Fire-resistance, physical, and mechanical characterization of particleboard containing Oceanic Posidonia waste

In this work, particleboards manufactured with Oceanic Posidonia waste and bonded with cement are investigated. The particleboards are made with 3/1.5/0.5 parts of cement per part of Posidonia waste. The physical properties of bulk density, swelling, surface absorption, and dimensional changes due to relative humidity as well as the mechanical properties of modulus of elasticity, bending strength, surface soundness, perpendicular tensile strength and impact resistance are studied. In terms of the above properties, the best results were obtained for particleboards with high cement content and when the waste “leaves” are treated (crushed) before board fabrication, due to internal changes to the board structure under these conditions. Based on the results of fire tests, the particleboard is non-flammable without any fire-resistant treatment.

Rehabilitating, repairing and restoring against demolishing, tearing down and destroying: the recovery of the military fort for the Santa Pola town museum

This communication develops the process of interventions of the Renaissance fortress of a new plant built in 1554–57 in Santa Pola. It is one of the earliest examples built with reference to military architecture theoretical treaties (XV–XVI) and best preserved. The study runs its own story from its initial military use, through the use of civil equipment until the final cultural and Museum Center. First, the project of Italian origin is examined and its use as barracks for troops for a duration of three centuries (1557–1850), pointing out the architectural constants of war machinery in a defense position and its origin as a rainwater collector and cistern: a perfect square with two bastions in which a plan of the uprising is preserved (1778). Secondly, we study the changes in the mentioned architecture throughout a century and a half (1850–1990) after its change of ownership (from the state to the municipality), and as a result of the new use as a city hall and public endowment: a market and health and leisure centre, which meant the demolition of defensive elements and the opening up to the outside of the inner parade ground. And thirdly, the new transfer of the municipal offices brings in the beginning of a project of transformations (1990–2015) that retrieves the demolished elements at the same time as it assigns the entire fort for a cultural centre: exhibition, research and history museum, promoting the identity between the citizens and the building which stands in the foundations of their city. The conclusions take us through an interesting route that goes from the approach of defensive tactics, its use as administrative headquarters to the current cultural policy of preservation. In addition, all the known plans of the fort are recovered (of military, civil and cultural use), some unpublished, as well as the project of the North wing that has guided the last operation and which has been set as a pattern of reference.