ALBERT

Description: The weathering of historical buildings, as well as that of any monument or sculpture using natural stone (or man-made porous inorganic materials) is a problem identified since antiquity. Although much of the observed world-wide destruction of these monuments can be ascribed to war and vandalism, many other factors can contribute significantly to their deterioration. These threaten the preservation of the current inventory of historically, artistically or culturally valuable buildings and monuments. Furthermore, a drastic increase in deterioration has been observed on these structures during the past century. This prompted Winkler (1973) to make a pessimistic prediction, that at the end of the last millennium these structures would largely be destroyed because of predominantly anthropogenic environmental influences. Fortunately, this has proven not to be the case. There is a general belief that natural building stones are durable, and not for nothing does the Bible refer to the Rock of Ages. However, all rocks will weather and eventually turn to dust. If rocks are cut and used in buildings, the chance of deterioration increases because other factors come into play. To understand the complex interaction that the stone in a building suffers with its near environment, (i.e., the building, and the macro environment, the local climate and atmospheric conditions), requires an interdisciplinary approach with the work of geologists, mineralogists, material scientists, physicists, chemists, biologists, architects and art historians. Although most historical buildings use natural stone as the main construction material, other materials, such as mortars for masonry or rendering and ceramic roof tiles ... This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract.