CULTURAL HERITAGE PRESERVATION: PERSPECTIVES ON MICROCLIMATE AND MATERIAL DETERIORATION. CASE STUDY: THE HISTORICAL ORGANS IN NORTH WESTERN GERMANY AND THE NETHERLANDS.
AUGUST 30-31, 2013
Organizers: The Arp Schnitger Institut für Orgel und Orgelbau, Hochschule für Künste Bremen in collaboration with Musikfest Bremen
Place: Hochschule für Künste Bremen, Dechanatstraße 13-15, Bremen
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
FRIDAY, AUGUST 30
13:00 Check-in, Coffee, Snacks
14:00 Welcome and Introduction Prof. Dr. Herbert Grüner (Rektor, Hochschule für Künste Bremen) Prof. Dr. Hans Davidsson (Arp-Schnitger-Institut für Orgel und Orgelbau)
14:15 Dr. Dario Camuffo (National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, Padova) MICROCLIMATE FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE
14:50 Dr. Johanna Leissner (Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Brussels) THE EUROPEAN PROJECT "CLIMATE FOR CULTURE" – THE IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON HISTORIC BUILDINGS AND THE INDOOR CLIMATE
15:25 Carl Johan Bergsten (Göteborg Organ Art Center, University of Gothenburg) CORROSION OF ORGAN PIPES – CAUSES AND RECOMMENDATIONS
16:00 Coffee break
16:30 Dr. Carla Martini (Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Bologna) DETERIORATION PROCESSES IN ORGAN PIPE METAL
17:05 Prof. Andrea Cavicchioli (School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities, University of São Paulo) STUDIES OF THE ENVIRONMENT AT THE SCHNITGER ORGAN IN MARIANA IN BRAZIL
17:40 Discussion Moderation: Prof. Dr. Hans Davidsson
SATURDAY, AUGUST 31
Excursion to the organs in the Marienkirche Marienhafe and in the Warnfried-Kirche Osteel
08:30 Departure from Hochschule für Künste Bremen Dechanatstr. 13-15, 28195 Bremen Round table at the end in the churches
12:30 Transfer to Oldenburg
13:30 End of conference MICROCLIMATE FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE Dario Camuffo
Abstract The most popular idea about indoor climate is that climate can be characterized by some parameters, chiefly air temperature and relative humidity (RH), and we should know and possibly control their average values and their seasonal and short-term variability within certain selected ranges to provide satisfactory conditions for conservation. This might be true only in exceptional cases and under stationary environmental conditions.
Such popular idea disregards a number of key issues, e.g.: • any interaction (e.g. exchanges of heat and moisture) between air and objects; the equilibrium moisture content on the surface and inside objects; • the inertial response of fabric and objects to seasonal, weather and daily cycles; • the induced cycles on objects (e.g. freezing-thawing, condensation- evaporation, strain-stress on wood, salt dissolution-crystallization); • the extremely complex situation generated by synergisms between the above factors especially under dynamic conditions related to the use (e.g. crowding, heating, lighting, ventilating) or indoor-outdoor heat, moisture or air exchanges.
For instance, when a church is heated the RH drops, but to moisturizing air is even worse because moisture will condense on cold walls forming moulds. When a church is crowded and heated, thick walls tends to approach the dew point and absorb moisture, while the metal of organ pipes and wooden parts depart in different way from this critical point loosing moisture with various consequences. When a church is heated with warm air, painting on canvas and the surface layer of wood closely follow the air temperature and the RH at the interface drops. Walls have a different behaviour: on the upper part the warm air and the low RH will force evaporation from the upper masonry and the ceiling; the moisture will be homogeneously distributed within the church attenuating the drop in RH in the upper part, but increasing the RH level in the lower part where heating is much less. In practice, when we deal with microclimate for conservation, we should keep in mind that this is a multi-variable problem, including under what dynamic conditions, where in the room, what kind of material, the effective conditions of the object, what kind of interactions, how they depart from the so-called historic climate, how the novel conditions might be synergistic with the physical, chemical and biological issues.
