Rapport annuel 1995
Comité exécutif
Nils Marstein (Norway), President
Nobuo Ito (Japan), Vice President
David Michelmore (UK), Vice President (co-opted)
Knut Einar Larsen (Norway), Secretary General
The Wood Committee currently has some 100 corresponding and co-opted
members. The membership covers all continents.
The ICOMOS Norwegian National Committee has continued to host the
presidency, including the secretariat, of the Wood Committee. The activities of
the presidency have been made possible thanks to financial support from
Riksantikvaren (Directorate for Cultural Heritage, Norway). The Wood
Committee is grateful for this support which makes this work possible. The
Wood Committee also wishes to express its appreciation to the Department
of Architectural History at the Norwegian Institute of Technology for its
assistance.
Attached to the Wood Committee are active groups in the UK, the USA,
Turkey, and Norway.
Historic Forest Reserves
There has been continued cooperation with the US/ICOMOS Wood
Committee in planning the organization of a series of meetings on "Historic
Forest Reserves". All over the world there is a need to establish Historic
Forest Reserves from which appropriate timber could be obtained, on a
selective basis, for the preservation of cultural heritage.
The Wood Committee would tie cultural heritage preservation to broader
ecological concerns under the aegis of the World Heritage concept. By
regarding heritage as both cultural and natural, the World Heritage Convention
reminds the international community of the interaction between humanity and
nature and of the fundamental need to preserve the balance between
humanity and the environment. To examine the ramifications of that
relationship the Wood Committee wishes to bring together specialists from
cultural heritage, nature conservation, forestry, and the lumber industry. The
first meeting is planned for 1997.
Kizhi Pogost, Russian Karelian Republic
The work of ICOMOS and the Wood Committee at this World Heritage site
was concluded at a meeting held in Helsinki, Finland in March 1995. The
meeting made several recommendations for the future treatment of the site.
Wood Committee member Andrew Powter (Canada) has worked hard to
complete ICOMOS's involvement at Kizhi Pogost successfully. Staff members
of the Kizhi Pogost conservation studio will speak at a seminar on the
preservation of large timber structures during the 1996 Wood Course
Wood Committee Web Server and Gopher
Thanks to Peter Stott, the Wood Committee is on Internet at hypertext
address: http://icomos.org/iiwc/
This server includes a presentation of the Wood Committee with links to
UNESCO World Heritage
and
ICOMOS
This is the most updated source for
the Wood Committee's papers and for information about its activities, such as
the International Course on Wood Conservation Technology.
Also thanks to Peter Stott there is a Wood Committee gopher. The Wood
Committee deeply appreciates Peter Stott's kind and generous voluntary
efforts which keep the Wood Committee in the fast-lane of the information
super highway.
Book list
The list has been printed to promote the sale of the four books published
since 1992 by the Wood Committee in cooperation with Riksantikvaren.
Planning of the 1996 Wood Course
The International Course on Wood Conservation Technology
is organized
under the auspices of UNESCO. This is the seventh of a series of courses on
the conservation of cultural heritage made of wood which have been organized
in Norway every second year since 1984. 110 mid-career specialists from 57
countries have received the course certificate from the six previous courses.
This seventh course will also include several Wood Committee members from
Canada, China, Finland, Japan, Norway, and Russia.
Planning of a "Wood Conservation Program" in cooperation with ICCROM.
For this purpose, a meeting was organized on 12 January 1996 at ICCROM,
Rome, to discuss the future development of a program for the conservation of
wooden heritage.
The meeting was chaired by Dr. Jukka Jokilehto of ICCROM. The Wood
Committee wishes to thank Dr. Jokilehto for his kind and efficient
chairmanship. The meeting made several recommendations. These are
attached to this report.
Urban conservation
Nil Marstein and Knut Einar Larsen represented the Officers of the Wood
Committee at an international workshop on training in urban conservation
("Urban Conservation Inititative"). The workshop was organized by ICCROM
in Rome in February 1995.
The Wood Committee is also involved in the planning of a conference to be
held in Norway in November 1997 on sustainable development of the historic
wooden urban habitat in Northern Europe.
Preservation guidelines
The third draft for Principles of Practice for the Preservation of Historic Timber
Buildings (Principes à suivre pour la conservation des monuments historiques
en bois) was presented to the members in November 1995. This document is
available on the Wood Committee Web server at the following addresses:
English version:
http://icomos.org/iiwc/standard.html.en
French version:
http://icomos.org/iiwc/standard.html.fr
Cooperation with Europa Nostra
Europa Nostra united with the International Castles Institute, invited the Wood
Committee to speak at the Europa Nostra Forum held in Krakow in May - 95.
The theme of the Forum was "Threats to the wooden architectural heritage of
Europe". Valuable contacts with colleagues from Central and Eastern Europe
were established during this event. The Forum made the Wood Committee
aware of the great need for preservation work in the wooden churches of
Central and Eastern Europe.
Europa Nostra also invited the Wood Committee to write an article on wood
from the perspective of sustainable development. The article appeared in the
autumn -95 edition of the Europa Nostra magazine.
Statutes and Eger Principles
As pointed out in a report to the ICOMOS Advisory Committee meeting in
Krakow, Poland in September 1995, the statutes as adopted by the
Committee meeting in Himeji, Japan in 1994, did not comply with the
Eger Principles
as far as membership was concerned. The Wood Committee
continues to believe that the Wood Committee should be open to all experts of
various professional backgrounds who have experience, knowledge, or
particular interest in the preservation of wood in historic buildings or
structures. This view was supported by Raymond Lemaire (honorary
president of ICOMOS) who stated at the 1995 ICOMOS Advisory Committee
meeting in Krakow that the Wood Committee_s regulations for membership
supported the original intention of ICOMOS at the time when the international
specialized committees were established.
Regrets
For several reasons the Wood Committee was forced to cancel the planned
Committee meeting in Australia in September. The Wood Committee would
like to take this opportunity to convey its apologies to our Australian
colleagues for all the inconvenience this must have caused them. The Wood
Committee meeting had been linked with several other events, including the
annual meeting of ICOMOS Australia. This made the cancellation all the more
regrettable for both the Australian colleagues and the Wood Committee.
Plans for 1996
An "ICOMOS International Wood Committee Symposium" will be organized in
April 1996 in cooperation with the ICOMOS UK Wood Committee. Great
Britain is noted for its corpus of splendid timber-framed buildings, dating from
the twelfth century onwards. The Symposium will provide a unique opportunity
to study a selection of outstanding timber buildings and to discuss
preservation strategies in situ. This Symposium will be the tenth in the series
of the Wood Committee_s international symposia.
The Wood Committee will meet in full session during the ICOMOS General
Assembly in Sofia, Bulgaria, in October 1996 for the election of officers. Nils
Marstein is willing to complete his third and final three-year period as
president of the Wood Committee.
