Keynote Lectures

 


Tullia Iori

Learning from lies in the History of Construction (and How to Defend Against Them)

Tullia Iori, an engineer by training, currently holds the position of Professor of History of Civil Engineering at Rome Tor Vergata University in Italy. Since 2023, she has also served as Deputy Rector in Teaching. She directs the Ph.D. Program in Civil Engineering. Her academic interests lie in the construction history, with a focus on historical aspects of civil engineering and the preservation of modern structures. Her Ph.D. dissertation on the history of reinforced concrete in Italy was recognized with the Edoardo Benvenuto Prize in 2003. Collaborating with Sergio Poretti, she led the research project "SIXXI - XX Century Structural Engineering: the Italian Contribution," funded by an ERC Advanced Grant in 2012. This research resulted in the publication of the five-book SIXXI series, documenting Italy's contributions to structural engineering. Currently, she acts as a consultant for research projects funded by the Ministry of Culture, the MAXXI Foundation, and the Lazio Region. She is the director of the journal "L’Industria italiana del cemento" founded in 1929. Iori is involved in cultural initiatives, including curating exhibitions at MAXXI - National Museum of 21st Century Art in Rome, showcasing the works of renowned engineers like Sergio Musmeci and Pier Luigi Nervi. Currently, her exhibition "Connect-IT" (commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) travels globally, highlighting the latest decade of Italian engineering achievements.

Iori has a fervent commitment to public outreach and education. She has produced educational radio broadcasts on RAI Radio 3's "Wikiradio," exploring the history of civil engineering. Additionally, she has contributed to television programs for RAI Scuola, including the series "L'Archipendolo," which delves into ancient and medieval construction techniques. Her collaborations with media outlets such as the BBC, Discovery/Science Channel, and RAI Cultura have further amplified her efforts in disseminating knowledge.
Iori is also entrusted with the responsibility of consulting on the restoration of iconic bridges and buildings, including notable projects such as the Magliana Pavilion and Ferroconcrete motorboat "La Giuseppa" (designed by Pier Luigi Nervi) and the Basento Bridge in Potenza (designed by Sergio Musmeci).

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IneWouters

The architectural and structural works of S.A. John Cockerill (1842-1955): balancing between craftmanship and mass production.

Ine Wouters, a professor in the Department of Architectural Engineering at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, holds a Master's degree in Architectural Engineering (1996) and a PhD in Engineering (2002). Her research focuses on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: she studies the history of construction materials, the evolution of production processes, the motivations behind material applications, and the actors involved. Her goal is to provide new insights into construction history and the built heritage, evaluating historical value and addressing renovation and reuse. She co-organized the first International Summer Schools on Construction History (CH.ESS 2011-13, held in Cambridge, Brussels, and Munich), co-chaired the sixth International Congress on Construction History in Brussels in 2018, and is a founding member of the Brussels research group Construction Histories Brussels (CHsB) and the International Federation on Construction History. She contributes significantly to the field of construction history by supervising PhD students and welcoming international researchers in her department.

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Source: N.N.: Constructions métalliques. Seraing: Société anonyme John Cockerill, s.d. [1905 ca.]
Maxime L’Héritier

Notre-Dame de Paris and beyond. Challenges and technical evolutions in gothic construction in the 12th and 13th c.

Maxime L’Héritier is an archaeologist and historian who has a position as a lecturer in medieval history at the University of Paris 8 (France) and ArScAn CNRS laboratory. His research focuses on construction archaeology and history as well as on archaeometallurgy. It particularly deals with metal production and trade in the Middle Ages as well as constructive techniques, with a material and economic approach of great medieval building yards. He defended his Ph.D. on “the use of metal in gothic architecture” in the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne in 2007. Since then, he has contributed to the study of numerous buildings, in particular the major cathedrals of northern France. He has also worked on a number of transverse research topics. In collaboration with Charles Davoine and Ambre d'Harcourt, he has worked on ancient building maintenance and long-term conservation practices and coedited a book in 2019 entitled “Sarta Tecta. De l’entretien à la conservation des édifices”. More recently, in 2020 together with Arnaud Ybert and Christophe Petit, he organized a workshop on fires in large buildings, which has just been published as a thematic issue in the journal Aedificare. One of his other research interests is recycling and reuse in architecture. With Philippe Bernardi and Philippe Dillmann, he co-directed the GDR ReMArch on reuse and recycling of architectural materials from 2019 to 2023 (https://remarch.hypotheses.org/), whose work is currently being published.

