SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 4, No 1, (2018), pp. 53-73
Copyright © 2018 SC
Open Access. Printed in Greece. All Rights Reserved.
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1048245
RE-USE PROPOSALS AND STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS
OF HISTORICAL PALACES IN EGYPT:
THE CASE OF BARON EMPAIN PALACE IN CAIRO
Ahmed Elyamani
Cairo University, Faculty of Archaeology, Archaeological Conservation Department, Giza, Egypt
(a_elyamani@cu.edu.eg)
Received: 11/09/2017
Accepted: 10/11/2017
ABSTRACT
The Palace of Baron Empain in Cairo is a unique architectural masterpiece of its kind. Edward Empain, a
rich Belgian, built it in 1911 influenced by the architecture of the famous Cambodian temple of Angkor Wat.
The palace is composed of three floors (basement, ground and first) and a roof, it is surrounded by a garden
from all sides. It suffered from neglect for decades, and recently appeared initiatives for its restoration and
re-use. This paper aims to provide a proposal for the re-use of the palace. For this purpose, the palace was
visually inspected and the signs of damage were documentated and explained. A re-use proposal was
developed in which the ground floor is re-used as a small museum after being furnished on the historical
style. The first floor is re-used as a museum and/or a motel. The roof is re-used in holding cultural seminars,
and as a place for distinctive imaging types. The palace garden is to be re-used similar to its historical usage
as an open space for celebrations and parties. The basement is re-used as a service floor for the visitors. To
support this re-use proposal, a 3D numerical model of the palace was created and the new expected loads
were applied on it. It was found that the palace’s walls and foundations can sustain the new loads. The slabs
were found to be unable to sustain the new loads at certain places and further investigation and analysis is
needed to judge its actual capacity.
KEYWORDS: Historical palaces, Deterioration, Re-use, Intervention, Structural Analysis, Baron Empain palace, Heliopolis
AHMED ELYAMANI
54
1.
INTRODUCTION
Egypt has a large number of historical palaces. A
considerable number of them were built during the
regime of Mohamed Ali Pasha (1769-1849) and his
family who ruled Egypt from the beginning of the
19th c. till the mid of the 20th c. Some of the historical palaces of Egypt have been reused to host cultural events such as Beshtak palace (14th c.) and Amir
Taz palace (14th c.) in Cairo. Some others have been
reused as presidential palaces such as Abdeen palace
(19th c.) and Koubbeh palace (19th c.) in Cairo and
Ras El-Tin palace (19th c.) in Alexandria. Some other
palaces have been reused as museums such as the
palace of the Prince Mohamed Ali (20th c.) in Cairo.
Some palaces have been re-used as governmental
administration buildings such as Princess Fokia palace (20th c.) in Cairo.
Despite of the previously mentioned efforts from
the Ministry of Antiquities for preserving the historical palaces of Egypt by finding an appropriate new
function for them, there are many un-used palaces
that are suffering from neglect. Some of those are AlGawhara palace (19th c.), Al-Sakakini palace (19th c.)
and Said Halim palace (19th c.) in Cairo (Figure 1)
among others. The high cost of restoration works is
one of the reasons behind this neglect. It should be
also mentioned that a large part of Egyptian cultural
heritage is suffering from lack of maintenance even
after being restored (El-Derby and Elyamani, 2016;
Moustafa et al., 2015).
The studies carried out so far on historical palaces
of Egypt are still limited and more research is needed. A brief is given about some of these studies. Ibrahim (2016) studied the historical palaces in Minya
city (south of Egypt) and gave proposals for the reuse. The re-usage of interior spaces of historical palaces to work as culture palaces was studied by Abdullah (2016). Hemeda (2012; 2013) carried out the
characterization of the construction materials and
the inspection of the foundation soil of Habib Sakakini palace (19th c.) in Cairo. Ibrahim (2009) addressed the re-use of some of the palaces of Mohamed Ali’s family. Megahed (2009) carried out a
documentation of the palace of Abdel-Maged Pasha
in Minya (20th c.). Moustafa (2008) investigated the
conservation of the historical palace of Haiat ElNefos in Minya and its re-use.
