The Sobrado Vallim Rehabilitation Project

Abstract

This paper presents the assessment of the historical two story Sobrado Vallim building located in Bananal, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The Sobrado Vallim was built as the house of the local coffee Baron. Since being unoccupied by the family, the building has served as a school and as the City Hall; more recently the building has housed a local community association. The first story is formed by rammed earth walls supporting a wood floor. The walls on the second floor are built with adobe blocks, and several wood columns embedded into the walls support the wood roof trusses. The building has been unoccupied for several years and a temporary shoring system has been designed and installed to prevent possible collapse. The analyses included measuring and defining the building structural elements to determine their capacity. The rammed earth walls compression strength was determined using flatjacks. Samples of the adobe blocks were obtained so that their physical and mechanical properties could be determined through laboratory testing. Thermography was used to assess the wood elements condition. The proposed structural solution was to maintain the shell of the building and construct a steel frame structure within the existing elements. The steel frame would reduce the span and partially support the roof trusses at their mid-length. The ends of the wood trusses would still bear on the existing second floor walls. The proposed solution reduced significantly the loads on the existing elements, allowing the form the building to be maintained.