Finally, since 2019, he has been coordinating the "metal workgroup" for the scientific project on Notre-Dame de Paris, funded by the CNRS (French National Scientific Research Center) and French Ministry of Culture., bringing together some fifteen researchers working on different research projects. On the one hand, they are looking into iron reinforcements, ties and staples, in order to clarify their role in the building structure, their chronology, but also their quality and origin, and thus shed light on the choices made by builders and on ancient supply circuits. Secondly, they are developing original investigations into the various uses of lead from the Middle Ages to the present day, using a historical, archaeological and analytical approach based on elemental and isotopic analyses to identify the various sources of lead and recycling, and investigate craftsmen's practices.

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The vaults of the nave of Notre-Dame de Paris during their restoration. (c) Elise Baillieul - GT Pierre

Main publications

  1.  Maxime L’Héritier, Aurélia Azéma, Delphine Syvilay, Emmanuelle Delqué-Kolic, Lucile Beck, Ivan Guillot, Mathilde Bernard, Philippe Dillmann, « Notre-Dame de Paris: the first iron lady? Archaeometallurgical study and dating of the Parisian cathedral iron reinforcements », Plos One, 2023, 10.1371/journal.pone.0280945
  2. L’Héritier Maxime, Ybert Arnaud, Petit Christophe, coordination du dossier thématique « Cathédrales en feu : Histoire et archéologie des incendies des édifices religieux », Ædificare. Revue internationale d’histoire de la construction, 2022-1, n°11.
  3. L’Héritier Maxime, « Le fer et le plomb dans la construction monumentale au Moyen Âge, de l’étude des sources écrites à l’analyse de la matière. Bilan de 20 ans de recherches et perspectives », Ædificare. Revue internationale d’histoire de la construction, 2019-2, 6, p. 79-121.
  4. L’Héritier Maxime, Dillmann Philippe, Guillot Ivan, « Microstructural Characterization and Mechanical Properties of Iron Reinforcements in Buildings from the Mediaeval and Modern Periods in France », International Journal of Architectural Heritage, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1080/15583058.2018.1563229
  5. Davoine Charles, d’Harcourt Ambre, L’Héritier Maxime, dir., Sarta tecta. De l’entretien à la conservation des édifices (Antiquité, Moyen Âge, début de la période moderne), Aix-en-Provence, Presses universitaires de Provence, BIAMA 25, 2019, 176 p.
  6. Bernardi Philippe, L’Héritier Maxime, coordination du dossier thématique « Recyclage et remploi : la seconde vie des matériaux de construction », Ædificare. Revue internationale d’histoire de la construction, 2018-2, n°4.
     

Wide spanning trusses in Greek and Roman Antiquity

Prof. Dr. Alexander von Kienlin is full professor at the chair of "Baugeschichte, Historische Bauforschung und Denkmalpflege" at the TU Munich School of Engineering and Design. He holds this position since 2019.

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Timber roof trusses of Old St. Peter's, Rome (Source: Carlo Fontana: Il tempio Vaticano, 1694)

Main publications

Category A (book publications)

