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Documenting natural stone to preserve our cultural and architectonic heritage
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Pereira, Dolores Baltuille, José Manuel |
| Copyright Year | 2014 |
| Abstract | Architectural heritage is generally built in nat ural stone sourced from quarries located in the geo graphic vicinity, and it should be conserved over time, as it is an important element in the cultural heritage of people. A general practice in restora tion is to clean, repair or even replace the damaged part of the buildings with similar rocks. However, the restoration work is not always done properly, either because the repair is poorly executed, caus ing further damage, or because the natural stone used for the replacement is poorly selected. The only means to deal professionally with replacement work is to determine the original stone and use it as replacement in order to avoid contrasts in the building, or if the stone has proved to be unsuitable under present conditions, to choose a suitable alter native replacement following appropriate technical assessment. This is important especially when deal ing with historical towns or monuments that have been recognized as world heritage by UNESCO. Several projects at international level have at tempted to deal with documentation about orna mental stones but none has been succesful over time or with results. This is why national and international networks have now been created to document all data on historical natural stone and historical quar ries. Creation of databases seems to be a good tool to use in any case. CONSTRUROCK is a Spanish network involving research teams from universities, research and development institutions and natural stone related companies. Its aim is to catalogue all natural stone and quarries in Spain, focussing on both new and historical buildings. Another one is the Global Heritage Stone project, a project of a newly established IUGS Task Group whose aim is to introduce a new formal international designation for natural stone materials that have achieved wide spread use as well as recognition in human culture. It also aims to formalize specific characteristics of a dimension stone in an internationally accepted context. As a consequence of these projects, some specific and uptodate databases will be created and main tained so experts can offer advice on the important issue of restoration of the architectural heritage based on a real situation. It will not only be a data base with a commercial purpose (such as many that already exist), but one looking for maintainance and preservation of our stonebuilt heritage. The Global Heritage Stone project is very well known internationally these days. Now it is our duty to make the effort to internationalize our own, national network: CONSTRUROCK. The idea of CONSTRUROCK started in 2004, after the Spanish Geological Congress that took place in Zaragoza (Spain). Researchers from that university and from the Spanish Geological Survey discussed the lack of joined information on geo logical and architectonic characterization related to the architectonic heritage. They reached the conclu sion that a national database was needed by geo logists, architects, engineers, heritage professionals and other interested parties. The early success of the original network led to subsequent expansion: in 2011 the network was thus set up with a national objective, but with international perspectives. At present, a total of ten institutions from ten Spanish regions are linked to CONSTRUROCK: The Spanish Geological Survey (IGME), the Uni versity of Zaragoza, the University of Granada, the Technological Institute of Ornamental Rocks and Building Materials of Extremadura (INTROMAC), the Autonoma University of Barcelona, the University of Vigo, the University of Salamanca (through the Characterization of Geomaterials Research Group), the Mining and Research Society of Castilla and León (SIEMCALSA), the Energy Board of the Basque Country (EVE) and the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). |
| Starting Page | 002 |
| Ending Page | 002 |
| Page Count | 1 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Volume Number | 64 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://materconstrucc.revistas.csic.es/index.php/materconstrucc/article/download/1471/1711 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
