WoodCultHer

COST Action IE0601 “Wood Science for Conservation of Cultural Heritage”

and

The International Research Group on Wood Protection

(WG 1.8 Cultural artifacts)

organize a Joint Focused Meeting on:

Deterioration of wooden heritage structures in outdoor exposure:

Diagnosis and conservation

Organizers: Thomas Nilsson (thomas.nilsson@sprod.slu.se)

Wibke Unger (wunger@fh-eberswalde.de)

Local organizer: Marie-France Thevenon (marie-france.thevenon@cirad.fr)

Date: 11 May 2010

Location: Palais des Congrès, Le Bellevue, Biarritz, France

Website: www.irg-wp.com

Report from the meeting

The meeting was affected by the financial situation for COST Action IE0601 and by travel problems related to volcanic ash. This and other events led to some late cancellations. Eight persons from COST Action IE0601 attended the focused meeting. In total, 35-40 persons attended the focused meeting. This demonstrated that the subject attracted a fair number of interested persons. Nine papers were presented. Seven of them had been submitted for the focused meeting, two were papers intended for the IRG conference.

Five of the papers dealt with deterioration of wooden cultural heritage buildings such as churches, castles and manors. Deterioration of wooden material in outdoor museums and reconstructions of wooden cultural heritage was also discussed. It is very clear that many years of almost total neglect has created immeasurable problems for wooden cultural monuments in Eastern Europe. Damage in the form of leaking roofs in most cases leads to very fast degradation, which means that immediate remedies are required. Lack of funds and qualified scientists/conservators may lead to sacrificial of a great number of buildings. A strategy for a qualified documentation of such buildings should be worked out. It was pointed out that the lack of qualified craftsmen is often renders efficient use of limited resources difficult. More information on effective, but environmentally acceptable biocides needs to be disseminated to conservators engaged in caring for historical buildings. Finally, regular monitoring of buildings should always be part of the conservation strategies.

The problems with wooden cultural heritage buildings are so immense that they doubtless merit a new COST Action focused at stimulating cooperation between, wood scientists, conservators and museum or government officials.

Climate change is bound to have influence on conservation of wooden cultural heritage. One invited paper “Impact of climate change on wood deterioration – Challenges and solutions for cultural heritage and modern structures” by Brischke et al. presented one model for calculating deterioration at various climates in Europe. The model is based on a large number of experiments distributed over Europe in such a way that that major climates were represented. The model was described in detail with recommendations on its use. Possible “global warming” effects were demonstrated for two European localities. The fact that the model predicts warming to lead to increased deterioration in Uppsala, Sweden, but less deterioration in Bordeaux, France, demonstrates to complexity of climate factors.

All papers presented at the conference were collected on a CD and distributed to all participants. The papers are also accessible on the IRG webpage www.irg-wp.com following permission by the IRG Secretariat.

The persons from COST Action IE0601 were free to follow the IRG conference and listen to a large number of different projects. IRG has in recent years spread its general activities to wood protection and has become less focused on wood preservation. This was recently also reflected in its change of name from “The International Research Group on Wood Preservation” to “The International Research Group on Wood Protection”. Many of the IRG members are wood scientists and have a broad knowledge of wood protection. Some Management Committee members of COST Action IE0601 are also members of IRG. The interaction has, however, not been very great. This is unfortunate as IRG represents a rich source of knowledge, that conservators could benefit from. COST Action IE0601 is coming closer to its end and it is therefore getting too late for further activities. Any possible follow-up COST Action involving wood scientists and conservators should strive at increased contacts with IRG.

PROGRAMME

Tuesday 11 May 2010

08:30 – 08:45 Opening of the meeting

Introduction to the COST Action IE0601:

Thomas Nilsson

Introduction to the IRG WG 1.8 Cultural artifacts:

Wibke Unger

Moderation by Wibke Unger:

08:45 – 09:30 IRG/WP 10-20441: Brischke, C., Rapp, A.O., Hasan, M. and Despot, R: Impact of climate change on wood deterioration – Challenges and solutions for cultural heritage and modern structures.

09:30 -10:00 IRG/WP 10-20433: Carsten, C., Xie, Y., Xiao, Z, Evans, P.D. and Militz, H.: The use of micro-tensile testing to assess weathering decay and oxidative degradation of wooden items.

10:00 -10:30 IRG/WP 10-20537: Bucşa, L. and Bucşa, C.:

Deterioration of wooden heritage in outdoor exposure in Romania.

Moderation by Thomas Nilsson:

11:00 -11.30 IRG/WP 10-40521: Niculescu, G., Chachula, O. and Nicolaescu, A: Degradation and conservation strategies for an XVIIIth century wooden church from Oltenia county, Romania.

11.30 -12:00 IRG/WP 10-20434: Unger, A. and Unger, W.:

Stained Wood: The identification of natural dyes and mordants in wooden works of art.

12.00-12.30 Discussion

Moderation by Thomas Nilsson:

13:30 -14:00 IRG/WP 10-10728: Irbe, I., Karadelev, M. and Andersons, B:

Qualitative – quantitative analysis of wood-inhabiting fungi in external wooden structures in Latvian Cultural Heritage.

14:00 -14:30 IRG/WP 10-30525: Love, C.S., Freitag, C and Morrell, J.J.: Use of internal remedial treatment to extend wood life at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.

14:30-15:00 Discussion

Moderation by Wibke Unger:

15:30 -16:00 IRG/WP 10-40487: Kisternaya,M. and Kozlov, V.:

Chemical protection of historic timber structures: Results and future needs.

16:00 – 16:30 IRG/WP 10-20431: Gelbrich, J., Kretschmar, E.I., Lamersdorf, N. and

Militz, H.:

Simulation and investigation of wood degradation by erosion bacteria in laboratory experiments.

16:30 – 17:00 Final discussion by Thomas Nilsson

17:00 Closing of the meeting