  1. von Kienlin, A.: Die Agora von Priene. Elektronische Publikation an der Technischen Universität München.
  2. von Kienlin, A. (ed.): Holztragwerke der Antike. Internationale Konferenz 30. März.-01. April 2007. Byzas 11 (Istanbul 2011)
  3. Summerer, L. – Ivantchik, A. – von Kienlin, A. (eds.): Kelainai Apameia Kibotos. Developpement urbain dans le contexte urbain – Stadtentwicklung im anatolischen Kontext. Akten der internationalen Konferenz 2.-4. April 2009, Revue des Etudes anciennes (Bordeaux 2011)
  4. Summerer, L. – von Kienlin, A. (eds.): Tatarli. Renklerin Dönüsu – The Return of Colours – Rückkehr der Farbe (Istanbul 2010)
  5. Hassler, U. – Altherr, F. – von Kienlin, A. (eds.): Appenzeller Strickbau. Untersuchungen zum ländlichen Gebäudebestand in Ausserrhoden (Zürich 2011)
    Keßler, K. – von Kienlin, A. (eds.): Jewish Architecture - New Sources and Approaches (Petersberg 2015)
  6. Ivantchik, A. – Summerer, S. – von Kienlin, A. (eds.): Kelainai II. Kelainai-Apameia Kibotos: eine achämenidische, hellenistische und römische Metropole – Kelainai-Apameia Kibotos: une métropole achéménide, hellénistique et romaine (Ausonius, Bordeaux 2016)
  7. Keßler, K. – Knufinke, U. – Roß, S. – von Kienlin, A. (eds.): Objekt und Schrift. Beiträge zur materiellen Kultur des Jüdischen. Jüdisches Kulturerbe Bd. 1 (Braunschweig 2016)
    von Kienlin, A. – Gisbertz, O.: Agora und Forum. Stadtraum für die Massenkultur(en), in: Gisbertz,
  8. von Kienlin, A. (ed.): Sur Le Grand Tour – Reisende Architekten als Protagonisten des europäischen Gedankens. Tagungsband 51 der Koldewey-Gesellschaft (Dresden 2023).


Category B (papers on timber construction and methodology)

  1. von Kienlin, A.: Ancient Wooden Constructions in Anatolia, in: J. Chilton – I. Mungan (eds.), Timber Structures from Antiquity to the Present. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Timber Structures, 25-27 june 2009, International Association for Spatial Structures (Istanbul 2009) S. 3 – 14.
  2. von Kienlin, A. – Schuller., M.: Between tradition and high tech: Insights into the methods of building archaeology at the Technical University of Munich, in: Cite de l’architecture & du patrimoine, Le Releve en Architecture ou l’eternelle quete du vrai (Paris 2011) 218-238
  3. von Kienlin, A.: Überlegungen zur Entwicklung weitspannender Dachtragwerke in Anatolien, in: A.v.Kienlin (Hrsg.), Holztragwerke der Antike. Internationale Konferenz 30. März.-01. April 2007. Byzas 11 (Istanbul 2011) S. 81-92.
  4. von Kienlin, A. – Gisbertz, O.: Agora und Forum. Stadtraum für die Massenkultur(en), in: Gisbertz, O. (Hrsg.): Bauen für die Massenkultur. Stadt- und Kongresshallen der 1960er und 1970er Jahre (Berlin 2015), S. 73-91
  5. von Kienlin, A.: Laudatio für Gerd de Bruyn, in: Braunschweigische Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft. Jahrbuch 2015 (Braunschweig 2016), S. 428-435
  6. von Kienlin, A.: Re-Konstruktionen des Altertums: Gedanken zu antikisierenden Tragwerken im frühen Industriezeitalter, in: Schriftenreihe der Gesellschaft für Bautechnikgeschichte, Band 1. Alltag und Veränderung, Praktiken des Bauens und Konstruierens. Tagungsband der zweiten Jahrestagung vom 23. bis 25. April 2015 in Innsbruck, S. 233-246
  7. von Kienlin, A.: Universalwissenschaft oder Baukunst? Architektur zwischen Wissenschaft und Kunst, in: Vierviertelkult. Vierteljahresschrift der Stiftung Braunschweigischer Kulturbesitz, 8. Jahrgang, Ausgabe 31 (Braunschweig 2018) S. 5-6.
  8. von Kienlin, A.: Einführung, in: Wie forschen? Chancen und Grenzen der Bauforschung an Gebäuden nach 1950. 50. Tagungsband der Koldewey-Gesellschaft (Dresden 2021) S.9-12.
  9. von Kienlin, A.: Bauforschung als Disziplin innerhalb der Architektur, in: Die Architekt 2023-3, Auf Evidenz bauen. Forschung in der Architektur.
  10. von Kienlin, Alexander: Dachwerk und Decke der Biblioteca Laurenziana, in: von Kienlin, A. – Schulz-Lehnfeld, G. – Schlimme, H. – Bauch, J. (Hrsg.): Entwurf, Planung und Baupraxis im Zeitalter Michelangelos (Petersberg 2024, im Druck).
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