In Memoriam: Prof. Dr. Cevat Erder

We are deeply saddened by the loss of Prof. Dr. Cevat Erder, former CIPA president.

His enlightened thought and the values he established and defended with ever present wisdom shall always stay in our mind, while his beloved memories, his wit and jokes will forever be in our hearts. We shall never forget our dear Professor Cevat. May he rest in peace.

ICOMOS EPWG Open Session

On 27 August 2022 at 9:00 PM CET, there will be one presentation on The International Committee for Documentation of Cultural Heritage (CIPA) and one from Sanaa Niar, former EPWG member, heritage specialist architect, and ICOFORT Vice-President.

If you are a CIPA member and Emerging Professional, fill out this form to let us know you’d like to join us online on August 27 and we’ll be in touch!

CIPA2023: Documenting, Understanding, Preserving Cultural Heritage. Humanities and digital technologies for shaping the future

We are pleased to invite you to participate in CIPA2023, the 29th CIPA-HD biennial Symposium, held from June 26th to 30th, 2023, in Florence, Italy.
CIPA2023 will focus on “Documenting, understanding, preserving Cultural Heritage. Humanities and digital technologies for shaping the future”.
The conference will explore the digital and green dimensions required to handle the complexity of Cultural Heritage management and to come up with new solutions to the challenges of reducing anthropogenic and natural risks.

Archdoc goes 20

Crossing the bog – Excavation and Documentation of a wooden track North-West Germany

Lower-Saxony is located in North-West Germany, East of the Netherlands and ending in the North Sea. This region is known for its wetlands and bogs, which represent today only about 5% of its total surface. These were and are mainly made of peat also called also turf, which is a deposit soil formed by the partial decomposition of vegetal matter in wet acidic conditions. Left in the sun for drying, peat was used as a fuel for cooking and heating.

Call for abstracts: Digital Conference “Recovery of Aleppo”

International Convention on November 19th and 20th, 2021: Law, Architecture and Geodata Management to Revive War-Torn Cities / submission deadline for abstracts: september 15th, 2021

The war in Syria began 10 years ago. The Frankfurt Research Institute for Architecture – Civil Engineering – Geomatics (Frankfurter Forschungsinstitut für Architektur • Bauingenieurwesen • Geomatik – FFin) wants to use this date and the international donor conference for Syria, which took place in March 2021, as an opportunity to deal and discuss in particular about the recovery of the Syrian city of Aleppo.
To this reason Prof. Dr. habil. Fabian Thiel, Professor of Property Valuation at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences (Frankfurt UAS), announces the digital conference “Recovery of Aleppo”, which will take place on November the 19th and 20th, 2021. Co-organizer is the Syrian architect MSc. Rahaf Orabi.
The conference will be held in English. Arabic-to-English translation might be arranged for local presentations.

The conference would like to provide interdisciplinary interested architects, archaeologists, (urban) planners, lawyers and geospatial data managers with approaches for thinking and acting to what extent cooperation possibilities and fields of activity are possible for the recovery in Aleppo and other war-ravaged cities in Syria and beyond.
With this conference, the organizers are also pursuing the goal of supporting the initiation of functioning and sustainably resilient networks. These networks are indispensable prerequisites for the work in worldwide reconstruction and urban rehabilitation projects.

This call for abstracts invites applicants and scholars from different backgrounds focusing on one – or more than one – of the following main topics: law, architecture and planning, geospatial management, GIS, laser-scanning and techniques such as Building Information Modeling.
Each speaker will have 20 minutes maximum for the presentation excluding additional time for brief questions of maximum 10 minutes.

Participants who are planning to attend the conference with an oral presentation, please send the title and an abstract of their presentation (maximum 500 words) by September 15th, 2021 to fabian.thiel@fb1.fra-uas.de.

Background:
Legal and planning expertise has been lost as a result of the war and is now lacking in local planning departments and building permit authorities. These challenges are faced also by other cities. Other war-torn cities in Syria as well as in other countries – such as Lebanon, Iraq or Yemen – will also possibly be considered in the conference. It seeks to gain insights into the revitalization of urban centers in similar conflict regions of the world that are important in terms of building culture and architecture.

As reconstruction measures and land transactions have begun after the end of the war, the “zero hour” for comprehensive recovery for ancient cities such as Aleppo has long since passed. However, there is not the slightest reason for resignation – quite the opposite.
This digital conference therefore sees itself as a platform for the collection of strategies that have definitely fallen short in the previous discourse and existing implementation guidelines drawn by donor organizations. It is the combination of law, architecture, planning, (digital) cadaster, data management and 3D multi-sensory geospatial data collection – to name just a few essential tools – for the reconstruction of the building fabric. In addition, Building Information Modeling (BIM) will gain increased relevance in the recovery context.

