopédies du
Patrimoine, 1997.
12. DOWNEY, G. "Byzantine Architects: Their Training and Methods", in Byzantion XVIII
(1946-48).
13. DOWNEY, G. L'art de la fin de l'antiquité et du moyen âge. Paris: Collège de France,
1968.
14. DOWNEY, G. L'Art du Moyen Age en Europe Orientale. Paris: A. Michel, 1968.
15. DOWNEY, G. L'Art Byzantin du Moyen Age, du VIII-e au XV-e siècle. Paris: A.
Michel, 1963 ; Martyrium, 3 vol., Paris, 1943-1946, (prèf.).
16. DOWNEY, G. Roumanie, Églises peintes de Moldavie. New York: Collection
UNESCO de l'art mondial, 1962.
17. GHIKA BUDEŞTI, Nicolae. „Evoluţia arhitecturii în Muntenia şi în Oltenia”, in BCMI,
fascicle 53-54/1927 (1st part), fascicle 63-66/1931 (2nd part), fascicle 71-74/, 1933 (3 rd
part), fascicle 87-90/1936, (4th part).

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18. HONNECOURT, Villard de. Cahier de Villard de HONNECOURT. Paris: Stock, 1981.
19. IONESCU, Grigore. Istoria arhitecturii în România (2 vol.). Bucureşti: Editura
Academiei RSR, 1965.
20. LAROUSSE, Pierre. Grand Dictionnaire Universel. Paris: Administration du Grand
Dictionnaire Universel tome quatorzième, (17 vol.; mid XIX-th century)
21. MANGO, Cyril. Architettura bizantina. Milano: Electa, 1974.
22. MARTIN, Roland. Manuel d'architecture grècque, matériaux et techniques. Paris:
Picard, 1965 (Stegen).
23. RADDING, C. M. şi W. W. CLARK. Medieval Architecture, Medieval Learning.
London: RIBA Publications, 1992.
24. RIEGL, Aloïs. Le culte moderne des monuments. Son essence et sa genèse. Paris:
Seuil, 1984.
25. STRZYGOWSKI, J. Die Baukunst der Armenien und Europa, 2 vol. Viena:
Kunstverlag Anton Schroll & Co, 1918.
26. TALBOT RICE, D. The Art of Byzantium. New York: Abrams, 1959.
27. TEXIER, Charles şi R. POPPLEWELL PULLAN. Byzantine Architecture. London:
Day & Son, 1864.

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BOOKS ON TOPIC & RELATED SUBJECTS:

28. ADAM, Jean Pierre. La construction romaine, matériaux et techniques. Paris: Picard,
3rd ed. 1995.
29. AMOROSO, Giovanni G. Materiali e tecniche nel restauro, Dario Flaccovio Edittore,
1996.
30. AMOROSO, G. G. şi V. FASSINA. Stone Decay and Conservation: Atmospheric
Pollution, Cleaning, Consolidation and Protection. Amsterdam; New York: Elsevier
Science Publishers, 1983.
31. ASANACHE, Horia. Higrotermica clădirilor. Bucureşti: Ed. Matrix, 1999.
32. ASANACHE, Horia, Demir, V., Delia, Fl. Higrotermica clădirilor. Aplicaţii. Bucureşti:
Ed. Matrix, 2000, (Asanache, H., coord.).
33. ASHURST, John and Nicola ASHURST. Practical Building Conservation. Halsted
Press (a division of John Wiley & sons), 1988 (4 vol.).
34. BAER, Norbert Sebastian and SNETHLAGE, Rolf (Editors). Saving our Architectural
Heritage. The Conservation of Historic Stone Structures. Report of the Dahlem
Workshop. Chichester: Wiley 1996.
35. BAER, Norbert Sebastian and SNETHLAGE, Rolf (Editors). Saving Our Architectural
Heritage: The Conservation of Historic Stone Structures, New York: John Wiley &
Sons, 1997.
36. CRIŞAN, Mircea. Restaurarea structurală a clădirilor de cult ortodox din Tara
Romaneasca şi Moldova. Bucureşti: Editura Universitară Ion Mincu, 2003.
37. CRIŞAN, Rodica. Reabilitarea locuirii urbane tradiţionale. Bucureşti: Paidea, 2004.
38. CRIŞAN, Rodica. Recomandări privind conservarea patrimoniului arhitectural.
Bucureşti: Editura Universitară ION MINCU, 2004.
39. CRIŞAN, Rodica. Analiza integrativă a valorii, Bucureşti: Editura Universitară ION
MINCU, 2004.
40. DE JONGE, Krista and Koen VAN BALEN (editors). Preparatory Architectural
Investigation in the Restoration of Historical Buildings, Leuven University Press, 2002.
41. DRDÁCKÝ, Miloš. “Cultural Heritage research needs in Europe - Introductory
comments”, in European Research on Cultural Heritage – State-of-the-Art Studies (M.
Drdácký ed.), Prague: ITAM, 2004

