Conservation as Revitalization at Cairo’s al Darb al Ahmar
Source: Frank Matero
The NSERC CREATE Heritage Engineering Program hosted the 4th Annual Heritage Forum on October 11, 2018 at the Carleton Immersive Media Studio. The day started with a welcome from Fred Afagh, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Design, followed by a welcome to the new students by Dr. Mario Santana. Joining the NSERC CREATE Heritage Engineering program are:
Adrian Soble (M.A.Sc. student)
Jamie Marrs (M.A.Sc. student)
Kevin Complido (M.Arch. student)
Larissa Ide (M.A.Sc. student)
Moderated by Dr. Mariana Esponda, the focus of panel #1 was Building Sustainability Simulation with presentations by the following students:
Heritage Conservation Services, Ottawa: Larissa Ide (M.A.Sc. student, Carleton), with Ann de Mey (HCS, PSPC) & Sanskriti Singh (HCS, PSPC)
EVOQ, Montreal: Wafaa Baabou (PhD student, UQAM)
PhD Research & Sweden: Michael Gutland (PhD student, Carleton)
Panel #2, moderated by Dr. Jeremy Laliberte, focused on Building Digitization with the following presentations:
Paphos Project, Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS): Jamie Marrs (M.A.Sc. student, Carleton)
DAS Project, CIMS: Diego Zambrano (MIT student, Carleton)
Point clouds processing and segmentation in cultural heritage documentation (CIMS): Erik Costamagna (PDF, Carleton)
ICOMOS, Paris: Miquel Reina Ortiz (PhD student, Carleton)
Myanmar: Adam Weigert & Miquel Reina Ortiz
Factum Arte, Madrid: Adam Weigert, Abhu Dhanda (M.A.Sc. students, Carleton)
Discovery Dream Homes: Adam Weigert (M.A.Sc. student, Carleton)
After lunch, our keynote speaker, Prof. Frank Matero, lectured about the importance of tangible heritage and urged us to consider form, structure, and function when considering conservation approaches. He presented a case study on the revitalization of al Darb al Ahmar in Cairo, a project that involved many disciplines to tackle the palimpsest of interventions on the site. Prof. Matero showed us how the values of all parties involved were respected while working with the materials at hand.
A recording of Prof. Matero’s lecture, “Material Matters” can be viewed here.
Our afternoon student panel #3, Building Rehabilitation & Reuse, was moderated by Dr. Susan Ross and included the following presentations:
ROTOR, Brussels: Alison Creba, M.A. Carleton
Research: masonry mortars: Kristian Falkjar (M.A.Sc. student, Carleton)
Thesis: Framework for Ensuring the Ongoing Maintenance of Existing Buildings: Raluca Dobrotescu, M.A.Sc. Carleton
The presentations in our final panel of the day, Industry Gaps and Issues, were given by our industry collaborators and moderated by Ona Vileikis:
Heritage Standing Inc., Fredericton, NB: Tom Morrison
Watson McEwen Teramura Architects, Ottawa: Allan Teramura
ERA Architects, Toronto: Mikael Sydor
WSP, Ottawa: Erin Hemm
The day was then wrapped up with the announcement of the APT Bridge Competition results and the bridge was presented by Michael Gutland and his team.
Thank you to all who attended!
Gallery of the 4th Annual Heritage Forum
Presentations by students and industry collaborators can be viewed here.