Rehabilitation and restauration of the main façade of historical masonry building –Romanian National Opera Timisoara

A typical characteristic that generally defines historic buildings is certainly the age of the buildings. The life cycle of historic buildings is out of date, the vast majority being hundreds of years old. Naturally, as time has gone by, buildings have been subjected to the degradation process. The cultural and historical value of these buildings are the subject of a particular focus on finding rehabilitation and restoration solutions that meet both architectural and structural requirements. A lot of the historical buildings are buildings with structure from brick masonry walls, as is and the case of the Romanian National Opera from Timisoara. Thus, this paper aims to address the subject of the deficiencies faced by the materials that make up the facade of the historic masonry building - Romanian National Opera Timisoara in order to find the optimal solution for rehabilitation and restoration. In the first phase, the characteristics of the analysed building are presented as well as the historical context throughout its existence. The methodology of travertine testing is described, including pull-off and porosity tests and morphological and mineralogical analyses as well as a thermography of the façade. The results of the non-destructive and destructive tests carried out on the bricks extracted from the masonry wall of the Opera House as well as the testing procedure are also presented. A comparison of the methods of rehabilitation and restoration of brick masonry buildings was also made. The paper includes details regarding the initial situation of the building’s damaged façade, but the main scope is to evaluate the causes of the façade’s cracks which have led to the need of façade rehabilitation and restauration works. The deficiencies of the travertine plates that make up the façade as well as the structural walls are described. Thus, for the rehabilitation of the masonry walls, a reinforced plaster lining was chosen, at the same time the existing cracks were filled by injections of cement milk, while for the restoration of the façade, the existing travertine tiles were replaced with new tiles with the same aesthetic configuration. In conclusion, the focus is on highlighting the efficiency of the chosen rehabilitation solution as well as that of restoration works executed in order to prolong the building’s life cycle. The conclusions of the study also highlights the importance and necessity of preserving heritage buildings in Romania in order to complete the historical and cultural space.