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42. DUVAL, Georges. Restauration et Réutilisation des Monuments Anciens, techniques
contemporaines, Liège: Mardaga, 1990, pag. 9 şi 10.
43. FEILDEN, Bernard M. Conservation of Historic Buildings. Third edition. Elsevier
Science & Technology, 2004.
44. FROIDEVAUX, Yves-Marie, Techniques de l’arhitecture ancienne. Sprimont (Belgia):
Mardaga, 1986.
45. FROSSEL, Frank. Uscarea zidăriilor şi asanarea subsolurilor. Bucureşti: Editura
Tehnică, 2005.
46. JOKILEHTO, Jukka. A History of Architectural Conservation, Elsevier Science &
Technology, 2004.
47. KORRES, M., G. A. PANETSOS, T. SEKI (editors). The Parthenon, Architecture and
Conservation. Athens: Hellenic foundation for culture, 1999.
48. KUNZEL, Helmut, Bauphysik und Denkmalplege. Stuttgart: Fraunhofer IRB, 2007.
49. MACHAT, Christoph, (edited by): Denkmaltopographie Siebenburgen, Topografia
Monumentelor din Transilvania, Rheinland-Verlag GmbH Koln: Vol.1 (5.1.1) Stadt
Hermanstadt, Municipiul Sibiu, Alexandru AVRAM and Ioan BUCUR, 1999.
50. MACHAT, Christoph, (edited by): Denkmaltopographie Siebenburgen, Topografia
Monumentelor din Transilvania. Koln: Rheinland-Verlag GmbH, Vol. 2 (4.1), Stadt
Schaessburg, Municipiul Sighişoara, 2002.
51. MACHAT, Christoph, (edited by): Denkmaltopographie Siebenburgen, Topografia
Monumentelor din Transilvania, Koln: Rheinland-Verlag GmbH, Vol. 3.(4) Kreis
Kronstadt, Judeţul Braşov, 2004.
52. MASSARI Giovanni, MASSARI Ippolito. Risanamento Igienico dei Locali Umidi.
Milano: Hoepli, 1985.
53. PRICE, C. A.. Stone Conservation, An Overview of Current Research. Santa
Monica, CA: The Getty Conservation Institute, 1996.
54. SIEGESMUND, Siegfried; AURAS, Michael; RUEDRICH, Joerg; SNETHLAGE, Rolf.
Geowissenschaften und Denkmalpflege, Bauwerkskartierung, Natursteinverwitterung,
Konservierungsstrategien, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Gesellschaft für
Geowissenschaften, Band 156 Heft 1, 2005.
55. SIMON, Ştefan and Miloš DRDÁCKÝ (editors). „European Research on Cultural
Heritage – State-of-the-Art Studies”, in, Problems of salts in masonry (jointly with the

