The educational path of the Master Course in “Conservation of Architectural Heritage” provides advanced training in the field of Architectural Heritage with the aim to form practitioners able to both restore and respectfully transform the built environment in its monumental, architectural and historic elements, empowering architectural resilience and affordance. 

The main idea is to build an interdisciplinary learning process, which combines technical knowledge with humanistic knowledge and pointing to a professional able to gather aesthetic and functional qualities.

The focus is on the conservation and the regeneration of monumental fabric, as well as of historical urban sites, on interventions of building restoration, extensions, adaptive reuse, structural retrofitting and valorization. The Master offers the possibility of deepening the most important topics of Architectural conservation and reuse. The courses have been conceived to ensure a correct balance among theoretical, practical and applicative aspects, by integrating in the design process the necessary requirements of feasibility. 

Aims and professional opportunities

The principal aim of the Master is to provide technicians with professional skills to be able to evaluate the importance of historical architecture and monuments, to carry out the conservation, the restoration, enhancement and reuse of architectural heritage. Furthermore, it is important to recognize the identity of the pathologies in order to be able to intervene respectfully in the restoration of monuments, using the most appropriate techniques.

- Pre - requisites for enrolment

The course is open to candidates having successfully completed Italian B.Sc. course in Architecture and/or Engineering or any equivalent course according to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

- Maximum and minimum number of students

The course is open to a maximum of 40 students and it will be activated only if a minimum number of 20 students has the minimum requisites for admission.

Applicants must attach the following documentation during the on-line registration procedure to the master:

• Admission form (the form to be used is annexed)
• Copy of the personal identification document
• In case of title obtained abroad:
  • copy of the academic title required for admission with diploma supplement (list of exams and scores), translated into Italian
  • copy of the "Declaration of value" issued by Italian representation competent for territory in the country of the institution that issued the title (only if already available)
• Letters of reference;
• Motivational letter;
• Curriculum vitae highlighting the professional experience in working areas pertaining to the master;

Applicants in possession of a title obtained abroad must, before registration, deliver the documentation in the original to the university accompanied by legal translation by the Italian embassy or other consular representative.

The requirements must be held within the deadline for submission of the application for admission.

- Selection process

Admission to the Master is done after selection, by qualifications. The selection is in any case expected even in the presence of a number of requests for participation that is lower than the number of places banned. In particular, the evaluation will be aimed at verifying the adequacy of the qualifications presented by the candidate with the application. They will be evaluated for admission to the Master:

- degree mark (max 20 points);

- any experience gained in relevant in-service activities (max 10);

- any other titles present in the curriculum (max 10 points)

- publications (max 10 points);

- motivation to participate (max 10 points)

Students attending the merit list drawn up by the Commission of selection and made public on the University website, as individual notification for all interested parties, will be admitted to the Master's degree.

At the same total score, the ranking will be determined on the basis of the age of the candidates, from the youngest to the oldest (Article 2, paragraph 9, Law 16/06/1998 n.191) .

The course will start in September 2019.

The deadline for admission form submission is June 30^th, 2019. Selection process will be carried out in July 2019 and acceptance notice will be delivered by the end of July 2019. 

Students may select one of the following venues to complete the course and receive certification:

Enna, Italy

The course will be held at the University of Enna "Kore" (Italy) – School of Engineering and Architecture from 1 Sep/ 30 June 2020. The course should last a duration of 3 weeks and a total of 120 hours. Laboratory work and final examinations will be held in the university. 

Egypt 

Students who will not be able to travel may attend lectures in classrooms in one of IEREK's offices in Cairo or Alexandria. However, students will be required to complete Laboratory work (120 hours – 3 weeks) and final exams at the University of Enna in Italy.

Online

In order to facilitate the participation of foreign students, lectures may be also available online in real time.  However, students will be required to complete Laboratory work (120 hours – 3 weeks) and final exams at the University of Enna in Italy.

Each student has to guarantee a minimum course attendance (in presence or online) equal to 70% of the total temporal duration.Minimum attendance applies to each learning module and to the training stage period.

The official course language is English. Each module will be formed by lectures, project work and laboratory activities, individual study.

(*) according to Italian Regulation

 Learning modules                                                                                                                 45 ECTS

1. - History and theory of conservation. The principles of modern architectural and urban restoration 9 ECTS

Aim: The course will focus on the theories, principles and operative methodologies of the restoration project for the conservation of cultural heritage through the centuries, from classical antiquity until nowadays. International and national laws, conservation charters, standards and guidelines will be deepened and discussed.

