From Nov.8th to 17th, 2013, the Advanced Course on Conservation and Restoration Techniques of Traditional Architectures for the Asia-Pacific Region was held successfully in Suzhou. This course was organized by WHITRAP Suzhou, featuring on “Conservation and Restoration of Wooden Structures in the Asia-Pacific Region”. The training provided participants with international theories, methodology and techniques of world heritage architecture conservation and restoration. Through interactions among participants from different countries, it aimed to set up a professional and technical exchange network in the related field and promote the development of protection of ancient buildings in the Asia-Pacific region.

Some world renowned experts and scholars from the heritage protection area were invited to give lectures, including Dr. Koenraad Van Balen ( professor of K.U.Leuven and director of Raymond Lemaire International Center for Conservation). The course comprised several aspects: heritage protection concepts and development trends; guidelines, regulations and practices of ancient wooden architecture; preventive protection, monitoring and maintenance of ancient wooden buildings; and restoration techniques and methodology of old wooden structures. Around 20 participants from 7 countries including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Barbados, Venezuela and mainland China attended the training. During the course, the participants listened to the lectures, held in-depth discussions and shared their experiences to enrich each other’s knowledge of the characteristics and current situations of heritage protection and conservation in different countries. Besides, the program offered the participants a chance to visit Suzhou classical gardens, Pan Shien’s former residence and Experimental Center for Historical Architecture Protection of College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University. The field studies helped them further understand the architecture art of Suzhou classical gardens and grasp the restoration techniques of wooden structures.

The trainees said they benefitted a lot from the course arrangement of theory and practice combination and also its rich contents. They would try to apply the advanced concepts in the actual work, disseminate the ideas to more peers who work hard in the field of ancient architecture protection and contribute their efforts for enhancing social awareness of heritage protection and better inheritance of human civilization achievements.

Course

Course

On Site