GPR survey applied to modernista buildings in Barcelona:: The cultural heritage of the College of Industrial Engineering

The campus of the College of Industrial Engineering of Barcelona was recently declared an Architectural Heritage Site due to the value of its Modernista buildings, which were built in 1868 under the direction of the architect Rafael Guastavino (1842-1908). The site housed one of Europe's largest textile factories during the 19th century and was later remodelled and transformed into the College of Industrial Engineering. Despite the great social and architectural significance of these buildings, the archives of the Barcelona city council do not contain complete architectural documentation or floor plans showing the major remodelling projects that were carried out during the 20th century, which considerably altered the architecture of the campus. Since the building required major renovation work and insufficient structural information was available, it was necessary to carry out a non-destructive survey in order to analyse and evaluate the structural elements that would be affected by the planned remodelling. A GPR survey was recently performed and some useful results will be exposed in this paper. (C) 2008 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.