More than 40 people from all over the world had applied for the first summer school in "Stones in Armenian Architecture". The selection was hard. The project is primarily a qualification program for the preservation of Armenian monuments but also international participants have been integrated. The 20 participants selected are internationally mixes and coming from Armenia, Serbia, Iran an Germany.
The summer school is the main part of the project „Building stones in the architectural heritage of Armenia“ supported bei the VOLKSWAGEN FOUNDATION (AZ 93919) starts in 2019 with Prof. Dr. Siegfried Siegesmund as the project manager in charge. The aim of this project is to establish three year training and qualification courses in the field of geosciences and conservation science starting in the first summer school with object diagnostics, documentation, mapping and conservation.
The qualification program is leaded by Dr. Wanja Wedekind and developed by Applied Conservation Science (ACS). Lectures will come from the NUACA like the architect Dr. Emma Harutyunyan and from the University of Göttingen like the expert for tuff-stone Christopher Pötzl.
The project will be administered by the Georg-August-University of Göttingen/ Germany and the National University of Architecture and Construction of Armenia NUACA. Other partners of the project are the Institute of Geological Sciences at the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, the Technical Universities of Kassel (Germany) and Cologne (Germany).
All the project partners are grateful to the Ministry of Culture of the Republik of Armenia and the National Commitee of ICOMOS (International Council of Monuments and Sites) Armenia for their friendly support.
Graduates will learn all the necessary techniques and the scientific background in regards to present-day methods and techniques of stone preservation.
An important and actual research question with respect to significant cultural heritage monuments is the understanding of weathering processes and the application of conservation treatments, e.g. salt reduction and stone consolidation.