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 GETTY CI) ARCCHIP, Volume 5, ITAM, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic,
2006.
56. SZABO, Balint. Introducere în teoria reabilitării structurilor de rezistenta istorice
(Romanian-Hungarian edition). Cluj-Napoca: Utilitas, 1998.
57. SZABO, Balint. Dicţionar ilustrat de construcţii portante istorice. Ediţia a II-a. Cluj-
Napoca: Kriterion/Utilitas, 2005.
58. SZABO, Balint, Imola KIRIZSAN, The Durability of Historic Buildings (Durabilitatea
structurilor portante istorice). Cluj-Napoca: Utilitas, 2002.
59. XXX. Architectures et Decors Peints, Actes des Colloques de la Direction du
Patrimoine, Amiens, oct. 1989.
60. XXX. La Brique Ed. Anthèse, Paris 1992.
61. XXX. Conservation of Historical Stone Buildings and Monuments, Report of the
Committee on Conservation of Historical Stone Buildings and Monuments, National
Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1982.
62. XXX. Enduits dégrades par les sels: pathologies et traitements, ICOMOS France,
dossier technique no. 6-2004.
63. XXX. Techniques et Pratique de la Chaux. École d’Avignon, Paris: Eyrolles, 1998.
64. XXX. The Acropolis at Athens, Conservation, Restoration and Research 1975-1983.
Atena: The Committee for the preservation of the Acropolis Museum, 1986.
65. XXX. Faut-il Restaurer les Ruines?. Paris: Actes des Colloques de la Direction du
Patrimoine, noiembrie 1991.

ARTICLES, PUBLISHED REPORTS & POSTGRADUATE COURSES

66. ABRAHAM, Pol. Viollet-le-Duc et le Rationalisme Médiéval, CEESCMA Centre

d'Études Supérieures d'Histoire et de Conservation des Monuments Anciens (École
de Chaillot), Paris 1991.
67. CHAPPUIS, R. Géométrie et structure des coupoles sur pendentifs dans les églises
romanes entre Loire et Pyrénées, Paris, Bulletin Monumental tome CXX, 1962.
68. CIŞMIGIU, Alexandru, Sandu MICLESCU, Mihai OPREANU, Mircea CRIŞAN.
Tipologia monumentelor religioase din Tara Românească şi strategia de restaurare",
Case study presented in Bucharest (1977, Şuţu Palace), Skoplje and Tokyo.

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69. CRISAN, Rodica. State of the Art Report, in European Research on Cultural
Heritage – State-of-the-Art Studies, edited by Milos Drdacky. Volume 3, ARCCHIP,
ITAM, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 2004.
70. DERER, Anca Hanna. „Biserica fortificata din Mosna/Meschen; certitudini şi ipoteze”,
BCMI, 2005, “In memoriam Vasile Drăguţ”.
71. JEANNETTE, Daniel. „Structures de porosite, mecanismes de transfert des
solutions et principales alterations des roches des monuments”. Paris: CESHCMA,
Cours de Chaillot, 1997.
72. MĂNCIULESCU, Ştefan, Olivier POISSON, Yves PEPIN, Matei LĂZĂRESCU and
Dider LEGRAND. La restauration de la Cathédrale Notre-Dame du Puy-en-Velay et
de la chapelle Saint-Michel d’Aiguilhe, [monumental] 2005 semestre 1.
73. MILLET, Gabriel. „Cozia et les églises serbes de la Moravia” in, Mélanges Iorga.
Bucureşti: Sărindar, Bucureşti, 1933-1934.
74. MOUTON, Benjamin. Consolidation. Paris: CESHCMA, Cours de Chaillot, 1992.
75. MOUTON, Benjamin. Maçonnerie. Paris: CESHCMA, Cours de Chaillot, 1992.
76. MOUTON, Benjamin. Analyses destructives et non-destructives. Paris: CESHCMA,
Cours de Chaillot, 1994.
77. MOUTON, Benjamin. Stéréotomie. Paris: CESHCMA, Cours de Chaillot, 1998.
78. OPREANU, Mihai. „O scrisoare către un arhitect, în secolul al şaselea” (articole), în,
Arhitectura, 5/1982, 3, 5/83, 5/84.
79. OPREANU, Mihai. Architectes Français en Roumanie. Paris: Monuments
Historiques, Paris, nr.169/1990.
80. OPREANU, Mihai. Un ensemble de monastères fortifiées du XVII-e et du XVIIIe
siècles, en Roumanie. Paris: École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales,
Diplôme d’Études Approfondies, 1992.
81. OPREANU, Mihai. Faţadele Universităţii Bucureşti. Bistriţa: Simpozion MC – CNMI,
1997.
82. OPREANU, Mihai. „Restaurarea faţadelor edificiului Universităţii Bucureşti”.
Construct Design 1, 1999.
83. OPREANU, Mihai. „Restaurarea faţadelor Palatului Şcoalei Superioare de
Arhitectură”. Construct Design 2-3, dec. 1999.
84. OPREANU, Mihai. „Basarabi, monument rupestru”. Construct Design 12, oct. 2000.

