Military quarters 'Caserma Principe Amedeo' in Nola, Italy: damage assessment and reconstruction of a partially collapsed XVIII century complex

A methodological approach is presented for the structural restoration of a highly damaged XVIII century building complex, the former military quarters, called Caserma Principe Amedeo, in view of their reutilization as House of Justice in the city of Nola, near Naples, Italy. The complex was designed by one of the most important architects that operated in Naples at that time: Ferdinando Fuga. Today the structure is extremely damaged with many parts being collapsed. In the reconstruction phase of the vaults, particular attention was paid to the formwork for the vault timbering matching the specific geometry of the existing vaults. This implied extensive and in-depth historical investigations on the construction techniques of that period to reconstruct the vaults following the design rules, the manufacturing techniques, and the materials of XVIII century in that area. A non-linear finite element analysis of the vault was performed with reference to the effective geometric and mechanical properties. The numerical modeling was validated by means of a real scale pilot vault tested on-site, and two tests on existing vaults. This investigation made possible the redesign of an architectural layout that appears to be neat and functional for the future building utilization. It was possible to restore construction techniques applicable to materials and geometries perfectly correlated to the original design. This restoration allows the reconstructed part of the building smoothly fading into the architectural equilibrium of the original structure.