Managing the paradigm shift to sustainable conservation. An integrated approach in Built Heritage research

Dear Colleagues,

The 2021 Workshop on “Managing the paradigm shift to sustainable conservation. An integrated approach in Built Heritage research” stems from the ever-increasing awareness within the conservation community, and beyond, on the need for more sustainable tools within the wide field of what is Built Heritage research, which encompasses specialisations from engineering to archival research, from geology to architecture, from conservation science to archaeology, from hands-on conservation to remote technologies, from environmental science to materials science. This workshop aims at boosting historic building and site conservation research through a profound discussion on the possibilities of exploiting integrated innovative, effective, sustainable, and non-invasive methodologies, also exploring areas where more modern tools and methods can replace invasive techniques requiring sampling, also problematic when dealing with heritage.

Sustainability is becoming imperative, not only because of the stringent regulatory requirements worldwide when it comes to the use of materials, but also because non-invasive techniques are the only possible way forward to care for the buildings and sites and eventually to produce the best results. Sustainable practices in Cultural Heritage (CH) conservation and protection are lagging behind when compared to other fields such as medicine, chemical science, and engineering, there being a lack of true integration between them and the mainstream CH research. However, piecemeal improvements are many and this workshop seeks to map out the integrated approach as the best way forward.

The workshop span across four thematic areas:

1. New environmentally friendly treatment materials
2. Mathematical modelling and analysis of CH related processes throughout the whole-life cycle
3. Non-destructive and micro-destructive testing, including environmental parameters
4. Socio-economic aspects through real life situation

This Special issue will welcome papers which fall into these categories, as well as related themes.

Prof. Dr. Assunta Marrocchi
Prof. Dr. JoAnn Cassar
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Heritage is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.