Building Characterization and Degradation Condition of Secondary Industrial Schools

Abstract

In 2007, the Portuguese government launched a modernization program for the public network of secondary schools. This comprised a comprehensive survey on 56 large secondary schools aiming at identifying the main building anomalies to be considered in the rehabilitation projects. Based on this survey, this paper presents the building characterization and the analysis of the degradation patterns of 15 Portuguese secondary industrial schools, a particular and homogeneous typology of secondary schools. A set of information about each school was collected first, gathering, among other elements the (1) identification of the anomaly, (2) building element affected and its location in the building, (3) extent and severity level of the anomaly, (4) causes, and (5) repair solutions. From the resulting database, the degradation condition of these schools was assessed in terms of the (1) most frequent degradation occurrences, (2) influence of the relative location of building elements (envelope versus interior), (3) influence of the type of building, and (4) maintenance and rehabilitation recommendations. The results presented in this paper show that the overall condition of the schools analysed is reasonable to good, particularly taking into account their age (42–61 years old); a relatively small number of critical situations was detected, most of which were localized. This paper also shows that in most situations the two main types of anomalies detected, i.e., (1) structural, and (2) moisture-related, could have been avoided if properly addressed during the design and construction stages. Several situations stem also from lack of maintenance, which in some cases was hindered by difficult access to the construction elements.