The technical publication Salt Attack and Rising Damp this week won the Education Award at the 2009 Energy Australia National Trust Heritage Awards held in Sydney, NSW.
Congratulations to all those involved, including:
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Tagged: conservation, preservation, rising damp, salt attack, salt damp
Registrations are now open for the (Un)Loved Modern conference to be held at the Sydney Masonic Centre, in Sydney 7-10 July 2009.
Keynote speakers have been announced, and include:
Dr Philip Goad, leading Australian architectural academic and author, will introduce the problem of conserving the architecture of the post-war era using a series of case studies of important buildings slated for demolition or demolished which are appreciated by the professions but eschewed by the public and politicians.
Dr Theo Prudon, a Dutch-born American academic, author and practicing architect, will expand on the international perspective of preserving much loved and appreciated Modern icons in the US with case studies such as the TWA Terminal in New York and Modernist houses of the US north-east which enjoy no legislative protection.
Dr John Schofield, academic and author from the United Kingdom, will use Paul Klee’s (1920) work, Angelus Novus as the starting point for an alternative view of landscape – a reverse perspective on the value and significance of archaeology, landscape and memory, as they apply to the (un)loved modern.
Details of accepted papers and presenters will be made available in the coming weeks.
Register now and take advantage of the earlybird registration rate.
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APT LA 2009
November 2-6, 2009
Millennium Biltmore Hotel Los Angeles
Preservation in the City Without Limits
The Association for Preservation Technology International is accepting abstracts for its 2009 Conference in Los Angeles, California, USA.
The deadline for submissions is Noon (US Central Time), 9 March 2009.
Download the Call for Papers and when you’ve decided what you’d like to present, upload your abstract via the online Abstract Submission Form
The 2009 Conference theme is “Preservation in the City Without Limits.” Abstracts are being solicited for paper presentations and panel discussions on the sub-themes of:
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A new technical publication on Salt Attack and Rising Damp has been published jointly by the Heritage Council of NSW, Heritage Victoria and SA Department for Environment and Heritage. Authored by APT Australia Chapter member David Young OAM, this publication provides excellent guidance on the diagnosis and treatment options for rising damp and associated salt attack in masonry buildings.
The publication can be downloaded in PDF format from the web, or hard copies purchased for $25 plus postage. Click here for details.
The guide explains how to diagnose and identify appropriate repair work for cases commonly seen in Australia.
A joint project between the heritage agencies in NSW, Victoria, South Australia and the City of Adelaide, Salt Attack and Rising Damp covers various climatic and geographical conditions found across NSW and south-eastern Australia, from coastal areas to arid regions. According to publication author David Young OAM, salt attack and rising damp are separate but interrelated processes. Both issues must be understood to minimise damage and to take corrective action. “While the term rising damp has been commonly used to cover both aspects, it tends to overlook the role of salt. This is an issue that will become increasingly important as our buildings get older and soils become more saline. While emphasis is given to buildings of heritage value, the principles apply to all older
buildings” , he said.
Dos and Don’ts of Damp
Do go out in the rain (the heavier the better) and check gutters and downpipes for blockages, leaks and overflows. Also check around the base of the building for water lying against walls.
Do check for the presence of a Damp Proof Course (DPC) – and ensure that it is continuous, and not ‘bridged’ by built up paving and garden beds.
Do remember that damp walls increase the risks of fungal rot and termite attack to floor timbers – always check beneath timber floors.
Do consider the possibility that your old building may have had previous treatments for rising damp, and that these may be obscuring the extent of the problem.
Do clean out existing air vents regularly – and monitor results before deciding to add new ones.
Do consider the possibility of salt attack decay into wall cavities – always inspect cavities for accumulation of debris (and corrosion of ties).
Do consider the implications of drying out the soils beneath your building. If it is founded on reactive (expansive) clay soils excessive drying could lead to structural cracking as a result
of differential settlement.
Do get independent advice – that way there should be no pressure to use a particular product or system. Check your adviser’s credentials.
Don’t use hard cement mortar to repoint failed lime mortar joints – that will just drive the damp further up the wall and may also damage the bricks.