Curriculum Vitae - Dario Camuffo Physicist, emeritus Research Director at the National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, Padua. Professor of "Environmental Physics" at the Polytechnic of Milano and of "Physics for Conservation" at the University of Padua and the "Cignaroli Academy", Verona. Active in standardisation concerning environment and cultural heritage at the European Committee for Standardisation CEN/TC346. Technical Committee 346 "Cultural Heritage", where he is member and head of the Italian Delegation, Convenor of the Working Groups WG6 "Exhibition lighting" and WG7 " Indoor/outdoor climate assessment and monitoring". Vice-President of UNI-Normal, the Italian standardization for cultural heritage. He has been coordinator or PI of 15 EU funded projects in this field, and has studied several of the most important buildings and sites included in the UNESCO’s List of World Cultural Heritage (e.g.: Sistine Chapel, Rome; Leonard's Last Supper, Milan; Giotto Chapel, Padua; Uffizi Gallery, Florence; Louvre Museum, and Orangerie Museum, Paris; Sphinx and Pyramid Plateau, Egypt; Thracian Tombs, Bulgaria; various Churches and Pipe Organs). Author of the book "Microclimate for Cultural Heritage - Conservation, restoration and maintenance of indoor and outdoor monuments" (Elsevier, 1998) now at the second updated edition.
THE EU PROJECT CLIMATE FOR CULTURE – THE IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON HISTORIC BUILDINGS AND ON THE INDOOR ENVIRONMENTS THROUGH HIGH RESOLUTION MODELLING Johanna Leissner and Ralf Kilian
Abstract Climate Change is one of the most critical global challenges of our time. Since many decades a huge number of scientists from all over the world are researching this topic and are developing complex climate models which will be suitable to make future climate projections. Climate change in itself is not the main concern, more important is its impact on the planet. But less certain information is available how the changing climate affects mankind and its environment. Although many studies have been conducted to explore the impact of climate change on e.g. biodiversity and agriculture or on fresh water availability, only little is known whether and how climate change influences our cultural heritage. Within the integrated European funded project Climate for Culture running from 2009 until 2014 a multidisciplinary research team consisting of 27 partners from the EU and Egypt is performing research to make substantial contributions to estimate the impacts of climate change on the indoor environments in historic buildings and their vast collections in Europe and the Mediterranean.
For this purpose, the CLIMATE FOR CULTURE project has started for the first time ever to connect completely new high resolution climate change evolution scenarios with whole building simulation models to assess future projections of outdoor climate changes on the indoor environments in historic buildings and its impacts on cultural heritage items in Europe and Egypt. The Climate for Culture project short cut:
From the global climate model - to high resolution regional climate simulation - to case study historic buildings - to whole building simulation - to indoor environments and to individual cultural heritage items.
The main scientific innovation of the project consists of the: ⋅ Development of a regional climate model over entire Europe including Upper Egypt with a resolution of 10x10 km ⋅ Development of a whole building simulation tool adapted to historic buildings ⋅ And finally the coupling of climate simulation with building simulation which has never been performed before.
Furthermore a survey with a specially designed, virtual usable questionnaire was performed to set up a range of case studies from all over Europe and Egypt. The questionnaire covers up to now over 106 case studies in eleven countries). Parameters like type of building, specific site-related factors, available indoor and outdoor climate data, observed damages and suitability for other work packages were reviewed and are transferred into a CfC database which has several layers of information. The list of case study buildings will be continuously updated and further extended. Curriculum Vitae - Johanna Leissner Material scientist, trained as chemist in Germany (University Würzburg and Münster) and USA (Georgia Institute of Technology).1988 PhD with honours in organo-metallic chemistry. She is working in the field of cultural heritage research for more than 20 years. Since 2005 she is scientific representative for Fraunhofer at the European Union in Brussels. Currently she is coordinator of the large scale EU project CLIMATE FOR CULTURE (2009–2014; www.cimateforculture.eu) investigating the impact of climate change on historic buildings and indoor environments; furthermore she was partner together with Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU) within the EU ERANET Netheritage project (2008-2011) and she was also involved as partner in the EU project EU CHIC (Identity card for cultural heritage; 2009-2012). In 2008 she initiated and was the co-founder of the German Research Alliance Cultural Heritage (www.forschungsallianz-kulturerbe.de) established by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, the Leibniz-Gemeinschaft and the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz. From 2001 till 2005 she was appointed National Expert of the Federal Republic of Germany at the European Commission in the Directorate General RESEARCH in Brussels responsible for “Technologies for the protection of cultural heritage”. From 1988 until 2000 she was scientific coordinator of national and European research and development projects at Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research in Würzburg (Germany). Research areas: climate change and cultural heritage; implementation of sustainability concept into cultural heritage field; impact of indoor environments on cultural objects; development of environmental sensors and biosensors, mediaeval stained glass research and corrosion mechanisms, laser application on historic glasses.
