Restoration / Architecture · Design and Construction
Services · Antakya · Hatay
Measured Survey
A measured survey (rölöve) is the complete documentation of a building’s present condition through scaled drawings, photographs and reports. It is the first step of any intervention on a registered cultural property: restitution, restoration and reconstruction are all built on the data it produces.
What is a measured survey?
A measured survey records the existing condition of a building — its interior and exterior architecture, ornament, structural system and materials — through scaled drawings, documents and reports. It registers what state the building is in today, which traces it carries and what decay it has undergone.
A survey looks like a measuring job, but it is really an act of reading. A change in a mortar joint, a blocked-up window opening, a shift in floor level or a different plaster texture are all data that describe the periods a building has passed through. If the person taking the measurements cannot read these traces, what emerges is not a survey but merely a floor plan.
For this reason measured surveys are prepared by architects working in conservation. The resulting sheets form the basis of the file submitted to the Regional Conservation Board and become the technical foundation for every later project stage.
When is a measured survey required?
If you are planning repair, alteration, strengthening or a change of use in a registered building or one inside a conservation area, a measured survey is compulsory — no file is processed by the Regional Conservation Board without one.
Beyond that, a survey is needed for damage assessment and strengthening projects after an earthquake or fire; for documenting a building before sale, transfer or expropriation; for academic publication and inventory work; and for producing technical evidence in insurance and legal proceedings.
If the building has collapsed entirely, a conventional survey is not possible; in that case the excavation survey method is used to document the traces surviving at foundation level.
How we work
Before going on site we search the building’s archival record, historical photographs, cadastral sheets and any earlier project files. This preliminary reading determines what we look for in the field.
Measurements are taken with terrestrial laser scanning and photogrammetry, and the resulting point cloud is verified against hand-taken control measurements. Millimetric accuracy keeps the real geometry from being lost, especially in irregular stone masonry and deformed walls.
Drawing production begins with the site plan and cadastral situation, and continues with floor plans, floor-structure and ceiling plans, the roof plan, street and courtyard elevations, longitudinal and cross sections, and details of doors, windows, stairs and joinery. Material and decay mapping is set out with legends on separate sheets.
Delivery consists of the scaled sheets and the survey report. The scale descends from 1/100 to 1/20 and 1/10 according to the nature of the building; for ornament and joinery details, full-size 1/1 templates are taken where necessary.
How is the scale chosen?
The scale of a survey is not decoration but a decision, and it is settled before measurement begins — because the scale also determines what you look for on site: a difference in mortar joints that is invisible at 1/200 is on its own a piece of evidence at 1/20.
For the general appearance, massing and plan characteristics of buildings ranged along a street, 1/200 is enough. For the base of a re-use project, 1/100 is appropriate. A survey aimed at restoration is drawn at 1/50 and supported by plans, sections and elevations at 1/20.
Details such as ornament, joinery and mouldings are drawn at 1/10, 1/5 or even 1/1, and full-size templates are taken from inscriptions and reliefs. In large buildings the practical route is this: the whole is set out at 1/200 to produce one legible, workable sheet, and the details are opened out at their own scales.
Analytical survey: periods and decay
The work does not end when the measuring does. The drawings are then studied to place the building’s construction phases in chronological order, and a separate historic-fabric analysis sheet is prepared. The original construction and later repairs are shown in different colours or hatchings; a legend in the lower right corner of the sheet explains which notation belongs to which period.
Sections that clearly differ in construction technique or style but cannot be dated are marked with a question mark, together with a proposed date where possible — for example “(19th c. ?)”. The most dangerous thing in a survey is to draw something uncertain as though it were certain.
The second set of sheets is the decay map: cracks, cavities, stones that have lost their surface, salt efflorescence, plants rooted in walls and roofs, biological decay and soiling are marked one by one on the plans, sections and elevations. Each sheet carries its own legend, and the hatchings are chosen so that they read clearly against one another.
These two sets of sheets are the justification for the restoration decisions. The proposed intervention is read directly off them: which crack will be stitched, where grout will be injected, which surface cleaned, which section rebuilt.
Legal basis
Measured survey work is carried out within the framework of Turkish Law No. 2863 on the Conservation of Cultural and Natural Property and the principle decisions of the High Council for Conservation. Internationally, Article 16 of the Venice Charter requires every conservation and restoration work to be documented with drawings and photographs, and those records to be deposited in a public archive.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a measured survey (rölöve)?
A measured survey (rölöve) is the complete documentation of a building’s present condition through scaled drawings, photographs and reports. It is the first step of any intervention on a registered cultural property: restitution, restoration and reconstruction are all built on the data it produces.
Is a measured survey the same as an architectural project?
No. An architectural project describes what will be built; a measured survey documents what already exists. The survey records the present condition without adding interpretation, while the architectural project describes a future state. In registered buildings you can only move on to the architectural project after the survey.
How long does a measured survey take?
The duration depends on the size of the building, the number of its historical layers and site access conditions. Fieldwork usually takes a few days; the real time is spent processing the point cloud and producing the drawings. For a courtyard house the whole process takes a few weeks.
What if the building is severely damaged and cannot be entered?
In unsafe buildings the measurements are taken from outside with terrestrial laser scanning and photogrammetry, and a partial measured survey is made of the accessible sections. If the building has collapsed completely, we move to the excavation survey method.
What is drawn first on site?
The freehand sketch. After the building has been examined thoroughly inside and out, sketches are made of the site plan, floor plans, sections and elevations, and the measurements are written onto them. If the sketch is not drawn large and detailed enough, the dimensions will not fit, they become confused, and they cause trouble for the rest of the job. Profiled elements such as doors, windows, fireplaces and corbels are lettered or numbered and given their own separate, larger-scale sketches.
Are photographs part of the survey or an appendix to it?
Part of it. Drawings alone cannot convey a building’s ornamental detail, its colours or its overall effect. Photographs are taken close-up and parallel to the face; the positions and directions of the shots are marked on the plan and given sequence numbers. For ornament such as frescoes, painted decoration, mosaics and painted timber ceilings, colour photography is essential — the chromatic character is itself a record.
Is it right to join measured points with straight lines in irregular stone masonry?
No. In regular ashlar or brickwork it is acceptable, but in irregular rubble masonry joining the measured points with straight lines does not give a result close to reality. The correct method is to mark the points, fix the drawing to a rigid board, stand in front of the building and join the points while looking at the fabric itself. In the rubble-stone walls of Antakya this difference feeds straight through into the project.
Source
The principal reference for the theoretical framework and technical definitions on this page is Zeynep Ahunbay, Tarihi Çevre Koruma ve Restorasyon (Historic Environment Conservation and Restoration), YEM Yayın, Istanbul 2009. The principles also rest on the Venice Charter (1964) and Turkish Law No. 2863 on the Conservation of Cultural and Natural Property. The fieldwork and the assessments concerning Antakya are our own.