Re-use of neglected historical structures and giving them a function is an efficient way for their conservation. The new function, preferably, should be
similar to the historic one. However, other functions
not similar to the historic ones should be also considered, if deemed appropriate and no significant
changes are needed. The aim is to conserve the au-
thenticity of the historic structure to the extent possible by minimizing any interventions necessary for
the new function. It is also necessary to study well
the needs of the surroundings of the historic structures. This helps in addressing which function could
the historic structure could have. In the literature,
there are successful cases in which the re-use played
a clear role in conserving neglected historic structures (Ljla and Brostrom, 2015; Amayu, 2014; Nikolic
et al., 2014; Conejos et al., 2011; Dedross, 2010; Langstone et al., 2008; Freund de Klumis and Munsters,
2005).
The re-use of historical structures necessary needs
safety checks calculations. For this purpose, structural analysis plays an important role. It helps in understanding the structural behavior under different
current and expected loads from new usages after reuse. As well, it is an efficient tool for identifying the
weakness places where strengthening intervention is
possibly needed. In designing the strengthening, a
numerical model could be used as a virtual laboratory in which the different strengthening proposals
may be simulated to reveal its efficiency. There are
many successful cases in the literature in which
structural analysis have been used as an efficient tool
in the study of historical structures. The structural
safety of the cathedral of Mallorca, one of the largest
built cathedrals worldwide, was successfully assessed under seismic loads using a FE model (Elyamani et al., 2017a, Elyamani et al., 2017b, , Elyamani, 2015, Caselles et al., 2012, Elyamani et al.,
2012). Elyamani (2009, 2016) studied the structural
behavior of the spire of Barcelona cathedral under
wind and earthquake loads using a FE model for the
spire. The reader is referred to other cases such as
Saloustros et al. (2015); Pela et al. (2014); Ademovic
et al. (2013); and Roca et al. (2013) for similar studies.
This paper gives a proposal for the re-use of one
of the most famous palaces in Egypt; it is the Baron
Empain palace in Heliopolis, Cairo. To support this
proposal a detailed structural analysis of the palace
was carried out. One of the reasons behind the fame
of Baron Empain palace all over Egypt is the case of
Satan worshippers in mid of 1997. More than 100
young Egyptians were arrested and caused of practicing Satanism (Abdel-Wahed, 1998). It was a public
opinion case that attracted a lot of attention. The arrested people were practicing these activities in Baron Empain palace. One of their activities was scarifying animals, and till today, there is a room in the
palace where all the walls are stained with blood,
possibly of animals scarified during these activities.
The room is known now as the room of blood, Figure 2.
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RE-USE PROPOSALS AND STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF HISTORICAL PALACES IN EGYPT
Figure 1. Examples for un-used Egyptian palaces suffering from neglect and deterioration: (a) Said Halim
palace, (b) Al-Gawhara palace, and (c) Al-Sakakini palace.
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AHMED ELYAMANI
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Figure 2. Two photos inside the room of blood in Baron Empain palace showing the stained walls with
blood of, possibly, sacrificed animals during Satanism activities in 1997.
2.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PALACE
The Baron Empain palace (Figure 3 and Figure 4)
is located at Heliopolis district in Cairo. This district
is at ten kilometers northeast of Cairo and is very
near to Cairo international airport. Heliopolis was
created from 1905 to 1913 by the Baron Empain and
Boghos Nubar. They decided to create a new district
built to European technical, functional and sanitary
standards to be suitable for the bourgeois class lived
in Egypt at that time (Mercedes Volait et al., 2003).
The palace was constructed in 1911. It is composed
of three floors and a roof. Additionally, it is surrounded by a large garden from all sides as can be
seen in the layout in Figure 5.
