Heritage buildings a passion for researchers

Researchers Jason Ingham and Stacy Valli are researching the best ways to strengthen Whanganui's heritage buildings. PHOTO Stuart Munro

Architectural graduate Stacy Valli has brought her passion for heritage buildings to Whanganui and she is looking at ways to make them stronger.

Joining engineer Professor Jason Ingham on the Auckland University-based Quakecore research team, Ms Vallis has been sketching heritage buildings around town with a focus on those made of brick.

Whanganui's Earthquake Prone Building Taskforce invited Professor Ingham to Whanganui in 2012 where he found buildings that are ideal for his research.

Professor Ingham is one of eight experts on the Quakecore team and his specialist area is the safety of heritage buildings and the economics of strengthening them.

"Whanganui has a high number of heritage buildings but as a smaller city, there is not the economic prosperity to support big expenditure on them," he says.

"The taskforce has good support from the council and they have shown great forward thinking in inviting research."

Ms Valli says her research involves looking at how it is possible to strengthen a row of adjoined buildings to reduce costs.

"Whanganui has a great range of styles - from neo-classical to Edwardian," she says.

The challenge, she says, is to strengthen the buildings while maintaining their original appearance as much as possible.

Professor Ingham says the idea of strengthening heritage precincts requires cooperation between building owners and that is part of Quakecore's research.

Fellow researchers Ilan Noy and Olga Filippova have been talking to Whanganui building owners about the financial aspects of strengthening and Professor Ingham says they have had some very good conversations.

Another part of the research is to look at how earthquake resilience in provincial towns can become part of town centre regeneration projects.

The vision of Quakecore is to help build an earthquake-resilient New Zealand where communities are able to recover quickly from major events.