In this context, a deliberate attempt will be made to broaden horizons beyond existing socalled “toolkit” implementation approaches of development cooperation organizations such as the GIZ-Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH or UNESCO.
Instead, locally adapted land use, planning and (landscape) architectural strategies will be examined for their practicability. Special attention is given to the consideration of current research results: What approaches are there, especially in ongoing and completed dissertation projects of Syrian scientists and practitioners? Where is the state of research on the restoration of destroyed urban and peri-urban areas in terms of planning, law and architecture? What chains of impact can be identified? Which networks in the field of law, architecture and geospatial data management can be newly developed and optimized?

The main topics to present may include the following sub-aspects:

Session 1: Law
– The situation of construction, infrastructure and planning, cadaster in Aleppo in 2021 – Update after 10 years of war.
– Constitutional law and its meaning for development and recovery.
– Law on land tenure and real estate transactions including the Islamic waqf law and legal
transplants.
– Recovery through civil and inheritance law instruments.
– Social housing and tenancy law.
– Law on monuments and historic buildings / heritage / antiquities law.
– Promotion or hindering for the reconstruction of destroyed infrastructure and buildings
especially in historic cities (example: the old town of Aleppo) by legal instruments.
– Regulations and financing themes for renewable energy such as solar panels on roofs.
– Hierarchy of spatial and sectoral planning laws and sub-ordinances: central versus local.
– National and international legal framework for a revised and updated “social and land
question” for war-torn cities.
– Role of private and public developers i.e., for land acquisition and distribution.
– Taxation instruments and land valuation methods as instruments to finance recovery.

Session 2: Architecture and Planning
– Planning systems for urban, peri-urban and rural areas.
– Toolkits for post-conflict recovery of the built cultural heritage.
– Expropriatory effects and compensation implications of legally-binding land use plans.
– Post-conflict heritage management.
– Efficiency, effectiveness and potential failures of (donor-driven) “master-plans”.
– Development plans: preparation, implementation, outcome, monitoring and evaluation.
– The role of urban planning in issues of identity, integrity and authenticity in war-torn cities.
– Strategies of preparedness, rapid risk assessment and rescue interventions in damaged
monuments.
– Traditional building practices and the new generation of builders.
– Architectural strategies (urban design) of reconstruction and renovation.
– Case studies for post-war reconstruction of monuments and the urban fabric.
– Conservation and restoration of architectural elements.

Session 3: Geodata management, GIS, Geography, and block-chain
– Instruments and workflows of multi-sensory geospatial data acquisition for war-damaged cities.
– Innovative toolkits and practices for the reconstruction of cultural urban landscape.
– Digitization of cartographic data and its connection with land development and land rights registry (i.e., deeds system).
– Possible applications of block-chain and digital tracking for built and infrastructural post-war scenarios.
– The role of reality capture methods (i.e., laser scanning, photogrammetry), 3D modelling and GIS-tools in the planning processes.
– Prospects of Building Information Modeling for the recording, planning and visualization of built fabric during awarding, tendering, construction, and reconstruction.
– The technical geospatial infrastructure and training available for the local private and public stakeholders.
– Proof, storage and transferring of ownership titles and property transactions / records via block-chain models to monitor property development.
– Importance of Geography networks for the process of recovery.

Contact for scientific information:

Contact: Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, Faculty 1: Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geomatics, Prof. Dr. habil. Fabian Thiel, Tel.: +49 69 1533-2788, E-Mail: fabian.thiel@fb1.fra-uas.de

Contact Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Hungary: MSc. Rahaf Orabi, PhD. Candidate in Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Tel: +36 30 785-4762, E-Mail: orabi.rahaf@hallgato.ppke.hu

More information:
https://www.frankfurt-university.de/fb1

The COVID Spring Egyptomania: Egypt’s Extraordinary Museum Happenings and Findings

By: Minna Silver

This spring, exactly after 10 years from the Arab Spring and now during and despite the pandemic, there has been a spectacular move of Egypt’s great pharaohs from the Old Egyptian Museum in Cairo to the modern Grand Egyptian Museum in the Golden Parade of the Pharaohs. The parade was broadcasted by Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and indeed undoubtedly it will boost tourism to the new Grand Egyptian Museum which inauguration is expected to happen in June 2021.