The basement floor (Figure 6-a) is divided into
many spaces connected together by corridors and
doors. It was the residence for the servants of the
palace at the past. It can be reached from the garden
via two doors as indicated in the figure using red
arrows. A small spiral stair and an elevator connect
the basement to the ground floor. The elevator, as
well, connects the rest of the floors to the basement.
The ground floor (Figure 6-b) can be reached from
three entrances as shown in the figure. It is divided
into three main spaces: the reception hall at the middle, the dining room to the right and the billiard
room to the left. The first floor (Figure 6-c) is reached
from the ground floor using the main stair of the
palace. It is composed of four rooms and each room
has its own balcony and bathroom. The roof is an
open area and has a dome at one of its corners.
Figure 3. Global view of Baron Empain palace looking at the rear façade and the front and rear gardens.
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RE-USE PROPOSALS AND STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF HISTORICAL PALACES IN EGYPT
Figure 4. Global view of Baron Empain palace looking at the front façade.
The palace
Figure 5. Layout of Baron Empain palace and the front and rear gardens.
Elevator
(a)
(b)
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AHMED ELYAMANI
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(c)
(d)
Figure 6. Architectural plans of the palace: (a) basement floor, (b) ground floor, (c) first floor and (d) roof.
3. EXISTING DAMAGE
The different structural elements of the palace
were visually inspected for detecting the existing
damage. Based on this inspection, it was observed
that the palace does not suffer from any series structural problems. No series deformations or cracks
were noticed in the walls or the ceilings.
The only obvious noticed damage was the falling
down of the concrete cover of some parts of the ceilings of the basement and the first floors, Figure 7. No
such damage was observed in the ground floor ceiling. For the first floor ceiling, the infiltrated rain water may be the reason of such damage. The parts of
(a)
the basement floor ceiling that are suffering from
such damage are these parts of the stairs connecting
the palace with the garden. Those parts are directly
exposed to rain water and this may be the reason of
the falling down of the concrete cover.
Other non-structural damage was observed. This
included the harmful anthropogenic actions by writing on the walls using sprays which distorts them
(Figure 8-a), broken glass of doors and windows
(Figure 8-b), deterioration of the wooden finishing of
floors (Figure 8-c), deterioration of doors (Figure 8d), falling of plaster (Figure 8-e) and deterioration
and missed parts of the roof flooring (Figure 8-f).
(b)
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(c)
RE-USE PROPOSALS AND STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF HISTORICAL PALACES IN EGYPT
(d)
(e)
59
(f)
Figure 7. Falling down of the concrete cover of ceilings: (a) first floor ceiling damaged parts, (b) and (c) samples from
damage, (d) basement floor ceiling damaged parts, (e) and (f) samples from damage.
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
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(e)
(f)
Figure 8. Non-structural damage: (a) anthropogenic actions, (b) broken glass of doors, (c) deteriorated wooden
floor’s finishing, (d) deteriorated door, (e) falling plaster and (f) deteriorated roof flooring.
4. PROPOSAL FOR RE-USE
4.1 Basement floor
The proposed re-use of this floor is shown in Figure 9. The floor will serve the visitors of the palace.
This re-use proposal is not far from the historical
usage of this floor. It accommodated in the past the
kitchen of the palace, the water boilers and the
rooms of the servants. In the current proposal, it will
accommodate a restaurant (spaces 1) that can serve
about 60 clients. The necessary kitchen (space 9) will
be placed at the back of the palace with required
storage (space 10) and fridges with different cooling
temperatures (spaces from 13 to 15: fridge 1, fridge 2
and fridge 3). The kitchen will serve also the parties
and celebration events taken place in the palace’s
garden. The basement will accommodate also a book
shop (space 2), a shop for souvenirs (space 3), and a
bazar (space 4). Storage spaces for these shops are
provided (spaces 8). Toilets for visitors of the palace
or clients of the restaurant are considered (space 5
for women and space 6 for men). As well, toilets for
female and male workers are provided (spaces 11
and 12). A laundry is included in this floor (space 16)
for cleaning services of the motel.
