A 1-day event aimed at people involved in the planning system within World Heritage Sites, including Planners, Conservation Officers, WHS Co-ordinators and Councillors.

The event, which is being held at two alternative venues, has been organised jointly by the Local Authority World Heritage Forum (LAWHF), English Heritage and ICOMOS-UK.

The Telford event will be chaired by Gillian Clarke, Secretary of LAWHF and the Newcastle upon Tyne event by Susan Denyer, Secretary of ICOMOS-UK.

For more information please e-mail jbl.telshrops@blueyonder.co.uk or telephone Jonathan Lloyd on 01952 587615

Download the programme and booking form

The Emerging New York Architects Committee (ENYA), AIA NY Chapter, is pleased to announce its fourth biennial international ideas competition, High Bridge: Bronx, Building Cultural Infrastructure (HB:BX). This competition is open to all emerging professionals, including, but not limited to, architects, artists, engineers, landscape architects, urban designers, and planners who have completed their education at the undergraduate or graduate level within 10 years of the competition announcement (September 10, 2009).

Registration Begins: Sept 10, 2009
Registration Ends: Nov 18, 2009
Submission Deadline: January 18, 2010 (postmarked)
Open to: Emerging Designers
Entry Fee: $35 Student, $65 Individual, $110 Team (2-4), $300 Group(5+)
Awards: $5,000 (ENYA prize), $2,000 (2nd Place), $1,000 (3rd Place), $1,000 (Student)

HB:BX is an open ideas competition to design an arts center that culturally reinforces the physical connection between the Manhattan and Bronx High Bridge communities of New York City. Working in cooperation with the arts organizations Artists Unite and the Bronx Museum of the Arts, ENYA means to draw awareness to the current efforts to restore and reopen the historic High Bridge. This competition is a forum to explore the urban and community improvement opportunities that may come with the achievement of such a momentous milestone. Thus, ENYA challenges designers to explore how disused structures can be reprogrammed into elements of a vibrant urban cultural center. Entrants are also challenged to rethink the relationship between existing infrastructure (aqueduct, railway, highway) and the contemporary urban context. These issues, universally relevant to any growing city, take on a more site-specific nature when considering the importance of the High Bridge and the topographic challenges posed by the steep riverbanks of the Harlem River. Also defining this competition are the unique clients who ask entrants to reconsider architecture’s role in the creation, display, and experience of viewing art in one of the world’s most culturally vibrant cities.

General information about HB:BX follows:
Type: International Ideas Competition. The competition results are intended to generate ideas for the site and will not result in actual development by ENYA or other parties involved.

About ENYA, AIA New York Chapter
ENYA (Emerging New York Architects) is a forum for the interests and activities of students, interns, associates, and new architects. The committee, which is part of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, establishes networking, mentoring, technical, and public advocacy initiatives to foster the professional development of architecture students and young professionals and to strengthen the quality of the built environment.

About the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter
Founded in 1857 by seven visionary architects, the AIA New York Chapter is the first and largest chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Today, the AIA New York Chapter is a membership-based organization comprised of licensed architects and professional affiliates in real estate, construction, engineering, and facilities management, and currently has 4,300 members. Operating out of the Center for Architecture, a storefront space in Greenwich Village, the Chapter is dedicated to three Primary goals: public outreach, professional development, and design excellence.
The AIA New York Chapter is guided by the work of its dedicated committees. Over two-dozen committees, open to all interested, are continually exploring such vital issues as housing, planning, urban design, community development, historical preservation, and environmental sustainability. The AIA New York Chapter also serves as an advocate in public policy discussions with governmental decision-makers and other civic and professional associations.

More information

Contact: enyacompetitions@gmail.com

E-FAITH, the European Federation of Associations of Industrial and Technical Heritage is a platform promoting contacts and co-operation between non profit volunteer associations, the place where those can meet, exchange experiences, learn from each other and support each other’s activities an campaigns.

After the succesfull meetings in Beringen (2006), Kortrijk (2007) and Barcelona (2008), each attended by representatives from a dozen countries, E-FAITH is now going to organize a fourth European contact weekend for volunteers and non profit organisations that are engaged in the research, the preservation, the interpretation and/or the presentation of the industrial and technical heritage.

It will again be an open and stimulating meeting where organisations and individuals can present and compare their ideas, projects and results – and find out where cooperation or common projects can grow, how they can support the aims of colleagues and how colleagues can support their objectives. This will be possible by lectures and oral presentations, leaflets, information stands, posters and small exhibits. Each participant is allowed to use the presentation techniques that to him/her seems to be the most appropriate.

The main themes of the meeting will be:
- European bordercrossing cooperation between industrial and technical heritage associations
- twinning between associations
- exchanging experiences from the field
- discussing the possibilities of launching joint European projects

Additional information can be requested by e-mail at 2009@e-faith.org

UNITAR Hiroshima Series on the Management and Conservation of World Heritage Sites

Heritage is not an article in a vacuum showcase.  It lives with people, and people live in heritage sites. Architects say that the best way to conserve built heritage is to live inside it. Even in the case of properties requiring restricted access (reserves, etc.), designation as a World Heritage site often attracts a considerable increase in visitors. It is therefore imperative that the impact of a range of human activities upon both tangible and intangible aspects of heritage be regularly assessed. These assessments provide a baseline for judging the management and use of sites. The major question arises – how can an impact on the heritage “values” of a site be effectively assessed? UNITAR will apply its “values-based management” as the basis for a methodology to assess impacts on the values of sites.

