CONDITION SURVEY OF HISTORIC BUILDINGS BY VISUAL INSPECTION - CASE STUDY: MURAT PASHA MOSQUE

In heritage preservation, there is crucial need to identify the potential seismic risk in existing historic buildings for hazard mitigation, disaster preparedness and prior knowledge of potential hazards. Seismic risk evaluation is based on safety assessment which requires qualitative and quantitative data. This data is necessary before making any intervention decision. The qualitative data is visual inspection of decays, structural damages and deteriorations; and the quantitative data requires laboratory tests, structural analysis etc. Obtaining the quantitative data is detailed method, which necessitates specialists and takes more time and money. The fact that there are so many historic buildings and a few specialists on this field it is very important to make condition survey based on visual inspection as a first step of safety assessment procedure. According to these results necessity of detailed inspection and intervention and restoration works and the budged can be prioritized. This paper aims to present condition survey criteria generally and to focus on visual inspection as a first step of safety assessment. The data given in this paper is a part of author’s PhD study in which visual inspection method for assessing the risk level of masonry monumental historic structures is developed. The paper deals with Murat Pasha Mosque as a case study