COTAC News

Natural and man-made hazards, anthropogenic effects and extreme climate change events, are persistently putting the cultural heritage of Europe under pressure, with a daily incremental frequency. In addition, such disasters and catastrophes compound the conservation challenges and needs of the heritage assets. These events also menace the assets’ social, cultural, historic and artistic values, the safety of citizens, and have an impact on local economies linked to tourism. Consequently, research on adaptation strategies, methodologies and other remedial tools is crucial, in order to safeguard Europe’s cultural heritage from the continuous pressures it faces and the related decay inducing consequences. This Study presents a comprehensive overview of the existing knowledge, at European and international level, on safeguarding cultural heritage from the effects of natural disasters and threats caused by human action. Furthermore, it maps existing strategies and tools for disaster risk management in the 28 Member States, and provides evidence based recommendations with the purpose of supporting European cooperation and improving the integration of cultural heritage in national platforms for Disaster Risk Reduction.

See here for the full publication.

This is a call for proposals to form networks of collaborators drawn from research, practitioners and others to contribute to the work of the Centre for Digital Built Britain (CDBB). The networks are i) to propose the capabilities needed for the UK to deliver and benefit from Digital Built Britain and identify the enabling research to deliver those capabilities, ii) to describe the state of the art and leading-edge practice today, and iii) to build communities of people interested and able to participate in future research, demonstrator and pilot projects. The networks will be invited to define their scope of work and focus of attention. About a dozen networks are envisaged, working in parallel, each in different areas in order to cover the very wide range of topics that need to be covered. The work will extend through 2018, providing contributions in December which CDBB will integrate into a final document in Q1 2019 which will set out the research agenda and the state of the art for Digital Built Britain.

See here for more information, and see below for an intro presentation of the University of Cambridge Centre for Digital Built Britain (CDBB):

A new Heritage Council has been formed to represent various built environment heritage bodies in the UK.

The Heritage Council seeks to strengthen the link between the country’s heritage and the wider regeneration and placemaking agenda as well as helping government to best support the heritage sector.

Heritage Minister Michael Ellis said: ‘Heritage is an important part of our communities. It helps us to make sense of our past and shape the places we live, work and visit. The sector provides employment for hundreds and thousands of people and is an economic driver in our economy.

‘Our history and heritage are part of what make our country an attractive place to live and visit and I am committed to ensuring that we continue to be a world-leader in the protection and preservation of our historic sites so that we remain a go-to destination.’

The Council will create closer links between the government and the sector and will enable dialogue to drive progress in key policy areas affecting heritage. It will support the government in the implementation of policy and raise issues affecting the sector. In addition the Council and government will work together on issues such as planning, environmental protection, social and economic development and education.

Core membership of the Heritage Council is made up of: DCMS; DEFRA; MHCLG and HMT along with Historic England; The Heritage Lottery Fund; The Heritage Alliance; Natural England; The National Trust and Historic Houses.

The aim of the Council will enable collaboration and the exchange of ideas so that government and the sector can work together to protect and preserve Britain’s heritage for future generations.

The Civic Trust Awards celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2019 and we are delighted to announce that the online application system for Civic Trust Awards, Pro-Tem Awards(for Temporary Projects & Installations) and CTA AABC Conservation Awards is NOW OPEN for UK and International projects.

The closing date for entries to each of the awards programmes is 27th July 2018.

The Civic Trust Awards was established in 1959 to recognise and reward the best projects in the built environment. From architecture to planning, hospitals to housing, public realm to public art, the Awards scheme acknowledges the built environment in its wider context and holds a firm belief that development should be for the benefit of the people it serves.

The aim of the Civic Trust Awards is to encourage the very best in architecture, to improve the built environment for us all through design, sustainability, inclusiveness and accessibility, but also to reward projects that offer a positive cultural, social, economic or environmental benefit to their local communities.

All applications to the Civic Trust Awards are also considered for the Selwyn Goldsmith Awards for Universal Design.

See here to apply.

COTAC has published material from its 2017 conference – BIM for Heritage: “Stepping into the Future with the Past,” on its www.cotac.global website, accessible here. 

The conference saw a range of speakers delve into the heady topic of BIM for Heritage, with the morning session recapping developments during 2017, and with the afternoon session previewing what was ahead for 2018.  The well-attended event took place in the London offices of Ramboll, and saw a spirited Q+A discussion after each session.