CORROSION OF ORGAN PIPES – CAUSES AND RECOMMENDATIONS Carl Johan Bergsten
Abstract The European heritage of the organ is preserved in numerous historical instruments. One major threat to this heritage is the indoor atmospheric corrosion of lead and lead-tin alloys of organ pipes. The research project COLLAPSE was supported by the European Commission under the Fifth Framework Programme. The project aimed at finding the causes for the corrosion and defining conservation strategies in order to combat the pipe corrosion.
A strong corrosion factor creating a corrosive environment in the pipes is the emission of organic acids, especially acetic acid, from the wooden parts in the organ. Polyvinyl acetate glue (white glue), often used when restoring or building organs, is known to emit acetic acid and is also a corrosion factor. Whether corrosion will develop in the pipes in a corrosive environment is mainly dependent on the pipe metal alloy composition and the microclimate conditions (temperature and humidity) in the organ.
It is important not to create a corrosive environment when repairing or restoring an old organ, especially if the instrument contains high lead-alloy pipes. If possible, try to avoid the introduction of new wood in the windtrunks, windchests and toeboards. Avoid the use of polyvinyl acetate glue in windtrunks and windchests.
Curriculum Vitae - Carl Johan Bergsten Carl Johan Bergsten received his MSc in electronics from Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden in 1976. From 1978 to 1995 he worked at Volvo Corp. as a development engineer. Since 1995 he has been working as research engineer at Göteborg Organ Art Center (GOArt) at the University of Gothenburg. His work at GOArt (a multidisciplinary research center with a holistic approach to pipe organs from instrument to performance practice) is focusing on development of organ documentation methodology and development of measurement hardware and software solutions for instrument documentation. An important part of his activities is the development of a web based relational database for organ documentation results with a special focus on the preservation and dissemination of the organ cultural heritage. He has participated in several European Union projects and was also coordinator for the cultural heritage research projects COLLAPSE (Corrosion of Lead and Lead-Tin Alloys for Organ Pipes in Europe) and SENSORGAN (Sensor system for detection of harmful environments for pipe organs).
DETERIORATION PROCESSES IN ORGAN PIPE METAL Carla Martini
Abstract The main results of the EU FP5 COLLAPSE research project, as regards organ pipe metal, will be discussed. In particular, during field studies, a comparative study of samples taken from lead-rich pipes of different historical organs affected by corrosion was performed. Since the composition of pipes may vary from pipe to pipe in the same organ, and also in different parts of the same pipe, it was possible to compare the behaviour of different materials exposed to the same environment (i.e. in the same organ). Moreover, the selection of several field study organs in Europe allowed the comparison of pipe metal behaviour in different environments. Pipe metal and corrosion products samples have been analysed by Optical Microscopy (OM), Scanning Electronic Microscopy (SEM) with EDS microprobe, X Ray Diffractometry (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). On the basis of the results, compositional and microstructural factors influencing the corrosion behaviour were identified.
Also some examples of preliminary studies carried out on tin-rich organ pipes from several organs, selected on the basis of the indications obtained by restorers and conservators, will be discussed
Carla Martini got her Degree in Industrial Chemistry from the University of Bologna in 1993, discussing a thesis on ancient metallurgical technologies She got her Ph.D. in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Padova in 1997, with a Thesis on surface modifications for metallic materials. She’s presently an Assistant Professor at the University of Bologna, Department of Industrial Engineering, School of Engineering and Architecture (http://www.unibo.it/faculty/carla.martini). Her research activity focuses on (i) Study and conservation of Cultural Heritage metals and (ii) Influence of surface modifications on tribological behaviour of metallic materials. Her research activity led to the publication of more than 120 papers, both in peer-reviewed journals and in national and international conference proceedings. She’s been involved in several research contracts and projects. In the field of organ pipe conservation, she’s been the scientific person in charge for the Italian Research Unit in the COLLAPSE (Corrosion of Lead and Lead-Tin Alloys for Organ Pipes in Europe) project (2003-06), coordinated by Mr. C.J. Bergsten, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. She’s also been responsible for the research contract “Study of historical stratification of restoration interventions on the Traeri 1673 organ” (with the Regia Accademia Filarmonica (Royal Philarmonic Academy) of Bologna and the M.Fratti sas Organbuilding Company), funded by the Bank Foundation “Fondazione del Monte” of Bologna (2008-09). She’s presently responsible for the University of Bologna Research Unit in the National Project PRIN 2009 (2011-2013), funded by the Italian Ministry of Education and Research (MIUR): "Innovative Methods for the Conservation of Gilded Bronzes" (Coordinator: Prof. Cecilia Monticelli, University of Ferrara).