Saving face: a new approach in conserving heritage brickwork by understanding the issue of salination

Abstract

Fair face lime-based brickwork is one of the most popular types of fa?ade in early colonial buildings in Hong Kong. A good proportion of such buildings are slowly but inexorably disappearing. Since the sixties, the awareness of the general public in heritage preservation of Hong Kong started in its embryonic form, gradually evolved through the seventies and eighties, gaining momentum to active involvement in the nineties, and finally to the organized and pragmatic approach of today.

In 1976, the Hong Kong Government enacted the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance to ensure that the best examples of Hong Kong’s heritage are protected. With the establishment of the Antiquities and Monuments Office in at the same year, a number of buildings with historical and architectural values have been declared as monument or included in the list of graded heritage buildings since then and their conditions are being concerned. However, conservation principles have not been highlighted in our local heritage building maintenance practices. Perhaps, due to client’s intention, funding constrains, and/or lacking of skillful craftsmen and expert supervision, incompatible building materials and inappropriate methods have been applied on those fair face brickwork fa?ade. More and more evidence shows that such maintenance practices worsen the condition of the historic fa?ade and causing damages to the heritage. No doubt, fa?ades of those deteriorating heritage buildings are deserved proper maintenance and repair under appropriate conservation approaches.

The focus of this dissertation is upon the understanding the issue of brickwork failure particularly owning to the saturation of soluble salt in brickwork attributed to various inappropriate maintenance approaches. To establish a guideline for lime-based brickwork fa?ade maintenance to ensure longevity, reduce costs and improve value.