ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an exemplary insight into the results of the last five years of innovative interdisciplinary research. By using detailed shape-accurate survey methods, a systematic documentation of the geometry and construction history of the timber structures is being produced, including a detailed structural assessment. In this way, the knowledge base concerning the investigated structures could be considerably broadened. The large-scale roof structures of the Vienna Imperial Palace, the Hofburg, the early modern and baroque eras and the 19th and 20th centuries, have been the object of study by a multidisciplinary team of architects, structural engineers, natural scientists and art historians in cooperation with students of architecture and civil engineering since 2011. The interdisciplinary analysis of historic roof structures made of timber within the project provides important information for both the field of scientific research and in terms of future preservation strategies with respect to the original technology.