Don’t even think about sealing walls with water repellent coatings.
Don’t mulch your walls. Move garden beds away from the base of walls and remove irrigation to prevent spray and pounding against walls.
Don’t dismiss the old tar and sand DPC – reduce the damp ‘stress’ on the walls, repair the DPC, use sacrificial mortars in the joints if necessary, and monitor results before considering an expensive new DPC.
Don’t undertake insertion of any form of DPC until all the basic housekeeping measures have been completed and their effectiveness assessed over a period of time (at least a year).
Don’t accept the cheapest quote for chemical damp coursing without checking the contractor’s references and the details of the proposed works, such as drill hole spacing and depth, and how the contractor will determine when sufficient fluid has been impregnated.
Don’t try to get away with using less chemicals and then locking in the inevitable damp with waterproof plasters – your client has read this too!
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Tagged: architectural technology, Australia, conservation, preservation, rising damp, salt attack, salt damp
THE PACIFIC CONNECTION
trade, travel & technology transfer
FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING & PLANNING
UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE
19-22 FEBRUARY 2009
a three day conference exploring connections in the built environment between the Australia, the United States, and the Pacific region
Australians and Chinese modernism; machine-made nails; bungalows and bungalow courts; Australasian travellers; slabs and stud frames; Chicago in Australia; hollow brick walls and terra cotta lumber; modern hospital design; Whare Nui and Fale; the Lock-Bar pipe and the Quonset Hut; SOM and Australia; and more
DRAFT PROGRAM
Thursday 19 February
1.00 bus tour departs outside St Mary’s College, Swanston Street (north of Tin Alley) tour terminates at Newman College
5.00 registration and drinks, concourse, Architecture Building
6.00 keynote address, The Forgotten Half of the Globe
Sisalkraft Theatre, Architecture Building
In a World in which western culture and politics have focussed on the Atlantic, the role of Pacific hemisphere has been under-appreciated. Professor Miles Lewis, AM, FAHA, architectural historian and editor of the just-published international text, Architectura, considers the role of Pacific connections from the period before the mid-nineteenth century, when the western coast of North America was more accessible from China and Australia than it was from New York, through the late nineteenth century when Melbourne was the most American city in the British Empire, to the twentieth, when steel framing, mushroom slabs, brick veneer, malthoid roofing, bungalow courts and hospital designs were carried back from the USA by enterprising Australian travellers.
Friday 20 February
(lunch, morning & afternoon tea provided)
an exhibition of American and other rare books on building, architecture and planning will be on display during session breaks
9.30 registration
10.00 opening: the Hon Dr Barry O Jones, AO
session 1: The Asian Arena
11.15 morning tea
11.45 session 2: Nails
1.00 lunch
2.00 session 3: The American Dream
3.15 afternoon tea
3.45 session 4: frames & bungalows
5.00 close
Saturday 21 February
(lunch, morning & afternoon tea provided)
10.00 session 5: Travellers
11.15 morning tea
11.45 session 6: Technology
1.00 lunch
2.00 session 7: Modernism
3.15 afternoon tea
3.45 session 8: Imagery
5.00 closing drinks
Sunday 22 February
10.00 city walking tour: start at the State Library Victoria, Swanston St
1.00 finish
Cost:
Day 1 $50
Day 2 $100
Day 3 $100
Day 4 free
OR 4 day package, $200
OR 4 day concession (give details), $150thepacificconnectionflier2
Download details and registration form here
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Tagged: APT, architectural history, Australia, conference, conservation, United States, University of Melbourne
A reminder that the call for abstracts for the (Un)Loved Modern conference to be held in Sydney in July 2009 is closing this week. If you are interested in presenting a paper at this conference, please see this previous post for details of the conference themes.
