YOCOCU 2014 Youth in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage 28-30 May 2014 | Agsu, Azerbaijan
Kurecon — Rescue Services and Containers for Initial Conservation Measures and Safeguard of Cultural Assets Maruchi Yoshida1 1
Kurstr. 8, 14776 Brandenburg an der Havel, Deutschland
Reference e-mail:
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Keywords: Preventive Conservation, Emergency Management, Cultural Resource Management, Safe Storage
Cultural resources are unique values, once destroyed they are irretrievably lost. The state accounts for safeguard, preservation, research and display of cultural heritage as common value of the society. This task means a big challenge facing all other economic, political and social interests in a country. Regional development, expansion of infrastructure and increasing population density in urban agglomerations affect preservation of cultural heritage just as energy-saving measures in museums and archives as part of the energy turnaround for instance. Whether on comprehensive building refurbishments or at large-scale excavations cultural assets become a logistical quantity which causes specified problems of handling, storage and conservation regarding their conservational requirements. From initial idea to pilot project Kurecon is a spin-off of the German Maritime Museum offering the products of the joint research project with the Fraunhofer-Institute for Building Physics as innovative services for comprehensive conservational maintenance, management and storage of cultural assets based on preventive conservation and building physics know-how. A first pilot-project has taken place in the world heritage site of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck in 2013. Between 2009 and 2014 a large-scale excavation was undertaken in the old city center where a completely preserved wooden basement of a typical hanseatic townhouse came to light. The humid wooden construction started deterioration right after uncovering the first layers so that immediate first-aid measures must be initiated to safeguard this spectacular find. Two modified CA-containers (CA: controlled-atmosphere) were provided for the first-aid storage and maintenance of the building components. The containers ensured a safe storage under consistent climate conditions of 4°C temperature and up to 100% relative humidity. Regular monitoring and condition controls kept up the status idem of climate-sensitive materials for several months – precious time to find an appropriate conservation concept and to raise funds. (Fig. 1) The first prototype containers proved
YOCOCU 2014 Youth in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage 28-30 May 2014 | Agsu, Azerbaijan their functionality as economical, energy-efficient and reliable storage for sensitive cultural assets. Rescue Containers for Cultural Assets for Museums Further cases of application are located at museums needing temporary interim storages for their exhibits or collections in conjunction with refurbishments and restructuring measures. The rescue containers are the key to a sustainable preservation of cultural property which helps involved institutions to safeguard cultural values against all obstacles of economic and temporary pressure. Museums are often facing the problem that refurbishments and reconstructions on their buildings are planned very thoroughly while measures for securing and evacuating the collections are neglected. Museum staffs must accept construction planning and time schedules, and they have to find immediately solutions for the storage of their collection of their own – without disturbing the further progress of the construction measures. That means beside normal museum work the personnel have to plan the evacuation, provide new external storage rooms and prepare all museum objects for the transport. In the time of outplacement objects are less accessible for scientific and conservational consultation. An eligible solution for a museum should start from a comprehensive analysis of the conservational and logistic needs to develop a feasible safeguarding concept for the collection which meets all conservational requirements in an adequate way. The idea of applying containers promises to fulfill these demands: the number of containers and their location are flexible and can be adapted to the needs of the museum. The containers have an ISO-standard so that they are transportable with all means of transportation. Even the equipment are standardized, so that they can be provided quickly and also changed as required. Each tailor-made container can be delivered to the right place just in time. Museum objects with different climate requirements and different accessibility demands can be stored in individually modified containers. From „normal” Container to Rescue-Container for Cultural Assets The container solution sounds simple but is the result of a comprehensive analysis of needs and demands in the specific areas of application. The concepts of solution must fulfill all criteria of technical feasibility, transferability, economic viability and scalability. The basic container is a so called CA-Container (CA: controlled atmosphere), a 40’ High Cube CA which provides a capacity of about 67.5 m3. The air temperature can be regulated between -30 and +30°C within a relative humidity of fewer than 20% up to 100%. A continuous climate control which can also send climate data to an UMTS-device provides the uninterrupted documentation of the storage conditions. A