The privacy of both of the visitors (green arrows
in Figure 9) and the workers (red arrows in Figure 9)
is considered by carefully assigning certain paths for
each of them. In addition, the disabled visitors (blue
arrows in Figure 9) will have their own entrance
from a side door. After entering, they can use the
same paths for normal visitors. The normal visitor
can enter the floor from the front door. Then, she/he
can turn left to enter the restaurant or turn right to
enter the book shop. Alternatively, she/he can keep
walking forward and then turn right to enter the bazar or the souvenirs shop. Workers in the kitchen
and the supplies for the kitchen are served from a
side door. Some of the doors are only allowed for
workers. These doors are between spaces that are
allowed only for workers.
This re-use proposal will need some changes in
the walls of the basement floor. Necessary changes
are shown in plan using circles with different colors
beside every part of the walls to be changed. Some
walls will be opened carefully to allow access between different spaces with or without adding doors
(red and blue circles). Some walls will be provided
with small openings to work as windows between
spaces (light blue circles). Some of the already existing openings in the form of arches will be provided
with doors to separate between spaces (orange circles). Some of the already existing windows will be
enlarged to work as doors to allow access between
spaces (green circles). Some arches will be provided
with doors (yellow circles).
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1: Restaurant
2: Book shop
3: Souvenirs
4: Bazar
5: Women W.C.
6: Men W.C.
7: Distribution
8: Shops storage
9: Kitchen
10: Kitchen storage
11: Female worker W.C.
12: Male worker W.C.
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13: Fridge 1
14: Fridge 2
15: Fridge 3
16: Laundry
Figure 9. Proposed re-use of the basement floor.
4.2 Ground floor
Figure 10 shows the re-use proposal of the ground
floor. This floor will be re-used to be like a museum.
The floor will have three main spaces. Space 1 includes the reception hall, the dining room and the
billiard room. This recalls again the historical usages
of these spaces as they were when the Baron Empain
and his family occupied the palace. The furniture
would be designed by experts in the field to be similar to the historical one used at that period of time.
The idea has been already applied on other historical
structures such as in Casa Mila in Barcelona and in
the palace of the Prince Mohamed Ali in Cairo, Figure 11. Furnishing these spaces on the historical style
gives the visitor an impression of returning back in
time for a century to feel how the people were living
at that time.
Space 2 will be equipped with modern LCDs.
These LCDs will display short documentary films
about the Baron Empain, the construction of Heliop-
olis and the palace. Regarding spaces numbered 3,
both of them are looking at the back garden of the
palace. Therefore, they could be used as a background for taking memorial photos for the visitors. It
is proposed to provide the palace with a professional
photographer for this purpose that can take instantaneous photos with reasonable fees.
The visit path will be organized so that the visitor
after entering from the main entrance of the palace
can turn to the left to visit the billiard room and then
goes to the reception hall and finally to the dining
room. Afterwards, the visitor will choose either to go
downstairs to the basement floor or to go upstairs to
visit the upper floors. Alternatively, she/he can visit
space 2 to enjoy the documentary films, previously
referred to. Then, she/he can go to space 3 for having a look on the back garden or to take memorial
photos. Finishing that, the visitor can go down to the
back garden using the side stairs. It can be noticed in
Figure 10 that the two doors of space 3 are exit only
doors. This is meant to organize the entrance of the
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AHMED ELYAMANI
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visitors to that space to allow the photographer
enough time to adjust and take the photos for the
visitors.
Very limited changes will be made to the walls of
that floor. Only one door will be opened to allow
access to space 2 for the normal visitors and as well
for disabled (indicated with small black triangle in
Figure 10). Regarding disabled, they can reach that
floor using the lift of the palace after entering from
the side door previously mentioned in the re-use of
the basement floor. The bathroom near to the palace’s stair will be furnished specifically to serve disabled.
Figure 10. Proposed re-use of the ground floor.
