Natural stone masonry is a building technology largely used all over the world, since the dawn of humankind. At present day stone masonry buildings, beyond being naturally characterized by intrinsic building physics performances, allow to reconsider the use of natural stone masonry (together with new technological supports, components and materials), as a promising ‘‘new trend” for both newly developed buildings and renovation of existing buildings, in particular where it is a priority to retrieve the historical identity of the urban landscape. In this paper, energy performance and structural-acoustic properties of stone masonry buildings, in compliance with seismic safety criteria, are investigated and discussed on the basis of current technical standards and scientific literature. Related performances are evaluated by means of accurate calculation models. The results show that stone masonry buildings can offer often higher performance than those normally attributed to it.

Introduction

The use of natural stone material for buildings is coeval with the development of the human societies. As it is commonly known, the evidences of this building technology, from the Neolithic era up to the present day, are widespread all over the world. Furthermore, many stone buildings and historical centers of great historical, cultural and architectural relevance are listed among the UNESCO World Heritage sites [1]. As a consequence, restoration, renovation and safety technologies (in particular in seismic risk areas) of monumental and historical masonry stone buildings are fundamental requirements for the preservation of cultural heritages. Many methodologies and technical procedures have been studied and applied for the preservation of stone masonry buildings [2– ۵]. Recent proposals of recovery or reconstruction, also supported by laws and regulations, aim to preserve both the historical buildings and its local landscape, by using (or re-using) the same building materials [6].