Sustentabilidade de argamassas de tabique inovadoras

This research project will be developed to expand existing technical knowledge about wattle and daub walls, making it available to the local, academic and technical communities. At the same time, the aim is to help preserve this material and cultural heritage for future generations, through in-depth scientific knowledge and technological innovation. The central objective of the project is to find sustainable alternatives for the wattle and daub mortars, which allow the recovery of the great diversity of built heritage that includes this construction technique, from a perspective that is sustainable and relevant to heritage preservation and valorisation and circular economy processes. To this end, one of the research objectives will be to understand the characteristics (composition and properties) of the existing mortars applied on wattle and daub walls of Portuguese buildings. This will be achieved through extensive analytical and laboratory campaigns based on physical, microscopic, mineralogical, thermal, chemical and mechanical tests. In parallel with the characterization of existing mortars, it is intended to carry out an exhaustive survey of the Portuguese built heritage that includes wattle and daub walls, including a survey of their condition. Given some existing knowledge about this condition, which tends to be poor, it is very urgent to find rehabilitation solutions, particularly for the coating mortars that are the protective "skin" of buildings. Based on the knowledge obtained in the first phase of the research, the aim is to formulate a range of rehabilitation mortars suitable and compatible with the existing building elements. Choosing the composition of coating mortars for the rehabilitation of old buildings is a complex process, the result of which must satisfy multiple functional requirements, in the aesthetic, mechanical and physical fields (Veiga, 1998; Rodrigues, 2004; Guerreiro et al, 2007), and whose balance point is difficult to achieve and is also a challenge of this research project. The choice of the waste to be incorporated in the rehabilitation mortars will take into account that the Portuguese Environment Agency, in its Second State of the Environment Report - Macroeconomic Scenarios for Portugal, 2050 (2022), which points out that the Portuguese government, industry and society are working together to fulfil the overall goals of the waste management plan. An advanced study of the life cycle of this type of construction will also be carried out, as well as an analysis of the incorporated costs, to understand the added value of this type of construction.