Page 100 of 107

85. OPREANU, Mihai. „Ansamblul rupestru din Basarabi (I), (II),Basarabi Rupestrian
Ensemble (III)”. ARHITEXT-DESIGN 4 (111)/2002, 5 (112)/2002, 6(113)/2002.
86. OPREANU, Mihai. „O discuţie concisă despre materiale şi tehnici noi in restaurarea
monumentelor de arhitectură. ARHITEXT-DESIGN 8(127) sept. 2003.
87. OPREANU, Mihai. O poveste despre turle. ARHITEXT-DESIGN 9-10 (128-129) oct.
2003.
88. OPREANU, Mihai. „Cetatea RUPEA, Braşov County, conservation and rehabilitation
project”. ARHITEXT-DESIGN 9-10 (128-129) oct. 2003
89. OPREANU, Mihai. „O poveste despre paramente”. ARHITEXT-DESIGN 3 (134)
march 2004
90. OPREANU, Mihai. „New Materials and Technologies for Conservation and
Safeguarding of Cultural Heritage”, in, European Research on Cultural Heritage –
State-of-the-Art Studies (Miloš DRDÁCKÝ, editor), Volume 3, ARCCHIP, ITAM,
Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 2004.
91. OPREANU, Mihai. „Moşna – Biserica evanghelică fortificată. Probleme de
conservare şi restaurare”. BCMI, 2005, “In memoriam Vasile Drăguţ”.
92. OPREANU, Mihai. „Basarabi Rupestrian Ensemble”. Studies of European
Symposium on Renewable Energies in European Universities of Architecture.
Bucureşti: UAUIM, Oct. 2007.
93. PEDREGAL, Pierre Diaz. Monuments historiques: la question du climat – Les
monuments historiques échappent-ils aux lois de la physique?. Saint-Flour: INP, sept.
2006.
94. SZABO, Balint. Compatibilitatea intervenţiei legate de mediul construit, Studies of
Tuşnad Symposium 2003, Cluj-Napoc: Utilitas, 2004.
95. TEODORU, Horia. „Biserica schitului Mărculeşti-Flămânda din Câmpulung-Muscel,
studiu arhitectonic”. BCMI nr. 113-114, july-oct. 1942.

PROJECTS:

MĂNCIULESCU, Ştefan, ACMH, France, restoration projects for:

 Curch of BRIOUDE, Haute-Loire
 Church of RETOURNAC, Haute-Loire
 Church of CUREMONTE, Correze

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  Catherdral of Le Puy en Vélay, Haute-Loire
 Chapel of Saint Michel d’Aiguilhe, Le Puy en Vélay, Haute-Loire

AUTHOR’S PROJECTS:

 A reception theatre for tournaments (1st prize of OISTT, Stockholm, 1983) –

colaborators: Ruxandra CLIT-SARBULESCU, Alice HENRY, Stefan MANCIULESCU,
Rodica TURICU-CRISAN.
 Museum of Architecture (mention, Gand, 1983)
 Museum of Sculpture in Tokyo, Glass House Competition 1987
 Glass Tower in Tokyo, Glass House Competiton, 1978
 Former ensamble of Plavniceni Monastery, Teleorman County, in progress
 Plataresti Monastery, Calarasi County (realised, nominated at UNRMI Expo – National
Union of Historic Monuments Restorers)
 Floresti Monastery, Vaslui County, in progress, Arhitext-Design Prize, 1993, nominated
at UNRMI Expo, 1996
 Berislavesti Monastery, Valcea County, in progress
 Restoration of Basarabi rupestral ensamble, Constanta County, in progress, 1999,
emergency interventions 1998-2007
 Restoration of fortified church of Mosna, Sibiu County, in progress, 1998-2007
 Restoration of the facades of Bucharest University, 1997-1998, in progress
 Restoration of The Higher School of Architecture Palace, the old building, study project
– 1996, technical project for the main facade in 1998, in progress
 Curtea Veche Ensamble, Bucharest, feasibility study, 2005
 “Tinc” Pharmacy, Galati, realized
 The Church of Vernesti, Buzau County, realized
 The Church of Saint-Phal, Aube, France (for J-M Musso Agency, ACMH, Paris) –
realized, Mention of Bucharest Biennial of Architecture, 1993
 Restoration of cladding - Troyes Cathedral, Aube, France, (for J-M Musso Agency,
ACMH, Paris), 1992, realized
 „Reduta”, Brasov, restoration, 1994 (with prof. M. Smigelschi)

