Florence Heri-Tech was launched in 2018 by the Department of Industrial Engineering of University of Florence (DIEF) and Florence Biennial Art and Restoration Fair. The idea is to create a synergy between Cultural Heritage and New Technologies. The Conference involves a large number of research projects and scholars from around the world and puts the industry’s current issues under the spotlight, specifically on issues related to innovative techniques and technologies for Cultural Heritage. The Conference is part of the 8th Edition of the Florence Biennial Art and Restoration Fair, an international event attracting prestigious institutions and companies and creating a unique opportunity to bring together the academic word with industry. The city of Florence will therefore be the international heart of Restoration and Cultural and Environmental assets as well as a forum for meeting and discussing for experts and enthusiasts from around the world. The Conference will be a significant opportunity for exchange between researchers and companies for the promotion of productive excellence, technological evolution, the greater use of culture for younger sections of the population and specialization in the educational field for graduates and PhD students.

 

CALL FOR PAPERS

July 16, 2021 | Deadline to submit abstract

September 30, 2021 | Abstract acceptance notification

December 17, 2021 | Deadline to submit draft paper

January 31, 2022 | Submission of final paper

Topic

Concrete has passed its zenith as the building material of choice and is now obviously controversial as a “climate killer”. The heyday of concrete used in supposedly authentic materialism can be dated to the 1960s to 1980s, when béton-brut architecture was widely used. Starting from the programmatic “New Brutalism,” which was not limited to concrete and was represented in the England of the 1950s by Alison and Peter Smithson, for example, a type of architecture spread that relied on the “raw” use of concrete as a constructive and surface-forming material and which became known as “Brutalism.” Concrete lured with the promise of an almost unlimited malleability that allowed both monolithic sculpturalism and additive design principles.
Countless public buildings – theatre complexes, libraries, community centres, universities, but also many church buildings and in some cases entire urban ensembles – were built in this style. The phenomenon can be seen as a global one, since there is hardly a region in the world without architectural examples of Brutalism. A brutalist phase can be found in many architects of the time. At the same time, Brutalism as a term for an era is controversial, since a wide variety of trends of modernism and late modernism could be cast in concrete, even to the point of overcoming them.
Despite its prominent representatives, “Brutalism” has never been uncontroversial. Its sometimes rough aesthetics and monumental structural composition, the sizes of some complexes, and not least the buildings’ signs of aging, which many find unsightly, make it an unpopular heritage. Moreover, because of the polarising aesthetics of untreated concrete, the conceptual contributions of Brutalist buildings to architectural history have often been overlooked.
Initiatives such as “SOS Brutalism” by the Deutsches Architekturmuseum Frankfurt, as well as the contributions of the 2012 Berlin Symposium on Brutalism, have indeed significantly advanced awareness of this architecture and its values. Nevertheless, the aging buildings and ensembles, which have gained a reputation as “concrete monsters”, are acutely threatened to be demolished or reshaped. Even buildings that are already listed as historic monuments are gradually decaying due to vacancy.

Competition task
The ICOMOS Student Competition 2021 is dedicated to the heritage of Brutalism of the era before 1990. The aim of the competition task is not only to admonish that the buildings of Brutalism must be preserved, but to precisely state what makes them worth preserving.
What meanings can be attributed to these buildings?
Is their value limited to the material honesty of the concrete or can other architectural, urban planning or conceptual qualities be identified?
What might communication strategies look like for buildings considered ugly by the general public?
What restoration and conservation strategies need to be developed for these concrete buildings?

Based on the examination of a specific, self-selected building, either monument qualities and values of the object are to be examined and discussed as theoretical work or strategies for the (further) use, restoration or communication of the object are to be developed within the framework of a conceptual work. The work is to be presented on a poster in A1 format according to the specified layout.

Awarding authorities
German National Committee of ICOMOS
Arbeitskreis Theorie und Lehre der Denkmalpflege e.V.
Trier University of Applied Sciences
Wüstenrot Foundation
Bavarian Chamber of Architects
Würzburg University of Applied Sciences

Participants
Students of architecture, interior design, urban planning, art history, restoration, archaeology, or other disciplines relevant to heritage.
Team work of two persons is possible.
Competition entries can be submitted in German and English.

Prizes
The best works will be awarded a prize of 500 €. An award ceremony with an exhibition of the competition entries is planned.
The award-winning works will be comprehensively documented in an e-publication by ICOMOS and all submitted works and their authors in catalogue form.

Dates
27th September 2021 Submission of posters by post (postmark) and by e-mail
October 2021 Evaluation and awarding

Detailed (German) text with task description and information on submission format and address at www.icomos.de

Visit the page here.

DOCOMOMO International and the Getty Conservation Institute collaborated to assess the status of education and training on twentieth-century built heritage conservation worldwide. The Conserving Modern Architecture Initiative (CMAI) of the Getty Conservation Institute and DOCOMOMO’s International Specialist Committee on Education and Training (ISC/E+T) developed and distributed an online survey aimed at understanding whether the subject of twentieth-century built heritage conservation is being taught, and, if so, where and how.

