A Building Material from the Upper Jurassic Period into the Canarian Architectural Heritage: The Durability of the Heartwood of Pinus Canariensis

ABSTRACT

The durability of building materials is a fundamental issue addressed by many researchers who seek to improve working life by obtaining durable and more sustainable materials. In the Canary Islands, there are traditional buildings with carpentry elements that remain unchanged, without any apparent degradation. Specifically, the wood used in Canarian heritage comes from the resinous heartwood of Pinus canariensis. Most of these buildings were built between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, and their architectural relevance has been decisive in declaring the city of La Laguna a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The objective of this research is to identify the carpentry elements made with the heartwood of Pinus canariensis within the Canarian architectural heritage and to evaluate its durability. The results show that the loss of mass for the heartwood of Pinus canariensis after the incubation of the fungus was less than 1% in all cases. However, other conifers show a considerable loss of mass, between 25% and 38%.

KEYWORDS:

• Carpentry elements
• durability tests
• Pinus canariensis
• thermogravimetric analysis
• traditional canarian buildings
• xylophagous fungus

Highlights

• Construction materials made with heartwood pine are not affected by fungal attacks.

• Traditional Canarian Buildings with carpentry elements spanning more than 200 years survive without degradation.

• The heartwood of Pinus canariensis: a durable and more sustainable building material used between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries in Traditional Canarian Buildings.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the General Service Research Support of the “Universidad de La Laguna” for their instrumental and technical support, as well as the “Cabildo de Tenerife” for the authorization to take the samples of Canarian pine and the “Servicio de Laboratorios y Calidad de la Construcción” of the Canarian Government for their technical support of the Bending Strength Tests. We would also like to thank “Aula Cultural de Carpintería Tradicional y Patrimonial (ACTULL)”, D. Sebastian Martín and D. Francisco Valladares for providing preparatory assistance with the wood samples.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.