Overview
Europe is a continent with a rich and vibrant cultural heritage, and the built environment is a key part of this. Preserving our heritage for future generations requires careful renovation of historic buildings, balancing safety, energy performance and respect for their cultural value.
These buildings have low energy performance, resulting in high energy consumption. They may also have structural vulnerabilities. Recent earthquakes in Croatia, Greece and Italy have led to damage and collapses, highlighting the risk of economic losses, injuries and loss of human life.
The JRC is exploring cost-effective solutions to preserve cultural heritage for future generations while ensuring the safety of historic buildings.
What the JRC is doing
The JRC is helping to preserve our cultural heritage through its Smart textiles for retrofitting and monitoring of cultural heritage buildings (STRETCH) project. STRETCH has integrated the seismic and energy renovation of historic masonry structures with sensors, ensuring safer, more sustainable buildings that can be continuously monitored in the future.
Smart textiles for retrofitting and monitoring of cultural heritage buildings (STRETCH)
The STRETCH project explored an integrated renovation approach combining structural strengthening, thermal insulation and sensors to improve the safety, energy performance and monitoring of historic masonry buildings.
The project evaluated textile-reinforced mortar systems using basalt and flax fabric mesh on stone masonry walls. Tests showed that these systems can improve structural performance and resistance to earthquake forces, while integrated sensors can detect signs of damage, provide early warning of possible structural problems and support better-informed maintenance decisions.
Advantages
The STRETCH integrated renovation approach contributes to:
- Reducing disruption, labour requirements and overall renovation costs thanks to its combination of structural strengthening, energy renovation and monitoring in a single intervention
- Improving the seismic performance of buildings by reducing losses due to damage and collapse from earthquakes.
- Reducing energy consumption and the associated operational carbon emissions thanks to thermal upgrading
- Supporting timely, targeted and cost-effective maintenance decisions for cultural heritage buildings by providing information on structural behaviour, thanks to integrated fibre-optic sensors
In addition, the investigation of both basalt and flax textiles broadened the range of reinforcement solutions considered, including a bio-based alternative. The system was designed to minimise its impact on the character and cultural value of historic buildings.
Supporting EU policy
Developing innovative renovation technologies, while preserving the identity of cultural heritage buildings, is a key principle of the European Framework for Action on Cultural Heritage. STRETCH contributes to the Framework by providing science-based evidence and recommendations on integrated approaches to structural safety, energy performance and structural health monitoring.
In addition, the project supports EU objectives for improving the performance and resilience of the building stock, including the recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive and the Renovation Wave under the European Green Deal.
Related publications
Rossi, M, and Bournas, D.A. 2023. Structural Health Monitoring and Management of Cultural Heritage Structures: A State-of-the-Art Review. Applied Sciences 13, no. 11: 6450. https://doi.org/10.3390/app13116450