Content: Starting from the knowledge of the main steps in the evolution of architectural conservation theories, the course intends to provide students with the essential instruments to approach architectural and urban heritage, making them able to understand their historical evolution and to assess their state of conservation and restoration requirements. In particular, the course aims to make students aware of the main theoretical and ethical issues related to the preservation and valorization of architectural heritage, also highlighting the essential contribution of Italy in the field.

2. - Construction knowledge: representation, materials & techniques             9 ECTS

Aim: The course will deal with the representation of architecture, knowledge of chemistry of materials and evolution of elements and traditional building procedures.

Content: The principal’s themes will be some elements of architectural survey: indirect architectonic survey, data collecting instruments, survey with a photograph, terrestrial laser scanner.

Furthermore, the students will learn some notions of chemistry of the materials and the chemical interaction between the elements of the building. Finally, they will learn some elements of the vertical and horizontal structures: dry stonewalls, masonry, brick, mixed, foundations, roof, staircase, façades and ornaments etc.  

 - Preservation of built heritage and conservation technology: The conservation project.

Methodological principles of architectural analysis                                                        9 ECTS

Aim: The course will provide an overview on decay phenomena of constructive materials and building pathologies. It will help students in the identifications of the most common causes of damages and collapse in walls, vaults and stone arches, such as fissures, detachments and cracks.  Content: The main objective of the course is to make students able to critically evaluate restoration interventions taking into account the fundamentals of the discipline (such as compatibility, minimal intervention, reversibility, distinctness, sustainability). Starting from a correct and accurate analysis of pathologies, the most important techniques of restoration will be studied: cleaning, polishing, structural consolidation, protection. The course will focus on the importance of a correct conservation diagnosis and present the most important non-destructive investigation methods applied to architectural heritage.

 - Structural rehabilitation                                                                                     9 ECTS

Aim: The course aims to provide an overview on techniques, procedures and methodologies for the assessment and retrofit of historical structures and monuments, including foundations. It offers concepts on the static safety/seismic vulnerability and on retrofit intervention systems, which are, when possible, reversible and compatible with the historic and architectural nature of the heritage buildings. The students will be able to deepen the relationship between local structural response and global engineering parameters by means of theoretical lectures and practical applications also with the use of experimental equipment.

Content: The main contents are: principles of structural safety and rehabilitation of historical constructions, cultural heritage and artworks. Methodologies and monitoring of constructions to recognize constitutive materials, properties and damage conditions. Retrofit techniques adopting traditional and innovative materials/devices/systems. Design criteria for an experimental in-situ and laboratory tests on scaled and real scale prototypes.

5. - Reuse architecture and design of built environment - Project Work             9 ECTS

Aim: Architectural reuse can be the perfect way to offer a new life into an old building, after built structures become damaged or disused. This approach to the built environment allows re-thinking the architectural heritage, while conserving resources and historic value. Reusing is economically more sustainable: so, design a good restoration and reuse project can extend the life of buildings.  

Content: Architectural firms worldwide are turning to reuse as a solution to some of the modern problems of the built environment. In this subject, some examples of reuse will be studied and a project for the reuse of a building will be developed. The project will consist of general and detailed plans and a historical, architectonic, functional and technical report (pathologies, diagnosis, intervention proposals and incorporation of new elements).

 Training stage in agencies and private firms working on NCI management               12 ECTS

Final dissertation                                                                                                                  3 ECTS

(*) Master ECTS allow successful students to enroll with credits to the M.Sc. Course in Architecture and/or in Civil Engineering.

At the end of each teaching module, students will be asked to successfully complete a final exam based on a written test on the contents of each module and an oral discussion based on the results of the project/practical activities carried out during the course. The average final mark, according to the Italian regulation, will be numerical with a maximum value equal to 30. Final marks lower than 18 will be insufficient. Insufficient exams can be repeated only once.

Final dissertation

At the end of the course, students will have to prepare a final thesis, based on stage activities, with the supervision of one of the teachers of the course. The final dissertation will be evaluated by an examination commission with a mark between 1 and 10 and it will be summed to the final course mark. The final course mark will be given by the average of all course activities weighted on the number of ECTS per each activity.

The cost of the course is fixed on a “first come, first served” basis according to the following table. Discounts applies for early registrants and for B.Sc. and M.Sc. students of University of Enna “Kore”.

Registration fees:

Two full cost scholarships will be granted to those students best performing at the end of the course. Classification will be based on the final course mark (without considering dissertation marks) and winners will be appointed during final dissertation. Scholarships may be used for future registrations to M.Sc. courses or Master courses at University of Enna “Kore”.