Pathology Analysis and Intervention at the Pavilhão Mourisco Roof Terraces—Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Abstract

The Pavilhão Mourisco, designed in Moorish revival, is the icon of Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Listed in 1981 as National Heritage, the building nowadays holds the foundation’s historical collections and makes room for some administrative personnel. The building is subject to severe wind conditions, acid rain and pollution, which all accelerate the deterioration rate of the building’s external elements. The Department of Historical Heritage at Fundação Oswaldo Cruz has been developing emergency actions for safeguarding the building, but rainwater infiltration is a recurring issue. In order to develop an accurate plan to reverse this hazard, an analysis of the pathologies in place and of the department archives had to be carried out, as well the testing of the previous waterproofing solutions for that area. After that, the department developed a restoration project in order to restore the waterproofing system for the terraces, involving work on the external elements including decorative mortars, ceramic tiles and copper drip edges. The last physical intervention had the objective of stopping the deterioration processes and their consequences in order to preserve the building and the institution’s collections.