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 1978-1980, colaboration to following projects (tutors prof. Paul Emil Miclescu, prof.
Sandală Miclescu): Slobozia Church and Flamanda Church, Bucharest, Mogosoaia,
Stancesti, prahova County; St. Filofteia and „Eroilor” Church, Buzau, Naeni, Buzau
County, Popesti and Urechesti, Vrancea County, Hieresti, Giurgiu County, Domneasca
Church and sapunaru Church, Focsani, Turbati and saftica, Ilfov County, Verbila and
Sarateanca Churches, Prahova County, churches of Soveja, Fitionesti and Lespezi,
Vrancea County, church of Tetcoi, Arges County, and church of Daesti, Valcea County;
 analysis studies for: Luigi Cazzavillan former house, Grigore Cerkez former house, the
Library of Academy – former institute, „Capitol” cinema, Plumbuita Church and
plumbuita Monastery, Catina Church and Valea catinii Church, Buzau County, stefan
Luchian Memorial Museum, Botosani County, the archeological site of Targsorul vechi,
Prahova County, buildings in the old historical center in Bucharest.

BIO-CLIMATIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL ARCHITECTURE -

STUDIES AND PROJECTS

 sustainable architectural projects and studies, bio-climatic and environmental

projects; three experimental buildings erected in 1978-1988
 PLEA 86, competition project, Pecs, Hungary
 Study on „form” factor evaluation in sustainable buildings, colaboration with UTCB,
prof. dr. ing. Horia Asanache, 1996-1998.

IMAGES:
The images that do not offer further observations belong to the author. The ones marked
with „red” folowed by name are realised by the person indicated, according to author’s
knowledge.
The following images belong to / have the indicated source:
CHART 1, a, http://www.gorden.us/images/Ise1.gif;
CHART 1, b, www.pitt.edu/~asian/week-4/week-4.html;
CHART 1, c , www.geocities.com/mokuraibozu/garden_timeline.html
CHART 1, d, members.tripod.com/reentravelpics/philadelphia.htm

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CHART 1, e ww.nps.gov/archeology/sites/npSites/franklinCourt.htm
CHART 3 : red. arh. Radu Pană, arh. Oana Măciucă
CHART 5 : red. stud. arh. Alexandru Gîrjoaba
CHART 6 b,c,d, 36, : arh. Silviu Gogulescu
CHART 8 d,e, 9 d : red. stud. arh. Tiberiu Tudor
CHARTS 9 c, 11 d,e,f : MOUTON, Benjamin. Stéréotomie, Cours de Chaillot, CESHCMA,
Paris 1998.
CHARTS 14 e, f, 17 a, b, 19, : arh. Ana Botez
CHARTS 20 b, 32 a : stud. arh. Cristian Alexandru Neagu
CHART 23, a, b, c : COSTESCU, Arhitect Em., „Restaurarea bisericii Mihai Vodă din
Bucureşti”. BCMI, anul XXXVI, 1943, pag. 72, 57, 67
CHART 37: red. stud. arh. Memet Adnan
CHART 40, a, b : GHIKA BUDEŞTI, Nicolae. Evoluţia arhitecturii în Muntenia şi în Oltenia,
în BCMI, fascicle 87-90/1936, (4th part)
CHART 42 : French-Romanian workshop, UAUIM-CESHCMA 1998-99
CHART 45 a : unknown, author’s collection
CHART 50 c : ing. Dumitru Bahamat
CHART 56 a, b, d, e, f : arh. Virgil Apostol
CHART 56 b : Seymour Z. LEWIN, The Mechanism of Masonry Decay Through
Crystallisation, în PRICE, C. A.. Stone Conservation, An Overview of Current
Research, The Getty Conservation Institute, Santa Monica, CA, 1996
CHARTS 65, 66, 67 : Jean-Michel Musso, ACMH, Mihai Opreanu
CHARTS 68 - 73: Ştefan Mănciulescu, ACMH
CHART 96 : Cătălin Ştefănescu
CHART 98 a, c : IONESCU, Grigore. Istoria arhitecturii în România, (vol. 2)
Bucureşti: Editura Academiei RSR, 1965
CHART 99 : drawings by arh. Radu Pană & colaborators
CHART 100 a-f : Dorin Dănilă, sculptor
CHART 104 : drawings by arh. Radu Pană and colaborators
CHART 107 a,left, and c, left : INMI archives
CHARTS 110-112 : red. stud. arh. Ştefan Cristescu şi Raluca Oprea