The specific objectives of the 2009 workshop will be to:
 
* Review the basics of the World Heritage regime and its implications for peace, incorporating available information, updates and current trends;

* Elucidate the underlying principles of “values-based heritage management”, with a particular focus on peace building or nurturing;

* Introduce the basics of World Heritage impact assessment;

* Examine leading assessment policies and strategies, identifying best practices and lessons learned;

* Through reality-based practical exercises, extract key concepts and common issues while developing impact assessments for given sites;

* Contribute to the development of a manual for site managers on impact assessment in World Heritage management;

* Enhance long-term peer learning and exchange among the participants.

Further Details and Application Form

Information Note

Architectural Records, Inventories and Information Systems for Conservation

2 September – 2 October 2009, Rome, Italy

Application deadline:
Applications should reach ICCROM by 16 February 2009 to ensure inclusion in our selection process

This international course on architectural records, inventories, and information systems for the conservation of cultural heritage will address the needs, methodology, and techniques for acquiring and using this knowledge. The course will draw upon the vast wealth of cultural material in Rome and will be taught by leading experts in the field. Records, inventories, and information management tools are continuously being developed and must be considered as a fundamental part of the conservation process.

The course will feature a range of learning strategies that will draw upon participants’ own professional knowledge while adding new information and skills through readings, discussions, and a number of collaborative practical exercises. The course will include a required preparatory phase prior to arrival at ICCROM. This preparatory phase will allow participants to increase their background knowledge in key topic areas through readings and exercises that they will undertake while in their home countries.  The course will be structured around three main blocks of knowledge, through four weeks of study, on specific matters relating to:

Architectural Records: theory and practice for generating records will include direct, topographic, GPS, photogrammetric, and 3D laser scanning techniques, and archival research (historic, archaeological, structural, condition);
Inventories: the course will stress the notion of ‘inventory’ as the core element of information systems to be able to establish links between the various aspects and fields relating to architectural documentation processes;
Information Systems: planning, practice, access and dissemination of information (computer graphics, multimedia) will be emphasized, in particular principles, design and management of records in data base systems (GIS) and methods to process architectural records and related information.

Participants
This international course is designed for a maximum of 18 conservation professionals.  The course will be for conservators, architects, planners, engineers, archaeologists, historians, topographers, photogrammetrists, surveyors, cartographers, documentalists, and other conservation professionals involved in the field of recording, documentation and inventories through information management systems.

Admissions
Preference will be given to candidates working in positions in which they can share, transmit and disseminate the skills and information gained during the course.  Preference will also be given to applicants from ICCROM Member States.

Course fee: 900 € (Euro).

Read more information and download an application form

Membership is open to ICOMOS members able to demonstrate expertise in any field associated with protection, maintenance and conservation of monuments and sites that have intangible cultural heritage associations.

If you are interested in joining this Committee and you are a member of ICOMOS-UK, please contact Camilla Massara on camillamassara@icomos-uk.org for more information.

ISUF (International Seminar on Urban Form) is the international organization of urban form researchers and practitioners. It was inaugurated in 1994, bringing together urban morphologists worldwide. It seeks to advance research and practice in fields concerned with the built environment. Its members are drawn from several disciplines, including architecture, geography, history, sociology and town planning. It promotes conferences, publishes a journal Urban Morphology and provides an international framework for communication between members.

The Sixteenth International Seminar on Urban Form (ISUF 2009), co-hosted by South China University of Technology and Guangzhou Urban Planning Bureau, will take place in Guangzhou, China from Friday 4 September to Monday 7 September 2009.

The theme of the conference is Urban morphology and urban transformation. The organizers and the Council of ISUF invite participation in the Conference by interested academics and professionals. Topics on which proposals are particularly welcome include:

• Urban morphological theory
• Urban morphology, planning and design
• Urban morphology and architectural design
• New developments in research on building typology
• Typological research, planning and design
• Cities in transition
• Cities in a global era
• Urban form in Asia
• Traditional urban form
• Urban heritage and change
• Geospatial technology in urban morphology

Proposals for papers should take the form of abstracts of papers, in either English or Chinese. They should be prepared in the following format: title of paper, author(s) name, affiliation, address, e-mail address, telephone number, key words and 250-word abstract. They should be addressed to Professor Yinsheng Tian, Department of Architecture, College of Architecture and Civil Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, P. R. China (e-mail: ISUF2009@scut.edu.cn). Abstracts of papers must be received on or before 31 December 2008. Notification of whether abstracts have been accepted will be provided by 1 March 2009. Those whose abstracts have been accepted will be required to pay a registration fee by 15 June 2009 to have their papers included in the conference programme. The registration fee includes membership of ISUF, and conference lunches and dinners.

For more information please click here

“Management of Urban Changes – Measuring Performance of Local Policies”

The INTA (International Urban Development Association) Summer Institute offers a unique training programme focusing on the innovative urban management practices that strengthen local urban development and regeneration strategies. The INTA Summer Institute is for City managers and decision makers. The mix of theory and practical exercises will provide an operational sense to the learning and understanding of urban development process.

Massa Lubrense and Vesuvio, Italy

• help cities & territories to make the most of their potential
• facilitate urban identity & creativity strategies
• tutor city & urban leaders
• mediate in the urban change processes
• encourage innovative management processes
• focus on tailor-made solutions

The daily programme will include:

· Methodological sessions on visions and strategies, instruments and languages, networking and connections

· Applied sessions dedicated to the practical application of methodologies

· Cities case study sessions benchmarking international practices

For more information and the full programme please click here

The project is funded by an important donation from the Sultanate of Oman. The competition was launched by the Minister of Culture, Mr Tarek Mitri, at the General Assembly of the International Union of Architects on 4 July in Turin.

All information on the competition and registration forms are available at:

www.darbayrut.org