The Collapse and Restoration of the Church of Saint Mary of Itria in Piazza Armerina (Sicily, Italy)
The paper illustrates the damages occurred to masonry buildings due to incorrect consolidation interventions dated back to the 1980s that, according to the culture of the time, were oriented to the replacement of structural elements with new heavy ones, thus changing the static scheme. The case study concerns the seventeenth century church of Saint Mary of Itria in Piazza Armerina, affected in 2007 by the collapse of the one side wall of the apse. After illustrating the historical evolution and the actual state of the building, the investigations carried out to identify the causes of collapse and provide for appropriate reconstruction interventions are reported. The results of hydro-geologi…
Experimental Study on the Performance of Timber Frame Wall Panels in Mediterranean Construction
Only recently, the use of wooden buildings is spreading in the central and southern parts of the Italy due to national and EU policies on eco-sustainability and energy saving. Knowledge of the durability of the building envelope elements, generally made with dry assembled stratified systems, is still insufficient. The paper presents the first results of a durability evaluation of multilayer timber panel applied to Platform Frame System buildings, focusing on the variation of energy performance over time. The case study describes the construction of two single-family houses in the municipality of San Cataldo (Sicily, Italy). The used timber multilayer panel presents a stratigraphy suitable f…