3rd International Conference on Islamic Heritage Architecture and Art
9–11 June 2020
Online
Overview
With the main objective to preserve our delegates’ well-being, but also with the belief that the scientific community should not be stopped, WIT decided that Islamic Heritage 2020 should not take place as scheduled in Seville, Spain, but take place as an online event instead.
The conference was organised by the Wessex Institute, UK, represented by Professor Juan Casares, and the University of Seville, Spain, represented by Professor Samuel Dominguez Amarillo.
The conference, which started in Valencia, Spain in 2016 is well-established and always attracts a wide international spread of delegates. The variety of topics will deal with the design of many types of buildings in Islamic countries, including not only the better known public buildings like mosques, mausolea, citadels and forts, but also houses and gardens, engineering works such as bridges and dams, irrigation systems and many others which have also had a profound impact on society.
Opening of the Conference
The conference programme opened with a presentation of the Wessex Institute followed by an opening address of the Islamic Heritage Conference Series welcoming delegates to this year’s event
Invited Presentations
There were a series of invited lectures on advanced topics of research and applications, as follows:
- “Re-using heritage elements in new buildings - cases from United Arab Emirates (UAE)”, by Prof. Jihad Awad, Ajman University, United Arab Emirates.
- “Past, present and future perspectives of glass ceiling applications in historic buildings: cases from Ankara, Turkey” by Dr Gulsen Disli, Necmettin Erbakan University, Turkey
- “The impact of urbanisation on cultural identity and townscape characteristics of Kuala Lumpur china town, Malaysia” by Dr Shahrul Said, Universiti Teknologi Mara, Malaysia
- “Sustaining cultural identity through Arabic calligraphy: A critical reading of Nasser al-Salem’s artworks” by Dr Lina Kattan, University of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Conference Sessions
The papers presented at the conference covered the following topics:
- Contemporary forms of Islamic arts
- Conservation and restoration
- Cross-cultural encounters
- Historical aspects
- Heritage studies
- Mosques and minarets
- Palaces
- The use of light and orientation
Conference Publication
Papers presented at this conference are published in Vol. 197 of the WIT Transactions on Built Environment (ISSN 1743-3509). Papers presented at the meeting are also available Open Access in the eLibrary of the Wessex Institute (https://www.witpress.com/elibrary) from where they can be freely downloaded by any interested parties.
Closing of the Conference
We are very sorry that we were not able to meet our delegates in person this year.
WIT is aware that one of the benefits of the conferences is the networking among colleagues and the only reason for implementing this strategy is the exceptional circumstances created by the COVID-19 crisis. Thus, to allow the authors to maintain that capability, delegates registered at the Islamic Heritage 2020 which have their paper accepted for publication, will be able to attend the next conference in the series (or a different conference of their choice devoted to similar topics that takes place prior to that) free of charge, and if they wish, make an oral presentation of their published paper.
We would like to thank the delegates for participating in the event and look forward to meeting them at the next conference in the series.
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