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Conservation in the built environment raises fundamental questions which have been debated for centuries - what is worth preserving, how is it possible, why is it important?This book takes a modern approach to the meaning of a heritage structure and its conservation. The historical evolution of conservation is briefly addressed, considering prominent individuals and cases; along with the history of construction, focusing on materials and related structural elements, with insight on the sizing rules adopted by masons. This explains structural decisions made during the construction process and allows comparison of scientific theories from the 18th century to modern understanding of limit analysis. Damage and collapse mechanisms for masonry construction, as the most widespread structural form for historical buildings, is described. Excess permanent loading and settlement is differentiated from environmental and anthropogenic actions such as earthquake or incorrect intervention.The team of authors brings together unique expertise, with high level research and leading practice with archetypical cases from around the world. The book addresses the history of conservation by exploring materials and structures and the history of construction and damage, so it is of value to students and professionals in civil engineering and architecture, as well as archaeologists and art historians.

The book contributes to a recontextualization of authenticity by investigating how this value is created, reenacted, and assigned. Over the course of the last century, authenticity figured as the major parameter for the evaluation of cultural heritage. It was adopted in local and international charters and guidelines on architectural conservation in Europe, South and East Asia. Throughout this period, the concept of authenticity was constantly redefined and transformed to suit new cultural contexts and local concerns. This volume presents colonial and postcolonial discourses, opinions, and experiences in the field of architectural heritage conservation and the use of site-specific practices based on representative case studies presented by art historians, architects, anthropologists, and conservationists from Germany, Nepal, India, China, and Japan. With more than 180 illustrations and a collection of terminologies in German, English, Sanskrit, Hindi, Nevari and Nepali, classical Chinese and standard Mandarin, and Japanese, these cross-cultural investigations document the processual re-configuration of the notion of authenticity. They also show that approaches to authenticity can be specified with key analytical categories from transcultural studies: appropriation, transformation, and, in some cases, refusal.

Das Fachbuch präsentiert den aktuellen Forschungsstand hinsichtlich zeitgemäßer Methoden und Verfahren beim Umgang mit historischen Holzbauten. Es fasst die Ergebnisse einer Tagung von Bauforschern zusammen, die Ende 2014 in Prag stattgefunden hat und widmet sich den drei Hauptaspekten beim Umgang mit historischen Holzbauten: Bauforschung, Architekturgeschichte sowie Instandsetzung und Unterhalt.Vierzehn Forscher haben jahrhundertealte Holzstrukturen wie Kirchen, Bauernhöfe, Fachwerkhäuser und Blockhütten in Europa und Russland untersucht. Aus den gewonnenen Erkenntnissen entwickeln sie denkmalgerechte Maßnahmen zur Instandsetzung und zum Unterhalt von Holzbauten. Historische und aktuelle Fotografien sowie neu erstellte Zeichnungen dokumentieren die untersuchten Bauten.

“From such well-known and long-vexed sites as the Athenian Acropolis to more contemporary locales like the Space Age Modernist capital city of Brasília, the conflicting and not always neatly resolvable forces that bear upon preservation are addressed as clearly and thoughtfully as the general reader could hope for.”—New York Review of Books “…an astonishing feat of research, compilation and synthesis.”—Context The book delivers the first major survey concerning the conservation of cultural heritage in both Europe and the Americas. Architectural Conservation in Europe and the Americas serves as a convenient resource for professionals, students, and anyone interested in the field. Following the acclaimed Time Honored, this book presents contemporary practice on a country-by-country and region-by-region basis, facilitating comparative analysis of similarities and differences. The book stresses solutions in architectural heritage protection and the contexts in which they were developed.