One could now this spring follow the televised once in the lifetime procession of mummified pharaohs while a symphony orchestra and singers were playing and Egyptian dignitaries were attending the feast. Dimitri Tomkin had once composed Land of the Pharaohs and a special peace Pharaonic Procession which, for example, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra had recorded. We could now from distance enjoy a real historical procession and have change into the world of lockdowns at our homes.

Such famous pharaohs as the female pharaoh Hatshepsut and pharaoh Ramesses II, proceeded in specially modified vehicles in the streets of Cairo while the orchestra was playing pompous music and the vehicles transported the pharaohs to the better equipped Grand Egyptina Museum in Giza. It is fine that the ancient Egyptian finds including mummies will get the best laboratory treatment in the museum. The mummy of Tutankhamen, perhaps to us the most famous pharaoh, has been returned to its tomb which from the archaeological ethic point of view is an appropriate gesture.

Soon after the spectacle, the world was hearing about extraordinary findings when Dr. Zahi Hawass’s announced the discovery of the lost city of “the Rise of Athen” or “the Dazzling Aten” in Western Thebes next and across the Nile from Luxor. The city dates from the time of Pharaoh Amenophis III (ca. 1390-1352 BC) and his son Amenophis IV (ca. 1353-1336 BC), the latter later known as Akhenaten. The city was apparently used by successive pharaohs Tutankhamen (ca. 1334-1325 BC) and Ay. Pharaoh Akhenaten had created a new monotheistic religion known Atenism which the name of the lost city refers to. He also built the city for Aten in Amarna situated between Cairo and Luxor. From the palaeopathological and DNA examinations, Akhenaten has been identified as having been the father to the boy king Tutankhamen’s.

Some archaeologists have reacted to the discovery of the city that it is the most significant archaeological find made in Egypt since the tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922. The city was discovered when Hawass was looking for the so-called mortuary temple of Tutankhamen. The unearthed finds now consist of buildings, pottery, tools, jewelry and tombs. It seems to have partly served as an industrial centre of pharaohs, but only parts are exposed and the future can bring more new information of the nature of the city. It is claimed that the discovered city is the largest ever known in ancient Egypt.

In this digital age, there are numerous new ways to save the sites and finds from deterioration. The replica of Tutankhamen’s tomb has been produced by FactumArte to people to visit and save the original tomb. The unwrapping linen shrouds and wrappings of mummies have developed digitally. Now there are algorithmic ways to virtually unwrap mummies without actually opening them. We can see inside the wrappings: jewelry and shabtis, little anthropomorphic and magic statues set under wrappings. The director of the Egyptian Museum in Turin introduced the new invention of digitally unwrapping mummies at the GEORES conference in Milan in the spring of 2019.ByB

Abstract Deadline extended to April 15

We are excited with the amount of contributions submitted to CIPA 2021, but many people have asked for some more time, so the deadline for the abstracts has been extended to April 15, 2021. After notification of acceptance, the final submission of your paper, to be published in the ISPRS Archives, is expected for June 30, 2021.

The deadline for the full papers, to be published in the ISPRS Annals, remains April 30, 2021.

Here you can submit your contribution and can find detail information about the submission’s format and system: http://www.cipa2021.org/call-for-papers/

All the accepted contributions will be publish on the ISPRS Annals and Archives ahead of the symposium, please look at CIPA 2019’s paper here: 

Looking forward for your contribution,

CIPA BEIJING 2021 in Hybrid Format

Since travel restrictions for most parts of the world will not be lifted by the end of August, it was decided that the coming CIPA Symposium in Beijing will be held in a hybrid format. This means that it will be a combination of both an online and a physical meeting. Our members and enthusiasts coming from the hosting country can meet each other in person at the venue – the Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. For the rest of us, the symposium will be held online. This hybrid format has consequences regarding the submission deadlines, the registration fees and the program. Detailed information can be found on www.cipa2021.org

Please mind that:

  • the registration fees are significantly reduced;
  • the submission deadline for full papers to be double blind peer reviewed and published in the ISPRS Annals, is moved to April 30th
  • the deadline for abstracts, resulting in full papers published in the ISPRS Archives, is moved to March 30th;
  • since the symposium will be live streamed entirely, the various sessions are scheduled as follows:  
    • Beijing Time (Chinese Standard Time): 09:00 – 11:30 AM; 4:00 – 6:30 PM; 9:00-11:30 PM
    • Central European Summer Time: 10:00 – 12:30; 15:00 – 17:30
    • Central Daylight Time: 08:00 – 10:30; 8:00 – 10:30 PM 

We hope you will participate in and enjoy the symposium.

Corona image in Corona era