ISCARSAH is the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee for the Analysis and Restoration of Structures of Architectural Heritage. ISCARSAH is dedicated to the study of the structural aspects of architectural heritage. Its main aim is to promote the contribution of structural engineering in the study, conservation and restoration of heritage constructions, so that a full understanding of materials, morphology and structural response become an intrinsic part of conservation practice.
Dr David Yeomans, ICOMOS-UK member and UK representative on this committee, reports from his latest meeting:
“A sub-committee of ISCARSAH has been meeting with a working group of the ISO13822 committee (ISO is the International Organization for Standardization). This standard deals with the structural assessment of existing buildings but specifically excludes historic buildings. The task of our sub-committee has been to produce an annex for the standard that does cover historic buildings.
The meetings have been necessary because the structure of the annex has to reflect that of the basic standard and its text has to be approved by the ISO committee. The last meeting was held in Padova, one of the members of our group and our host, Claudio Modena, being in the Department of Structural and Transportation Engineering at the university there. The joint meting was held over two days, working to develop the text of the annex.
Following that, the Canadian member of our committee, Lyne Fontaine, and I spent another day and a half taking the comments that we had received to develop the text further. My original plan had been to spend a few days in the region to see something of its architecture. After all the region is dotted with Palladian villas. But clearly with much work to do on the document and the two of us normally separated by an ocean it was sensible to use the opportunity to make as much progress as possible.
We did have one day of a busman’s holiday when we were taken into Venice to look at restoration work on a couple of church towers and to visit the Arsenale.
Fig. 1: Arsenale, Venice, photo: David Yeomans
The work being done on the church towers that we visited involved foundation strengthening to arrest progressive leaning of the towers, vital work to preserve the monuments but not something that makes good pictures. The Arsenale is a different matter. It has been partly abandoned by the Italian navy although one part, still inaccessible and in fact containing some of the oldest buildings is still being used (Fig 1).
Fig 2: Wall surrounding Arsenale, Venice, photo: David Yeomans
Of course, the part that was abandoned was then given no maintenance and is an example of how rapidly buildings decay under those conditions. Therefore they now present a restoration problem. The tall wall that surrounds the Aresenale, (Fig 2) seen on the right where there is the opening to the lagoon, needs attention in places but while the roofs of later buildings may have even fallen in some of the huge timber roofs of the shipbuilding slips, the focus of this photograph still survive but need urgent attention.
Fig 3: Crane, Arsenale, Venice, photo: David Yeomans
A complex like this also includes major historic artefacts and there is a proposal to restore this historic British built crane (Fig 3)
The committee held a general meeting at the beginning of July taking advantage of the number of members who were attending the conference on the Structural Analysis of Historic Constructions. We arranged a full day meeting organized by Dina D’Ayala. Apart from the general committee business this was an opportunity for other members of the committee to comment on the text produced by this sub-committee. Our next meeting will be in Quebec.”