In this report, we share the methodology and the findings of this survey with the goal of helping other organizations, academic institutions, and professionals involved in teaching heritage conservation develop an understanding of available resources and existing gaps in the field.

The report begins with an explanation of the survey’s purpose, the methodology employed, and the challenges encountered. The second section provides readers with a detailed presentation of the findings: the answers received from the institutions contacted are described and illustrated with tables and graphs. Finally, sections three and four summarize the findings and outline lessons and recommendations.

The recommendations at the end of the report will guide the future initiatives of the Getty Conservation Institute’s Conserving Modern Architecture Initiative and the DOCOMOMO International Specialist Committee on Education and Training (ISC/E+T) in their aim to contribute to twentieth-century built heritage conservation and support related educational efforts.

We hope this report will highlight areas of potential work or support, not only for our institutions, but also for others active in the field of heritage conservation.

Event Booking

Tue, 2 March 2021

18:00 – 19:30 GMT

Kate Clark returns to ASCHB to speak on ‘values’ and to question whether historic building “significance” has become something to be defined at the point of designation set out in a tick-box Statement of Significance, rather than something that emerges from an inclusive and engaged understanding of place.

“It is nearly 25 years since I last talked to ASCHB about significance and values. In the late 90s I was working at English Heritage – I had just done the conservation management plan for Whitby and in the run up to Power of Place (2000) we were all grappling with new more inclusive approaches to conservation, putting values and human factors at the heart of decision-making. There was an ongoing battle with the RCHME and the HB Inspectors over whether recording was something you did to inform decision making or after the decision was made, and several of us were trying to get ideas about significance and value into the UK heritage lexicon.

A quarter of a century later, I think they might have won. It seems – from the outside at least – that significance is now something to be defined at the point of designation, or set out in tick box Statements of Significance, based on a list of four values. It is not something that emerges from an inclusive and engaged understanding of place, and then goes on to be part of the negotiation of values between the present and the future – the private and the public. Top down, vs bottom up.

In this talk we will look at how values are only one part of a process of decision-making and why writing statements of significance out of context is not helpful to clients or decision makers. I hope I am wrong, but it feels as if our attempts to create a more inclusive, values-based approach to conservation have been firmly put back in the box.”

Kate Clark began her career as an industrial archaeologist with Ironbridge Gorge Museums in the late 80s before joining English Heritage as an Inspector of Ancient Monuments in 1993. She later worked with the Heritage Lottery Fund dealing with policy, research and evaluation, as Director of Sydney Living Museums and CEO of Cadw, and in other policy roles. Her latest book ‘Playing with the Past’ contains around 80 activities and games to help people think about the value of heritage.

Energy efficient buildings will play a key role in helping Europe meet its ambitious climate and energy targets. However, installing the technologies needed to make Europe’s building stock greener requires a skillset that the construction industry…

More information here.

17 March 2021

This talk, organised by Europa Nostra UK and given by Paul Smith, will take a look at a selection of industrial and engineering sites throughout Europe, some of them—bridges, railway stations and a handful of factories—still in use, others transformed into museums and destinations for a great day out. Most however are former industrial buildings saved by adaptive re-use, the conversion of the built fabric to accommodate new, non-industrial uses. Most of the sites received the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards as ‘outstanding achievements in the conservation, enhancement and adaptation to new uses of cultural heritage’.

More information here.

7-10 June 2021, Athens, Greece

Athens Institute for Education and Research presents 6th Annual International Symposium on Culture and Civilization

Academic member responsible for the conference:

• Dr. Gregory T. Papanikos, President, ATINER.
• Dr. Maria-Irini Avgoulas, Academic Member & Associate Lecturer, La Trobe University, Australia.

Important dates:

• Deadline to submit abstracts: 8 February 2021 (Decisions are reached in less than 4 weeks after the abstract submission-Please click here for our policy on abstract and paper acceptance).
• Deadline to register with a paper presentation: Please see your acceptance letter sent to you after submitting the abstract.
• Deadline to register without a presentation: At least one month before the conference subject to approval.
• Deadline to submit full papers: 10 May 2021 (Unless otherwise is specified in your acceptance letter). Click here for Paper Guidelines. Please submit the paper only if the abstract submission has been officially accepted. ATINER does not consider papers for publication if they are not presented by the author at one of its conferences. Please submit your paper using the following paper submission form (click here).

Do you have problems with common repairs –finding out your rights and responsibilities, knowing what works to prioritise and getting co-owners to pay?

If so, this series of webinars, initially run in the Autumn of 2020, could be of help to you. Links to all the video recordings are below. Continuing Professional Development (CPD) certificates are available for all webinars.

The Programme

October 21^st: Where to start if you don’t have a factor

October 28^th Common Repair rules that only apply to landlords

Nov 4^th What if co-owners won’t co-operate?

Nov 11^th How to survey your building

Nov 18th Courageous conversations

November 25th Using the Registers of Scotland and tracing your co-owners

December 2nd How do factors earn their fees and Common Insurance

December 11th Keeping the lid on

December 18th When is a crack a crisis?

See incredible images of the stone cladding and interiors that made the shortlist here.