Restoration / Architecture · Design and Construction
Services · Antakya · Hatay
Restoration
Restoration is the balanced intervention that opens a standing historic building to present-day needs while safeguarding its original material and workmanship. Every decision — which trace to keep, which decay to treat, which loss to complete — rests on documentation and the principle of minimum intervention.
What is restoration?
Restoration is the scientifically grounded intervention carried out to conserve and consolidate a building of cultural-property status and, where appropriate, return it to use. The aim is not to make the building look new but to carry the historical information it holds into the future without loss.
The hardest part of restoration is not technical but decisional. Which period addition is kept and which removed; which crack is structural and which superficial; which loss is completed and which left open — each of these is a decision that must be justified separately.
Those decisions rest on the measured survey and the restitution. The survey gives the building’s present, the restitution its past; the restoration project reads the difference between the two and describes the intervention.
How are intervention decisions made?
Work begins with damage and decay mapping. Cracks in the structural system, salt efflorescence caused by damp, insect and rot damage in timber members, and incompatible cement mortars used in earlier repairs are each recorded on the sheet.
Intervention types are then defined: consolidation, cleaning, joint repair, completion, renewal and — where unavoidable — limited dismantling. Each intervention is transferred to the plan and elevation with its own notation, so that the contractor can read on site exactly what to do.
The guiding principle is minimum intervention. Original material stays in place wherever it can; replacement is carried out only where structural capacity or safety demands it. All additions must be reversible and distinguishable from the original fabric.
Material selection follows the same principle. In Antakya buildings we use lime-based mortar and plaster; cement is not used on original walls because it prevents the stone from breathing and accelerates salt transport.
The ladder of intervention: from least to most
Restoration is not a single technique but a series of techniques of increasing severity: consolidation, reintegration, renewal and reconstruction, with cleaning and — only where unavoidable — relocation alongside them. The degree of intervention rises in that order, and at every step up one moves a little further from the original fabric.
The principle is therefore simple: from a conservation standpoint the best course is to stop at consolidation. As the extent of damage grows, the scope of intervention necessarily widens and techniques that alter the fabric come into play — but that is not a preference, it is a necessity that has to be demonstrated.
In practice several steps are used together in one building. In a mosque whose dome has cracked in an earthquake and whose portico and minaret have collapsed, structural consolidation and the rebuilding of the lost elements may both be required. What matters is that the intervention chosen for each element is shown separately and explicitly on the restoration sheet.
The underlying approach in conservation today, however, is none of these: it is continuous maintenance. A building inspected under annual and five-year programmes, whose damage is dealt with while it is still small, is preserved without any need for costly intervention at all.
Consolidation works on three levels
Consolidation is addressed on three levels: that of the material, that of the structural system and that of the ground the building stands on. Confusing the three leads to the wrong treatment: closing a ground-induced crack with a surface repair only makes the problem invisible.
In buildings leaning out of plumb, safety is assessed roughly by the “rule of thirds”: if a plumb line dropped from the centre of gravity falls within the middle third of the bearing area, the building is considered safe; if it falls outside the footprint of the wall, there is a serious risk of collapse. Widening the section and jacketing enlarge the base area and bring the centre of gravity back within the safe limit.
Buttressing is still a valid method, but today heavy buttresses that spoil the general appearance of a monument are avoided; temporary shores are often erected and removed once the structure has been consolidated. A buttress bearing on a wall at a single point is dangerous — under lateral thrust it can punch through and cause damage — so a spreader is used and the support distributed over a broad surface.
Ringing, tie bars and tension rods have been used across the Mediterranean earthquake belt for centuries. The vertical iron bars seen on facades — called kılıç in Turkish — are the ends of ties binding opposing walls together; in some buildings they belong to the original design, in others they mark a later consolidation. Ring beams and ties are still used today for seismic strengthening. The general rule is this: consolidation techniques that can be concealed within the fabric, out of sight, are preferred.
Cleaning and the fallacy of “unity of style”
Cleaning means ridding a building of additions that carry no historical or aesthetic value. Removing additions and ornament made in different periods by the representatives of changing artistic movements in order to achieve “unity of style” is not cleaning — it is the return of nineteenth-century stylistic recomposition, and it runs against modern conservation principles.
