Preventive Conservation of Historic Buildings and Sites: Research and Practice

Abstract

The article presents an overview of preventive conservation actions related to historic buildings and sites based on research outcomes. Considered a starting point for preservation policies, preventive conservation relies on the knowledge of deterioration processes of cultural heritage, and its effectiveness depends on the integration between practices and scientific research. The importance given to the relationship between collections and the buildings that house them, within the framework of preventive conservation of movable heritage is highlighted as a means of expanding
the preventive architectural conservation in the international scene.
The national development, in this specific field, of the last two decades shows the context of the author’s experience focused on the establishment of a preventive conservation methodology for strategies in the scope of the Preventive Conservation Plan for Rui Barbosa´s Historic House Museum, in Rio de Janeiro.
The reported results, available through specific website, are a contribution for the implementation of preventive conservation for immovable heritage with theoretical, methodological and scientific rigour, and emphasizes the need to advance the
regulatory and legislative field in the Brazil.