Performance-based diagnosis applied to the rehabilitation of residential buildings

Abstract

A lack of investment in maintenance and conservation has resulted in the decay of the housing stock in Portugal, a situation exacerbated by a failure to define and implement public policies designed to encourage landlords to preserve the constructed heritage in our cities (which is of incalculable economic and cultural value). When the decision is taken to intervene in a building that shows significant signs of pathology, rehabilitation work should not go ahead until a detailed diagnostic study has been performed. The resulting report should clearly identify problems encountered, establish their causes and suggest an intervention method designed to ensure that certain basic requirements are met. This article aims to contribute to the preparation of such diagnoses by presenting the outline of a method known as Performance-based Diagnosis Applied to the Rehabilitation of Buildings, supported by a computer application called MEXREB. It also analyses the results of a validation study in which this methodology was applied to a series of 39 buildings (498 individual households containing a total of 1086 residents). Â(c) 2009 Palgrave Macmillan.