(a)
(b)
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(d)
(c)
Figure 11. Furniture inside reused historical structures: (a) and (b) interior of Prince Mohamed Ali
palace (Cairo, Egypt), and (c) and (d) interior of Casa Mila (Barcelona, Spain).
4.3 First floor
It is proposed to reuse this floor to be either a museum (same idea as ground floor) or a motel. In both
cases, the rooms will be furnished as bedrooms. Only in the first case, it will be necessary to furnish the
rooms and its corresponding bathrooms on the historical style. For the second case modern furniture
would be used. Figure 12 explains the re-use proposal. The spaces from 1 to 4 in the figure are corresponding to the bedrooms occupied by the Baron
Empain and his family in the past. The space B is a
balcony.
The visitor after reaching this floor can visit each
space and see the style life of that historical period.
The visitor can take photos for the front and rear
gardens from this floor when being in any of the
spaces B. As well, group visitors can take group
memorial photos in the large balconies corresponding to rooms 1 and 3. Disable can reach this floor
using the palace’s lift.
In case the floor will be a motel, the four bedrooms could be rented. The floor can be rent as a
whole to accommodate family visits. The visiting
family will occupy the rooms and experience the life
of the Baron and his family for one night. This in
turn will offer good income to the Ministry of Antiquities which is the current palace’s owner. The
kitchen in the basement can offer necessary services
to the motel. The necessary change in the walls of
this floor is indicated in the figure using blue circle.
It is proposed to close three openings of doors.
Figure 12. Proposed re-use of the first floor.
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4.4 Roof
The roof will do a function similar to the one it
had in the past. It will accommodate cultural events.
Two proposed furniture arrangement are shown in
Figure 13. For the case “a”, the audience will occupy
the middle part of the roof. Up to 50 persons would
be accommodated. The part named “1” in the figure
will work like a stage for the event.
In the case “b”, the audience will occupy a side
part of the roof; up to 40 persons could be accommodated. This organization is suitable for cultural
events like seminars and lectures. The event guests
will have a table and three chairs in front of the audience.
In both proposed re-use, it is meant not to occupy
the full area of the roof with the furniture. The audience will enjoy the empty parts of the roof during
the break time during the event. This free space will
allow them to enjoy taking photos, chatting, and seeing the front and the rear gardens of the palace and
as well the surroundings of the palace.
(a)
(b)
Figure 13. Two furniture for the proposed re-use of the roof (a), and (b).
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5. STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS
5.1 Description of the numerical model
A Finite Element (FE) model of the palace was
created using the software SAP 2000 version 15 (CSI,
2011). This software has a friendly user interface and
has been successfully used in the structural analysis
of several historical structures such as El-Derby and
Elyamani (2016), Beeson et al. (2015), Alexakis and
Makris (2013), Behnamfar and Afshari (2013), Brandonisio (2013), Celik et al. (2008).
The aim of this analysis was to evaluate the safety
of the ceilings, the walls and the foundations under
the expected loads after re-use proposal. As discussed before, the palace will be re-used to accommodate high live loads if used as a museum.
The 3D model is shown in Figure 14 (top). The
walls and the ceilings were modeled as shell elements with an average size of 0.5×0.5 m2. The columns and the lintels were modeled as frame elements. Not all the parts of the palace were modeled.
The tower, the dome, the walls of the lift room, the
65
parapets and the short walls at the roof were not
modeled for the sake of simplicity. Instead, there
weights were considered as loads, Figure 14 (bottom). At the base, all the joints were restrained
against the translation in the three directions x, y and
z. the FE model composed of 15746 joints, 510 frame
elements and 15360 shells.
The FE model comprised the two materials of the
concrete for ceilings and the brick masonry for the
walls. The used mechanical properties are summarized in Table 1.
These properties were determined based on the
mechanical tests carried out on samples taken from
the concrete ceilings and the masonry walls and tested in laboratory.