Page 104 of 107

COLABORATORS – PROJECTS AND STUDIES:

The projects and case-studies presented in the book are the result of a large group of
students and fellow architects team-work.

I hereby name my profesors arch. Sandală Miclescu and dr. arch. Marius Smighelschi as
well as conf. dr. arch. Anca Hanna Derer, conf.dr.arch. Liviu Gligor, dr. arch. Radu Pana,
drd. Arch. Silviu Gogulescu, conf. dr. arch. Gabriel Negoescu, arch. Tana Lascu, arch.
Cristina Pana, arch. Antonia Circiumarescu, arch. Oana Maciuca, arch. Codina Dusoiu,
arch. Ana Botez, arch. Ana Maria Labo.

A special thought to one who once was Jean-Michel Musso, ACMH, with whom i’ve worked
between 1991-93, while i was granted an internship by the French government.

I hereby thank to all those who helped me in this 20 year of work and professional training.

Special thanks for some remarcable persons i’ve worked with on construction sites during
restoration projects, especially: eng. Dumitru Bahamat, from Galati, Vasile Barlea from
Sighetu Marmatiei, eng. Lucian Mihu from Sibiu, and their teams and many many other.
Thank you! I consider myself priviledged to have worked with all of you and I hope we will
work together again!

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ABBREVIATIONS:
AEERPA: Association Européenne des Entreprises de Restauration du Patrimoine
Architectural
ACMH : Architecte en Chef des Monuments Historiques
ARIADNE: Advanced Research Initiation Assisting and Developing Networks in Europe
ARCCHIP: Advanced Research Centre for Cultural Heritage Interdisciplinary Projects
BCMI: Buletinul Comisiuniii Monumentelor Istorice, seria veche, ante 1948;
Buletinul Comisiei Monumentelor Istorice, serie nouă, din 1990
CCPEC: Centrul de Cercetare, Proiectare, Expertiza si Consulting al UAUIM
CESHCMA: Centre d'Études Supérieures d'Histoire et de Conservation des Monuments
Anciens: École de Chaillot (Şcoala de la Chaillot)
CMI: Comisiunea Monumentelor Istorice
The Comision of Historical Monuments
CNMI: Comisia Naţionala a Monumentelor Istorice
The Historical Monuments National Comission
DMI: Direcţia Monumentelor Istorice
The Historical Monuments Bureau
INMI: Institutul Naţional al Monumentelor istorice
The National Institute of Historical Monuments
MC: Ministerul Culturii
Ministery of Culture
MCC: Ministerul Culturii si Cultelor
IAIM: Institutul de Arhitectură “ION MINCU:, Bucureşti
“Ion Mincu” Institute of Architecture, Bucharest
INOE: Institutul Naţional pentru OptoElectronică
Optic&Electronic National Institute
SCUPAD: Salzburg Congress for Urban Planning And Development
UAUIM: Universitatea de Arhitectură şi Urbanism “ION MINCU:, Bucureşti
“Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urban Planning, Bucharest

Page 106 of 107

 This book would have not existed without the help of my professors, arch. Sandu
Miclescu and Mario Smigelschi. A warm hearted thought for arch. Paul Emil Miclescu with
whom I was fortunate to work and listen to for 15 years.
Last but not least, special thanks to arch. Cristian Alexandru Neagu who helped me
in the past 2-3 years, especially with image editing for this study. Also, special thanks to
eng. Elena Dinu, first editor at “Ion Mincu” University Press for her help in editing this book.
I hope this study will be a helpful document to all students, professors and
architects.

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