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a three day conference exploring connections in the built environment between the Australia, the United States, and the Pacific region
Existing scholarship in the history of the built environment has dealt with the transmission of progressive architectural ideas through published American sources, but has otherwise tended to neglect links across the Pacific. This conference aims to redress that balance, and to include the export of buildings and techniques from Australasia to the United States, the effect of travellers in both directions, and the building materials market involving New Zealand, South America, China, and Canada.
some possible topics
whaling bases; Singapore and Hong Kong houses; building for the gold rushes; the Californian trade; adobe; the Pacific timber trade; the stud frame & the balloon frame; the machine-made nail; prefabrication; Elford, Aladdin & other US house exports; Chile and the woolshed; international exhibitions; the Kilburn photographs; the corn crib; the roller flour mill; irrigation settlements; pressed metal; terra cotta lumber; Harry Tompkins & the steel frame; expanded metal and the Kahn bar; apartment buildings; western architects in China; the city beautiful movement; bungalows & bungalow courts; the Carnegie Foundation; the Quonset Hut: hospital designers; the US Construction Corps in the Pacific
abstracts
Please send abstracts of no more than 200 words, together with contact details and affiliation, by 10 November 2008 (unless special circumstances apply) to Catherine Tate, conference coordinator, catate@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au
Complete papers must be received by 21 January 2009 and will be blind refereed and, if accepted, published for distribution at the conference.
supported by
University of Melbourne
APT Australia Chapter
Australia & New Zealand American Studies Association
CHS
Heritage Victoria
Society of Architectural Historians of Australia & New Zealand
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Tagged: APT, architectural history, architectural technology, Australia, conservation, Pacific, preservation, United States, University of Melbourne
Papers from the Victorian Interiors conference are now available from the University of Melbourne website.
The program comprised the following speakers and their papers:
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Tagged: Add new tag, APT, conservation, interiors, paint finishes, preservation, University of Melbourne, Victorian
Please download this call for papers for the (Un)Loved Modern conference to be held in Sydney 7-10 July 2009. Organisers welcome abstracts on any aspect of the conference themes. In particular, APT Australia Chapter members David West and Elisha Long are keen to hear from anybody interested in presenting a paper on technical aspects of conserving 20thC heritage.
Papers are particularly sought for subjects that support the major sub themes of: Re-engaging with the original designer, Unloved Modern, War in the Pacific, Managing 20th century obsolescence, Rethinking colonial heritage, The single house under threat.
This call for papers seeks papers and case studies for the technical streams on:
The papers could focus on one or more of the following aspects:
Abstracts are due by 14 November 2008 and should describe the proposed paper in no more than 300 words.
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APT Australasian Chapter was a partner in the organisation of a successful conference on Victorian Interiors in Melbourne on 24 – 26 July. Long-time members Donald Ellsmore and Miles Lewis collaborated with Robyn Sloggett at the Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation and Tracey Avery and Elizabeth Anya-Petrivna at the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) to present a workshop, excursion to outstanding places and conference held at the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Melbourne. The three-day event was sponsored by Heritage Victoria and the Department of Planning and Community Development.
The workshop was attended by 25 participants and dealt with a range of issues commonly encountered when conserving interiors.
The excursion was attended by 45 participants who took in the outstanding examples of interiors and related documentary resources at the State Library of Victoria, Manchester Unity Building, Block Arcade, former Commercial banking chamber, former ES&A Bank and Verdon Chambers, former Melbourne Tramway and Omnibus foyer, St Mary’s Church East St Kilda, Rippon Lea, Mandeville Hall and Villa Alba.
Group entering Rippon Lea, Elsternwick
The conference was opened by Prof Daryl Jackson, Chair of the Heritage Council, and attended by 55 participants from across Australia and two from Britain. Papers were presented by Dr Donald Ellsmore (APT Australia Convenor), Prof Miles Lewis (University of Melbourne), Brian Andrews (CH Hobart), Barrie Cooper (Westox Sydney), Chris Payne (Artlab Adelaide), Anne Toy HHT Sydney), Robert Griffin (HHT Sydney) and Tracey Avery (NT Melbourne).
The visual presentations can be viewed on the Melbourne University website and copies of the conference papers are available for purchase from the University of Melbourne. Go to www.abp.unimelb.edu.au/staff/milesbl/ and follow the links.
Villa Alba, Kew - ceiling detail
Photos by Donald Ellsmore
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