The considered loads were the dead load (DL) and
the live load (LL). The DL included the self-weight
of the different structural elements and a load of 150
kg/m2 for the flooring on the ceilings. The LL was
taken as 500 kg/m2 as per Egyptian code of loads
(ECP-201, 2012).
z
x
y
Parapet load
Dome load
Lift room load
Walls load
Tower load
Figure 14. 3D model of the Baron palace (top) and the applied loads for un-modelled parts (bottom).
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Table 1. Mechanical properties of Baron palace’s construction materials.
Material
Concrete
Brick masonry
Density (kg/m3)
2500
1800
Young’s modulus (MPa)
15227
4100
5.2 Results of the structural analysis
5.2.1
Deformations
The deformations were evaluated in the walls and
the ceilings under DL only and DL+LL for comparison purpose. Figure 15 shows the deformations in
the walls. For the case of DL only, the walls of the
basement and the ground floors had small deformations (below 1.5mm). For the first floor walls, only the tower’s walls and some of the walls at the
middle had higher deformations. For the case of
DL+LL, the deformations of the walls of the basement and the ground floors increased, however, they
were still below 1.5mm. More parts of the walls of
the first floor had deformations above 1.5mm.
For the ceilings, the maximum deformations were
observed in the middle, as expected, Figures 8-10.
For the basement floor ceiling, the deformations under DL only exceeded the value of 1mm in two
spans only, Figure 16 (left). For DL+LL, three more
spans had deformations higher than 1mm, Figure 16
(right). The deformations in the ground and first
floors’ ceilings were higher than those of the basement floor ceilings because the spans are higher.
Values more than 4mm were observed for the case of
DL+LL, Figures 18-19.
5.2.2
Bending moments in ceilings
The bending moments were evaluated in the ceilings in the two directions of x and y under DL only
and DL+LL, Figures 12-14. As expected, the maximum positive bending moments were observed in
the ceilings’ mid-spans, and the maximum negative
bending moments were observed at the sections just
near to the walls supporting the ceilings. Always, the
negative moments were higher than the positive
ones. The basement floor ceiling was found to have
lesser bending moments than those observed in the
ground and the first floors ceilings in both of x and y
directions because the spans of the basement floor
ceiling are shorter thanks to the intense walls supporting this ceiling in both of x and y directions.
To help specify more accurately the bending moments in ceilings, Table 2 reports the maximum noticed bending moments in all ceilings under DL and
DL+LL. As can be noticed, the bending moments in
x direction were always higher than those in the y
direction. This occurred because the ceilings behaved as one way slabs in the x direction that was
shorter than the y direction.
Poisson ratio
0.3
0.3
Compressive strength (MPa)
14.3
5
To assess the safety of the ceilings, it was necessary to know the amount of reinforcement per meter.
It was possible to see in the places where the concrete cover fell down that there is a mesh of reinforcement of mild steel in both x and y directions.
The spacing was approximately 20 cm in the both
directions. However, it was not possible to determine the diameter of the used reinforcement. Therefore, a number of diameters (Φ) were assumed and
the resisting moment of the ceiling was calculated,
Table 3. The steel yield strength was assumed as
2400 kg/cm2. It can be noticed that the resisting
bending moment is lesser than the expected bending
moments. Hence, it is recommended carrying out a
careful investigation of the actual reinforcement and
the corresponding resisting moments before any reuse of the palace.
5.2.3
Compressive stresses in walls
As mentioned in Table 1, the compressive
strength of the brick masonry walls was determined
as 5 MPa. The principle compressive stresses in walls
are plotted in Figure 22 for the walls of the different
floors. As can be observed, the compressive stresses
for the case of DL+LL are far from the compressive
strength. This in turn showed an elevated safety in
the walls under the expected loads from re-use.
5.2.4
Stresses on soil
The average stresses on soil were estimated assuming that the walls of the palace are supported on
a strip footing. The footing width equals the wall
width plus 2X, where X is the length of the part of
the footing outside the wall, Table 4. Reasonable
values were assigned to the distance X and the average stresses were evaluated, Table 4. The boreholes
carried out on the foundation soil revealed that the
soil is sand with an estimated bearing capacity of
about 15 t/m2. Comparing the obtained values in
Table 4 with the soil bearing capacity, it can be noticed that the foundations seem to be adequate to the
increased loading from re-use. However, more investigation and in-situ test pits should be carried out
to the check the state of conservation of the foundations.
