Preservation Condition of Buildings That Have Been Supposedly Restored: Campus of Laranjeiras, Sergipe, Brazil

Federal University of Sergipe, Brazil

Abstract: In 2004, Monumenta Program (Brazilian urban heritage Sustainable program) has elected the town of Laranjeiras, in Sergipe, Northeastern Brazil, to be able to develop preservationist actions, under federal custody resulting from the loan agreement between the IDB (Interamerican Development Bank) and Brazilian Government, according to the list of conservation priorities elaborated by the Special Commission of the Ministry of Culture. Among the proposed set of actions, Campus of the Federal University of Sergipe started its activities in 2009 in the old buildings (built in nineteenth and twentieth centuries) called “Block of Trapiches” (it is the term used for sugar warehouses). Since 2015, and even recently, these “supposed” restored buildings have presented many degradations after some years without preventive maintenance. Regarding to the failure of conservation and restoration, this paper aims to document and discuss several problems of restored buildings that are related to the absence of care in prevention and maintenance of the built patrimony, as well as, it has occurred some inappropriate intervention actions (as they can be called “reforms”), for example, by using inappropriate modern paints, using cement-based mortars and similar products on historical masonry, causing more destruction than preservation.