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Working Group 17: Historical Spatial Structures

RECENT! Gentilini Award call

The ing. Lino Gentilini Foundation, in cooperation with the University of Roma Tor Vergata, announces two awards for master’s theses and doctoral dissertations focused on the history of structural engineering.

The 2025 Lino Gentilini award is held under the patronage of AITEC, Federbeton, ANAI, and the Ordine degli Ingegneri della Provincia di Trento.

The call has just been opened. If you have a student or PhD student who is eligible to apply, please encourage him/her to do that.

All necessary information can be found at the link:
https://www.fondazionegentilini.it/language/en/award/2025/

Mission

The mission of the WG on "Historical Spatial Structures" is the documentation and preservation of the built heritage of the modern era for future generations.

Current Objectives

The current objective of WG17 is to raise awareness and develop identification, rehabilitation and restoration strategies for the 20th C. Heritage of Spatial Structures.

As one step toward meeting this objective, WG17 organizes special sessions in IASS Symposia. In addition, documentation on reinforced-concrete shell and folded-plate structures in various countries has been started. Later, other types of spatial structures may be considered.

Webinars organized by WG17

WG17 organizes, in cooperation with other WGs, webinars on structures and individuals relevant to the development of shell and spatial structures. Below is a list of these webinars with links to their recordings:

  • June 11, 2024
  Architecture Beyond The Cupola, by Alberto Pugnale & Alberto Bologna
  • December 7, 2023
  Uncovering Heinz Isler's Engineering Practice, by Giulia Boller


Recent Activities

2024-25 Activities

  • WG17 Members Meeting & Abstract Writing Session December 2024
  • WG17 in-person members meeting - IASS Annual Symposium 2025: Tuesday 28 October 13:00  
  • WG17 in collaboration with WG05 has proposed a special session for the IASS Annual Symposium 2025 in Mexico City: 'Repair and Adaptive Reuse:  The Future of 20th Century Historic Concrete Shells'.      

Previous activities 

    2023-24 Activities

    • WG17 Members Meeting & Abstract Writing Session (December 19, 2023 & April 22, 2024)
    • WG17 in-person members meeting - Zurich, Switzerland IASS Symposium August 2024 - date and venue (tbc)
    • WG17 has proposed a special session for the IASS Annual Symposium 2024- Zurich, Switzerland:
      – A)      Adaptive Reuse of Historic Concrete Shells- Joint session WG5 & WG 17. This special session invites abstract submissions related to the rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of historic concrete shells.

    2022-23 Activities

      • WG17 Members Meeting & Abstract Writing Session (September 2022 and December 2022)
      • WG17 in-person members meeting - Melbourne, Australia IASS July 2023 - date and venue (tbc)

      • Our Working Group 17 has proposed two special sessions for the IASS Annual Symposium 2023- Melbourne, Australia:

        • A)      Historic Concrete Shells- Joint session WG5 & WG 17. This special session invites abstract submissions related to historic concrete shells and the impact that digital technologies have had in the research, documentation, and preservation of historic concrete shells and how they can enable sustainable strategies. 
        • B)      Historic Masonry Structures. This special session invites abstract submissions related to the study of historic masonry spatial structures and how new emerging technologies have supported their research, documentation, and analysis.  This session has been proposed by Valentina Beatini (WG17 member).
      Other Previous activities 
        • Invited Session for the IASS Symposium 2022, in Beijing, China: Sustainable Heritage: Challenges and strategies in the preservation and conservation of 20th Century historic concrete shells.  Organised in collaboration with WG5.
        • Organized session for IASS Surrey 2020/21 Symposium, in Guildford, UK – S24 Historical structures.
        • The WG17 continues to work on documentation of Reinforced Concrete Shell and Folded Plate Structures as 20th century heritage.  A website (www.iasswg17.com) has been developed to collect information on these structures and it is open to all IASS members who register to use the website (sharing of this page has now been temporarily suspended).
        • Organized three meetings during IASS2016 Symposium in Tokyo, Japan.
        • Organized the international conference on "Re-Evaluating Contemporary Designs in Historical Context (RE-ConD’15)" in Istanbul, Turkey, on 22-24 July 2015.
        • Organized two sessions, each with six papers, at the IASS-SLTE Symposium 2014 in Brasilia, Brazil.

        Publications

        IASS Publications (most of the co-editors and co-authors are IASS WG17 members)

        Other Publications (most of the co-editors and co-authors are IASS members)

        • Candela Isler Müther: Positions on Shell Construction. Positionen zum Schalenbau. Posturas sobre la construcción de cascarone..Edited by Matthias Beckh, Juan Ignacio del Cueto, Matthias Ludwig, Andreas Schätzke and Rainer Schützeichel, Birkhäuser 2020.
          available on the publisher's website

        Useful Archives

        Felix Candela Archives
        Heinz Isler Archives

        Current Membership

        All current members of the Working Group, listed below, are members of the IASS.  The Working Group welcomes additional members; those interested should please contact the Chair of the Working Group.

        • Prof. Dr. Marisela MENDOZA (Chair) - United Kingdom
        • Prof. Dr. Romuald TARCZEWSKI (Co-Chair) - Poland

        Further Information for IASS Members

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