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Figure 15. Deformations (m) in the walls: DL only (left), and DL+LL (right).
Figure 16. Deformations (m) in the basement floor ceiling: DL only (left), and DL+LL (right).
Figure 17. Deformations (m) in the ground floor ceiling: DL only (left), and DL+LL (right).
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Figure 18. Deformations (m) in the first floor ceiling: DL only (left), and DL+LL (right).
DL only
DL+LL
DL only
DL+LL
Figure 19. Bending moments (t.m/m) in the basement floor ceiling under DL only and DL+LL: in xdirection (top) and in y-direction (bottom).
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DL only
DL+LL
DL only
DL+LL
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Figure 20. Bending moments (t.m/m) in the ground floor ceiling under DL only and DL+LL: in x-direction (top) and in ydirection (bottom).
DL only
DL+LL
DL only
DL+LL
Figure 21. Bending moments (t.m/m) in the first floor ceiling under DL only and DL+LL: in x-direction (top) and in ydirection (bottom).
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Table 2. Maximum observed bending moments (t.m/m) in ceilings.
Ceiling
Basement
Ground
First
DL only
Mx
My
Positive Negative Positive Negative
1.1
-2.3
1.1
-1.2
1.9
-2.8
1.1
-1.3
1.9
-2.7
1.1
-2.6
DL+LL
Mx
My
Positive Negative Positive Negative
1.8
-2.8
1.7
-1.8
2.7
-4.0
1.4
-2.0
2.7
-4.3
1.4
-3.0
Table 3. Estimated resisting bending moments (t.m/m) of ceilings.
Reinforcement
Resisting moment (t.m/m)
5 Φ 10 /m
1.2
5 Φ 12 /m
1.7
5 Φ 16 /m
2.9
DL only
DL+LL
DL only
DL+LL
DL only
DL+LL
Figure 22. Principle compressive stresses in walls: basement floor walls (top), ground floor walls (middle), and first
floor walls (bottom). Stresses in blue are below 0.5 MPa and in magenta are between 0.5-1 MPa.
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RE-USE PROPOSALS AND STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF HISTORICAL PALACES IN EGYPT
71
Table 4. Estimated average stresses on soil.
Strip footing shape
Load
Reactions at
base (t)
X=0.25 m
Average stresses on soil (t/m2)
X=0.30 m
X=0.40 m
X=0.50 m
W
DL
DL+LL
3636
4310
12.6
11.5
9.8
8.5
14.9
13.6
11.6
10.1
Footing
6.
CONCLUSIONS
The paper presented integration between re-use
proposal and structural analysis of Baron Empain
palace in Egypt dating back to 1911. The palace suffered from neglect for decades and recently is under
consideration by authorities to be restored and reused. The proposal was to use the basement floor to
provide services for the visitors, the ground floor to
be a museum, the first floor to be either a museum or
a motel and the roof to hold cultural events and sem-
inars. A 3D numerical model of the palace was created and analysed under new expected heavy live
loads. It was found that the walls and the foundations could sustain the new additional loads. For the
slabs more investigation of the existing reinforcement is needed to know exactly its diameter and
spacing before carrying out any strengthening intervention. The presented research is a step in an ongoing research on the historical structures in Egypt
dating back to the 20th century.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author would like to express his deep thanks to his students: Aya Adel Abdel-Mon’em, Nagla AbdelMaksoud Abdel-Razek, Nourhan Mohamed Ali, Mahmoud Soby Fathy, Mohamed Mohamed Antar, Amr
El-Sayed Mohamed, Mohamed Hosni Hussein, Dina Hossam El-Din Saleh, and Berbara Adel Assad for their
help.
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