EWAP Conference 25 October 2024

On Friday the 25 October 2024 the Endangered Wooden Architecture Programme hosted a day event to highlight and to celebrate many of the projects it has funded. The event brought together many EWAP grantees and also other participants interested in wooden architecture. Focused on EWAPs open access database, the day was packed full of interesting presentations concentrated on three themes: the scope and nature of endangerment of the world’s wooden architectural heritage; issues of ethics and community engagement; and the merits and limits of various recording techniques. You can find the conference booklet here.

Group Photo (c) EWAP, 2024

Emily Akpomedaye (c) EWAP, 2024

Prof Marcel Vellinga the Director of EWAP and Dr Arthur Dudley from Arcadia launched the day welcoming everyone and highlighting the aims of EWAP and Arcadia. The first session of the day was chaired by EWAP Advisory Board member Prof Trevor Marchand. Three presenters discussed the nature and scale of the endangered wooden buildings they are working on. Dr Ayako Fujieda, Kyoto Seika University gave a presentation on the Cultural Significance and Conservation of Traditional Wooden Architecture in Fiji, . This paper highlighted the diversity and unique qualities of the village structures and the link with resource availability and the local environment. Thes second talk explored Documenting the Heritage Churches of Chiloé and was presented by Dr Berni Devilat and her team from the University of Nottingham, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Universidad de Chile and Fundación Iglesias Patrimoniales de Chiloé. Here they presented the techniques they have used to digitally document these buildings to provide a virtual platform for future conservation. The final talk in this session was on Poverty as Medium of Preserving Traditional Knowledge of Urhobo Vernacular Architecture by Emily Akpomedaye, Akpo re Ufuoma Development Initiative. This talk highlighted how poverty is contributing to the continuation of traditional building methods whilst those who can afford it are building and moving into more modern and durable houses.

Q&A session (c) EWAP, 2024

The second session explored the cultural context of wooden buildings more specifically and was chaired by EWAP advisory Board member Prof Jorge Tomasi. The first talk by Prof Magda Minguzzi and Lucy Vosloo, Nelson Mandela University, explored an Indigenous Methodology in Working with the First Indigenous Peoples of South Africa, in Baviaanskloof. Their talk focused on the benefits of creating a strong relationship with and receiving involvement from the First Indigenous Leaders and community members in the process of their investigation. Prof Jigna Desai and Saatvika Pancholi, from the CEPT Research and Development Foundation, led the next talk on Reconsidering the term 'Vernacular' in the context of Wooden Havelis of Gujarat, exploring their cultural context. 

Farida Ghaffar (c) EWAP 

The next talk by Prof Akemi Hijioka, Federal Institute of São Paulo Registro Campus with her team discussed the houses of Japanese immigrants in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. They explained that by visiting and hearing from the maroon communities in the region and master carpenters from Nagano (Japan), they were able to gain a deeper understanding of the material sourcing, construction processes and the tools used to build the residences. You can find out more about this project here. Prof Anila Naeem and Dr Farida Ghaffar, NED University of Engineering and Technology, took us to Pakistan to look at the Last Surviving Cluster of Indus Houseboats of Mohanna’s floating village, located in Manchar Lake. Through an ethnographic approach of community interactive documentation, including interviews of the local community, the project gained valuable insights on the past grandeur and painful realities of their current struggles. You can find out more about this project here.

Yulia Nurliani Lukito (c) EWAP, 2024

The final session explored how projects have been recording wooden architecture and was chaired by Elizabeth Lee, CyArk. For the first talk Carlos Castillo Levicoy, Corporación Memoria Austral, presented the analysis and understanding of vernacular constructive forms and the inhabitation of the territory of Aysén in Chile. Here he focused on how technology and a trans disciplinary approach is helping to provide a rich record of these buildings. Dr Yulia Nurliani Lukito, Universitas Indonesia, led the following talk on Documenting Vernacular Architecture of Wae Rebo Village, Manggarai, Indonesia: Using 3D Scanning Technologies for Preservation. This talk explored the potential of 3D recording technologies, specifically image-based photogrammetry and UAV photogrammetry, in documenting and preserving Wae Rebo's vernacular architecture. 

Tubi Otitooluwa (c) EWAP, 2024

Next Tubi Otitooluwa, Associate Director of James Cubitt Architects, discussed the Implementation of "Building Smart Data Dictionary" for Wooden Heritage Buildings, highlighting the need for data dictionary specific for heritage wooden buildings that standardizes and reports pre-defined object attributes. You can find out more about this project here. The final talk of the session was from Dr Hrvoje Tomic, University of Zagreb on the challenges of documenting traditional wooden architecture in the Banovina/Banija, Pokuplje, and Posavina regions (Croatia). Here they discussed some of the challenges in recording endangered buildings and how they adapted technological methodologies for better efficiency and coverage.

Carlos Castillo Levicoy (c) EWAP, 2024

The event was a unique opportunity for many EWAP grant holders to come together, meet one another, exchange knowledge and even plan future collaborations. Overall the event was a huge success, with presentations that focused on some rare architectural heritage and the communities who own it, along with lively Q&A sessions and conversations in the breaks. You can see more about the day, including the talks over the coming month here.

https://www.brookes.ac.uk/research/units/tde/projects/endangered-wooden-architecture-programme/events