During the morning, Ingval Maxwell (COTAC) discussed how BIM is the latest in a natural technological progression of  ‘seeing’ buildings, from 2D to 3D to 4D, and posed the enticing question of whether or not past publications could help inform how contemporary technologies might ‘see’ beyond the scanned surface of heritage buildings.  Paul G. Bryan (Historic England) described the ‘BIM journey’ and reviewed Historic England’s related publications on the use of digital technologies. Carl Brookes (Ramboll) demonstrated several ‘hybrid’ methods whereby users could utilise ‘BIM’ technologies without having to engage in expensive, time-consuming model-building exercises, and Marianne Partyka (PagePark) ended the session by considering how a highly structured digital categorisation system can offer designers an efficient and effective method of interacting with considerable amounts of project data.

Joanne Russell (HES) initiated the afternoon session by reviewing the wide range of applications where HES utilises digital tools, and illustrated how a data-rich matrix approach to risk management can inform the development of Investment and Maintenance Plans.  Brian Johnston (Topscan) touched on how digital technologies can enable risk management, whilst emphasising the needs to ensure data gathering was focused and cost-effective to avoid ‘drowning in data’.  Ingval Maxwell then developed the discussion on past publications, ruminating on the possible value of digitising them towards the creation of an HBIM Objects Library.  Edonis Jesus (LendLease) concluded the day by setting out the objectives and intentions of the recently formed BIM4Heritage Group.

The place of BIM, and a wider range of digital tools, within the conservation needs of the built environment proved an engaging topic that COTAC will continue to explore.

Let a Renaissance masterpiece be your inspiration for the chance to win £2500 with SterlingOSB.

RIBAJ/SterlingOSB’s Room within a Room ideas competition invites proposals for a portable, transformable workspace made from SterlingOSB in a room within a house, public building, school or office.

It is to be a space for study and will require a desk and bookshelves, perhaps with a seat or day bed as part of the design. It will require some hanging space to allow our Renaissance person to display their work and ponder it, away from prying eyes. It may have openable windows and moving shelves or levels. All this is open to the imagination of the designer.

This will also be a space that critically transforms to become a stage for exposition of those same ideas. Our modern day Room within a Room may be able to turn inside out – to go from private study to public forum.

It may be like a reversible jacket, itinerant architecture, transforming wagon for a Wild West snake oil salesman. Hinging, reversing, sliding or folding open, it will at once be a place of solitude and ultimate revelation – all formed from SterlingOSB.

More information about the competition can be found here.

During the last week of August 2018, many national and hundreds of local community organisations organise heritage related events throughout the country. Many of these events are free and the programme highlights the abundance of great work that is carried out in all communities in Ireland to preserve and promote our heritage.

The National Heritage Week is part of European Heritage Days. The theme for 2018 is sharing stories.

See here for more information.

Conservator-Restorers invite visitors to their working places: in museums ateliers, private studios, university studios and conservation-restoration sites in monuments. Conservator-Restorers will explain their actual conservation-restoration projects with case studies to the public. The European Day of Conservator-Restorer aims:

• to raise awareness of the key role of conservation-restoration in safeguarding cultural heritage with policy makers and civil society (public);
• to share knowledge of the complex activity of this discrete profession as an applied science which includes humanities, natural science and intervenes with a code of ethics in the many fields of Cultural Heritage;
• to highlight the respect and discovery of the values for society through the interventions beyond artists and crafts for ensuring the integrity of the material witness to guarantee the authenticity of cultural heritage for identification process of the individual;
• to make transparent the international quality standards of the profession on this high level of competences for safeguarding Cultural Heritage through member associations in 22 European states;  and
• to clarify how this expertise is of value to sustainable tourism and a catalyst for innovation in science for heritage.

The day will take place Sunday, 14 October, 2018.  More information can be found here.

The call for European Heritage Stories is one of the initiatives organised in the framework of the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018, under the two slogans: “European Year of Cultural Heritage: The Art of Sharing” and “Our heritage: where the past meets the future”. Stories can be submitted from 20 April to 20 May.

See here for more information.

Architecture_Media_Politics_Society, AMPS, presents its London 2018 Conference: Tangible – Intangible Heritage(s) – Design, Social, and Cultural Critiques on the past, present, and the future.

Dates: 13 – 15 June 2018

Place: University of East London

School of Architecture, Computing & Engineering
Docklands Campus, University Way, London E16 2RD

See here for more information.