Tenth International Conference on Studies, Repairs and Maintenance of Heritage Architecture

 Overview

The tenth International Conference on Structural Studies, Repairs and Maintenance of Heritage Architecture recently took place in Prague, organised by the Wessex Institute of Technology.

The Conference started in Florence (1989) and continued with subsequent meetings in Seville (1991), Bath (1993), Crete (1995), San Sebastian (1997), Dresden (1999), Bologna (2001), Halkidiki (2003) and Malta (2005).  The resulting papers have been published in book form and distributed throughout the world.  Since 1993 they have been also archived in the eLibrary containing the Transactions of Wessex Institute, where they are easily and permanently available to the international scientific community.  This has contributed to the continuous success of STREMAH, which has always attracted high quality publications.  Each volume has gathered the most recent advances in research and up to date studies of heritage buildings.

 Opening Address

The Meeting was opened by Professor Carlos A Brebbia, Director of Wessex Institute and Editor of the Conference book.  He explained the importance of the Conference programme for the development of his Institute as well as a service provided to the international scientific community. Conferences have originated most of the research projects now being run at the Institute, Professor Brebbia said, and a number of joint post-graduate programmes at PhD and Master levels. This is the type of collaboration that WIT encourages.  It is the main objective of the Institute, Professor Brebbia explained, to act as a forum for knowledge exchange at international level.  

Other important activities of WIT are supporting industry through its industrial Division.  This has resulted in WIT being able to participate in a number of projects with major offshore, aerospace and mechanical engineering organisations all over the world.  The strength of this work lies in the development and applications of the Boundary Element Method, a technique pioneered by Professor Brebbia and his research group originally at the University of Southampton and now at WIT.  New advances in the applications of Boundary Elements for fracture mechanics and corrosion problems have resulted in WIT becoming a world leader in those fields.

 Keynote Address by Professor Luigia Binda

The first paper at the Conference was the keynote address of Luigia Binda entitled “Non-destructive testing techniques applied to the masonry and timber structures of the Crucifisso Church in Noto”.  

Professor Binda was trained as an Architect at the Polytechnic of Milano where she is now Full Professor of Repairs and Strengthening of Historical Buildings. She is Honorary Member of RILEM, an organisation in which she serves as Chairman of its Committee on Strategies and Assessment of Measurements.  

She is a Fellow of the American Measurement Society which has recently awarded her the distinguished Scalzi award.  She also received the Timbervest Award from the British Measurement Society.  

Professor Binda is the author of more than 400 papers and has several chapters in state of the art books.  She is Editor of the new book Learning from Failure: Long-term Behaviour of Heavy Masonry Structures, 215pp, (ISBN: 978-1-84564-057-6) is available to order from WIT Press for £75.00 / $135.00 / €112.50.  

On behalf of WIT and all the participants, Professor Carlos Brebbia congratulated her on her successful research career.  He then proceeded to award her the Eminent Scientist Medal of Wessex Institute.

 Conference Sessions

The conference papers were divided into a series of sessions:  

• Heritage architecture and historical aspects
• Regional architecture
• Non-destructive evaluation of historic masonry structures
• Material characterization
• Repairs and maintenance
• Preservation and prevention
• Structural issues
• Simulation and modelling
• Seismic vulnerability analysis of historic sites
• Seismic behaviour and vibrations

 Keynote Addresses

The following keynote addresses were given by well known colleagues:  

• “The Puck harbour – a new national challenge”, by A Komorowski, Naval University of Gdynia, Poland
• “Research efforts being devoted to traditional Chuan-Dou timber structures after Chi-Chi earthquake in Taiwan”, by M-F Hsu, National Cheng-Kung University, Taiwan
• “A non-local anisotropic damage model for brittle materials”, by E Papa, University of Insubria, Italy
• “Historical structures and cultures”, by B Leftheris, Technical University of Crete, Greece
• “Experimental and numerical investigation of the sliding behaviour of a set of two rigid blocks subjected to cyclic shear-type loads”, by G C Manos, Aristotle University, Greece
• “Twenty years of experience in numerical models of historical constructions: a temporal perspective”, by L E Romera, University of La Coruna, Spain
• “The conception of building in ancient architecture and the “rules of art””, by S D’Agostino, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
• “Modern trends in base isolation applications for seismic protection of historic buildings”, by I Iskhakov, College of Judea and Samaria, Israel
• “Vibration characteristics and equivalent Young’s modulus of the Northern library and the main tower, Bayon, Cambodia”, by T Maeda, Waseda University, Japan
• “Lingua franca in the Dalmatian fishing and nautical terminology” by J Bozanic, University of Split, Croatia.

 Conference Dinner

The Conference dinner took place in a specially chartered boat sailing along the Vltava River.  This is one of the nicest ways to see many of the most beautiful buildings in Prague, especially at night when they become engulfed by a golden glow resulting from the way in which they are lit up.  The food - surprisingly good for a small boat – the abundance of good Czech beer and wine, and the amiable conversation contributed to creating the atmosphere which characterizes the STREMAH conferences.  The weather, unstable all during the conference days, was kind to the participants in what turned out to be a perfect evening.

 ISAC Meeting

The International Scientific Advisory Committee (ISAC) of STREMAH 07 took place in a well known Prague restaurant renowned for its excellent cuisine.  The discussions over dinner were focused on enhancing the conference objectives and topics.  A few new names were nominated for the ISAC and Professor Brebbia will be writing a letter of invitation to them in due course.  The general feeling was that the conference is now well established and continues to attract a substantial number of renowned scientists and practitioners.  Hence it was decided that it will be reconvened in 2009, the date and place shortly to be announced.

 Publication of Papers

Papers from the conference will also be hosted online at the WIT eLibrary as Volume 95 of WIT Transactions on The Built Environment (ISSN: 1743-3509). For more details visit the WIT eLibrary at www.witpress.com

Learning from Failure: Long-term Behaviour of Heavy Masonry Structures, by L. Binda, 215pp, (ISBN: 978-1-84564-057-6) is available to order from WIT Press for £75.00 / $135.00 / €112.50.