YOCOCU 2014 Youth in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage 28-30 May 2014 | Agsu, Azerbaijan well-conceived air circulation guarantees a consistent climate. (Fig. 2) The CA-unit offers an interface to control the inner atmosphere by increasing the carbon dioxide or nitrogen concentration to inhibit biological processes, e.g. microbiological or biological infestation. According to object dimensions and user requirements different types of transport and storage facilities can be installed in the container. Both standard and special shelves can be modified for the application in a rescue container. (Fig. 3) The rescue containers for cultural assets are optimized in regard to economic efficiency, storage efficiency and resilience. The tailor-made rescue containers can be deployed everywhere and in any quantity desired. The user has the control over material and financial input in any phase of a project. Consistent Decision-making and Management towards Sustainability in Cultural Heritage Care The kurecon-Container is eligible to safeguard sensitive and valuable cultural property and is applicable under different framework conditions. The concept of kurecon accomplishes the principles of sustainability and economic viability in cultural heritage preservation. However, the rescue container must be deployed appropriately to the situation. Thus it does not release the user from the duty to find a realistic perspective for a long-term and sustainable preservation of cultural property: archaeological finds secured in containers must be forwarded to conservational treatments and scientific examination for making them accessible for scientific and public use. After museum collections are outsourced in containers museum staff have to focus on the constructive improvement of the museum and storage building to realize a sustainable and stable building envelope for the museum objects. At this point it is clearly recognizable that a technical solution on its own is not sufficient for sustainable heritage preservation. It can be ideally just a part of an overall preventive conservation concept – in theory. In practice the main obstacle for museums is that they have few capacities to assess risks and develop a preventive conservation management even if they know that this is the only way to prepare necessary damage prevention measures. Therefore the development of the rescue container was accompanied by the concept of an event history and hazard analysis model for cultural heritage. The preparation of rescue containers as interim storages is only one branch of the whole decision tree. The preventive conservation management model encompasses interdisciplinary competences where responsibilities and decision-making processes are defined. In any case, be it planned or unexpected, this management model increases the chance that feasible and efficient measures can be deployed to avoid irretrievable losses of cultural assets.
YOCOCU 2014 Youth in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage 28-30 May 2014 | Agsu, Azerbaijan The lesson learned is that foresighted thinking and a solution oriented approach is crucial for a sustainable preservation of cultural heritage – not only the financial resources. Synergy of timing, right decisions and effective measures are important factors which can be targeted apart from institutional size and financial framework. The potential of Rescue-Containers in case of Emergency – an outlook The kurecon container as part of a prevention concept forms a good basis for initial measures in case of emergency. When accidents or catastrophe like fire, flood or collapse of buildings happen, great losses occur also immediately after the event as consequence of extinguishing water, application of recovery vehicles for the rescue of people or by weathering. Above all chaos and psychological trauma prevent people from making rational decisions. There is also a lack of organization and management of volunteer helpers but also an absence of adequate reception camps for damaged materials. The post-catastrophe measures in provisional facilities are used for an unspecified period where progressing damaging processes cannot be retarded efficiently. The kurecon concept helps to assess the hazards and to establish an emergency plan for cultural assets. The kurecon-container can be prepared and equipped as emergency rescue container. The objective of further research and development is to improve the knowledge base regarding risk analysis and disaster response and resilience and to adapt the rescue containers for emergency cases. Fig. 1 kurecon Rescue Container in the Old City of Lübeck. (source: L. Klemm, Fraunhofer IBP) Fig. 2 controlled Air-circulation in a closed Container (source: M. Yoshida, kurecon) Fig. 3 Equipment with shelves specially constructed for bulky wooden objects (source: Stadtarchäologie Lübeck)
