ABSTRACT
Early concrete buildings in India and especially in Chandigarh are threatened by deterioration. Effective protection or maintenance is the key to sustain good health & durability of exposed cement concrete structures. This calls for creating awareness, consistent attention for repair or replacement of the sensitive deteriorated façade, taking effective continues preventive treatment of CC exposed surface in habitable buildings. This also calls for creating a trained work force. This paper tries to identify those parameters of the cement concrete properties and analyze them for conservation aspects Though the analysis is qualitative and an attempt has been made to quantify it and thus making open for empirical understanding. The interpretations drawn could be the first step towards the goal of having explicitly described strategy for future course of suitable actions in use for conservation project. Chandigarh-City Beautiful is a unique expression of urbanism in the machine age civilization, use of natural building material, exposed cement concrete construction and the citizen’s faith to sustain its Architectural Heritage. Chandigarh Administration College of Architecture, Research Cell Study, focuses on grading, maintenance, and effective treatment of the exposed cement concrete surface texture of buildings in the City Landscape. It also focuses on norms-standard s and construction code for sustainable conservation of exposed cement concrete surface textures, to ensure, a healthy work and living environment in habitable buildings. Part-II of this study “Grading and Restoration of Corbusier’s Concrete” covers the demonstration exercise undertaken for conservation of exposed concrete structures and surface textures in CCA Building.
