Structural aspects of the conservation of the “Arsenale” of Venice

Systematic interventions are being planned and progressively designed on most buildings of the “Arsenale” of Venice, the Venetian republic’s ship-yard, a very large complex of docks and sheds of very peculiar construction characteristics. Their renovation is required in view of new uses, but paying attention to the appropriate conservation rules. An adequate diagnosis of the actual construction consistency, structural behaviour and state of conservation is evidently required prior to, during and after the works are made in order to establish design criteria and specifications capable to ensure that only the really necessary interventions are planned to ensure structural safety, thus coping with the criterion of minimising the interventions in order to ensure as far as possible the conservation of the original construction properties. Moreover, appropriate materials and application techniques are chosen, where necessary, which ensure as much as possible chemical and physical compatibility (with the existing structures) and the possibility to remove them if and when problems should arise, during and after the execution, connected, even if not directly due, with the new interventions. Some preliminary results, given by experimental tests performed both in situ and in laboratory on materials and structural elements, and by FE simulations, are discussed.