Article 11 of the Venice Charter states this plainly: the valid contributions of all periods to the building must be respected, since unity of style is not the aim of a restoration. Revealing an underlying layer can be justified only in exceptional cases — where what is destroyed is of little importance, where what is brought to light is of great historical, archaeological or aesthetic value, and where its state of preservation is good enough to warrant the action.
Authority over which additions may be removed rests with the Regional Conservation Board. Structural additions proposed for removal — walls, floors, projections — are marked on the survey sheets in a distinct colour or hatching; the post-cleaning condition is submitted to the board as a proposal, and work proceeds only after approval. Photographic documentation before and during cleaning is compulsory.
In facade cleaning, most of the damage comes from unauthorised and unsupervised work. Scraping with wire brushes, abrasive paper, angle grinders or masons’ combs and hammers removes not only the dirt but the original tooling marks left by the first mason and the patina the stone has acquired over time. The correct sequence is this: examine the material, the nature of the dirt layer and the surface decay; make small trials on the surface; and only then choose between mechanical cleaning, chemical cleaning, water washing, absorbent clays and paper poultices.
The Conservation Board process
No intervention may be carried out on a registered building without board approval. The file is submitted to the Regional Conservation Board together with the survey, restitution and restoration projects; the board deliberates, requests revisions where necessary, and once approved the permit to build follows.
We run the process on the owner’s behalf from beginning to end: file preparation, presentation to the board, follow-up on revisions and supervision of the works after approval. We keep owners informed with a clear roadmap rather than technical jargon.
The work does not end once construction starts. New findings on site — a blocked-up arch, an original floor uncovered beneath a later one — are reported to the board and the project is revised where needed. Every operation carried out is archived with photographs and drawings.
Legal basis
Restoration decisions are taken within the framework of Law No. 2863 and Articles 9–12 of the Venice Charter. The charter requires that intervention be made only where necessary, that additions be built in a recognisable language of their own time, and that every stage be documented.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is restoration?
Restoration is the balanced intervention that opens a standing historic building to present-day needs while safeguarding its original material and workmanship. Every decision — which trace to keep, which decay to treat, which loss to complete — rests on documentation and the principle of minimum intervention.
Can I restore my registered house and live in it?
Yes. Conservation does not mean the building must stand empty — on the contrary, a building in use is better preserved. Contemporary requirements such as heating, wet areas and services are resolved so that they neither cover the original fabric nor become irreversible. Every arrangement is shown in the restoration project and goes to the board for approval.
How long does a restoration take?
Two separate durations need to be distinguished. The project and board approval process usually takes a few months and depends on the board’s agenda. Construction time varies with the building’s condition; in a severely damaged courtyard house it can reach a year. What extends the schedule most is unexpected findings on site that require a revision.
What happens if repairs are made without approval?
Under Law No. 2863 unauthorised intervention is an offence, bringing administrative fines and an obligation to restore the building to its former state. Worse, a repair carried out with unsuitable materials usually causes an irreversible loss of information. A project and approval process must always be completed before any repair begins.
Can I have my facade cleaned by sandblasting?
On decayed surfaces, sandblasting is not appropriate. Mechanical cleaning — abrasive sand, glass beads or aluminium grit sprayed at low pressure — is suitable only for sound, undecorated, large surfaces, and must be done at low pressure by properly trained operators. On ornamented surfaces, on those of high artistic or historical value, and on damaged ones, chemical cleaning or absorbent clay and paper poultices are preferred. In every case, cleaning requires the approval of the Regional Conservation Board.
Surely washing a facade with plenty of water does no harm?
It is not harmless. Washing works well for water-soluble dirt, but flooding a facade with water is risky: capillary action carries the water inward from the surface of the stone, mobilises the salts within the wall and produces efflorescence on the inner face. Special nozzles that atomise the water are therefore used, allowing large surfaces to be cleaned with very little of it.
Does seismic strengthening change how the building looks?
The aim is that it should not. The rule is to prefer consolidation techniques that can be concealed within the fabric, out of sight, and to avoid as far as possible interventions that spoil or alter the general appearance. Ring beams, ties, grout injection, anchors and foundation strengthening can in most cases be carried out without showing on the facade. Where a visible solution is unavoidable, temporary shoring is preferred and removed once the structure has been consolidated.
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.