Standardisation activity on wooden cultural heritage in Italy

1. Standardisation activity on wooden cultural heritage in Italy Marco Fioravanti DISTAF- University of Florence – ITALY marco.fioravanti@unifi.it

2. CT - UNI Normal Cultural Property UNI is the Italian standardisation body UNI activity is divided in Sections The Technical Committee UNI Normal Cultural Property is within the Section “Building” Activity field: Conservation of cultural heritage.

3. TC UNI - Normal • Born in 1996 by an agreement between CNR, Ministry of Cultural Heritage and UNI (Italian National standardisation body). • 22 Working groups operating. • reorganised after June 2004 when the activity of the new CEN TC 346 (Conservation of Cultural Property) started with Italian Secretary.

4. Working Groups

5. Present organisation • UNI – Normal has been reorganised according to the 5 WGs of TC 346 (Mirror groups) • Each expert belonging to any of the previous 22 WGs of UNI Normal has been re-allocated in one (or more) of the 5 WGs

6. Specialised groups Within each WGs experts on specific subject may activate a thematic “specialised group” (co-ordiated by an elected referent) which aims are: - to develop new national standards on the specific theme - to support WGs on development of European standards

7. Transversal Specialised Group The TSG gather experts that participate to the activity of different WGs. Transversal Specialised Group “WOOD” established on March 09

8. WG 20: “Wood and wooden products” • Starts its activity in 1999 with the participation of more than 40 experts in history of arts, architects, civil engineers, wood technologists, restorers, chemists, etc… AIM: Obtain a correct approach to the material and to the decay process of the wooden artefacts, the criteria for their restoration, conservation, maintenance included.

9. Working programme • Terminology standards • Common language between experts from different backgrounds • Guidelines • Common approach to the material in its different final uses • Technical standards • Execution of the analysis, material performances, etc…

10. Already published standards • UNI 11118: Criteria for the identification of wood species. • UNI 11119: Load-bearing structures – On–site inspections for the diagnosis of timber members. • UNI 11130: Terminology of wood decay. • UNI 11138: Building load-bearing structures – Criteria for the preliminary evaluation, the design and the execution of works. • UNI 11141: Guidelines for dendrochronological dating • UNI 11161: Guidelines for conservation, restoration and maintenance. • UNI 11162: Supports of panel paintings - Terms and definitions of constituent elements. • UNI 11202: Determination and classification of environmental conditions • UNI 11203: Load-bearing structures - Terms and definitions of the structural configurations and of the constituent elements • UNI 11204: Determination of moisture content • UNI 11205: Archaeological and archaeo-botanic wood - Guide lines to the characterization • UNI 11206: Archaeological and archaeo-botanic wood Guide lines for recovery and first conservation

11. UNI 11161: Cultural heritage - wooden artefacts - Guidelines for conservation, restoration and maintenance Retrieval of possible historical documentation, including chronological interventions and transformations endured. Description of the artefact and a photographic documentation. A survey of the artefact and a graphic representation. Dating the artefact, specifying the methodology executed. Identification of the wooden species which constitutes the artefact. Description of the environmental thermo-hygrometric conditions in typical conditions of conservation of the artefact and the consequent moisture content of wood.

12. UNI 11161: Cultural heritage - wooden artefacts - Guidelines for conservation, restoration and maintenance Description of the environmental thermo-hygrometric conditions that the artefact will undergo after intervention. Diagnosis of the state of the artefact and all of its wood components through identification, classification and quantification of the abiotic and biotic decay. Description of the modality of conservation and/or maintenance and/or restoration carried out on the artefact. Description of the modality of control of the efficaciousness of the intervention, with the passing of time.

13. UNI 11118: Criteria for the identification of wood species. It describes criteria and limits for the identification of the species of wooden artefacts of historical, artistic and archaeological interest. • Choice of the identification method • Sampling • Number • Orientation • Dimension • Sampling zone • Sample preservation • Identification report

14. UNI 11119: Load-bearing structures - On site inspections for the diagnosis of timber members. Establishes objectives, procedures and requirements for the diagnosis of the state of conservation and the evaluation of the strength and durability of timber members in load-bearing structures in the area of cultural heritage, through the execution of on site inspections and the use of nondestructive techniques and methods.

15. UNI 11130: Terminology of wood decay. Defines the principal terms regarding the decay of wood constituting only partially or as a whole cultural heritage artefacts. It gives definitions about the decay related to its typologies and causes. (For this standard, damages caused by inner or external mechanical actions are not considered wood decay.)

16. UNI 11138: Load bearing structures of buildings - Criteria for the preliminary evaluation, design and execution of works. Provides the general indications on the criteria that shall guide all operations dealing with preliminary evaluations, elaboration and the drafting of design and execution of the interventions on load-bearing timber structures, in buildings of cultural interest. Its purpose is to guarantee and/or maintain an effective physical and functional consistency wherever possible. It is divided into five sections: a) preliminary evaluation of the state of conservation b) planning of the intervention c) criteria for controlling the efficiency of an intervention d) methodology and techniques in the execution of an intervention e) periodic inspections.

17. UNI 11141: Guidelines for wood dendrochronological dating. Establishes criteria for dating of wood, constituting as a whole or only as a part, through dendrochronological techniques; dendrochronology is the science that places in the time-lag the growth rings produced by trees, allowing extrapolations and interpretations in environmental, historic, artistic and archaeological fields.

18. UNI 11162: Supports of panel paintings - Terms and definitions of constituent elements. Defines a common terminology on elements constituting the supports of panel paintings, included the parts eventually not made in wood. It is applicable to all the panel painting supports, on simple and complex structures, movable and immovable. Panel painting support is defined as an artefacts predominantly made of wood, having a structural function as a support for a two-dimensional pictorial image.

19. UNI 11202: Determination and classification of the environmental conditions Specifies the criteria to evaluate if the climatic conditions of a given environment are suitable for the conservation of wooden artefacts and establishes a procedure to apply those criteria; it doesn’t concern the analysis of the causes or mechanisms that determine the given climatic conditions. It can be utilised for several aims. Among them: - to evaluate the suitability of the environment where the artefact is placed; - to evaluate the suitability of the environment in which the artefact will be placed ; - to define the characteristics of an environment to be realised (new building, new conditioning equipments/methods, etc).

20. UNI 11203: Load-bearing structures - Terms and definitions of the structural configurations and of the constituent elements Establishes a unified terminology of timber structures. It must be applied specifically to the load-bearing structures of buildings.

21. UNI 11204: Determination of moisture content Describes criteria and limits for the determination or estimation of moisture content on cultural heritage artefacts. The utilisation of any method for the determination or estimation of moisture content on cultural heritage artefacts, must be carefully evaluated on a case by case basis. The aim is to reduce the destructivity or the impact of the method and make it compatible with the conservation needs of the artefact.

22. UNI 11205: Archaeological and archaeo-botanic wood. Guidelines to the characterisation Chemical, physical, biological parameters to to be evaluated for assessing the conservation state of archaeological and archaeo-botanic wood . Every decision on the conservation of wooden artefacts made of archaeological wood needs the characterisation of its state. This characterisation defines in qualitative and quantitative terms the decay of wood and the agents, and their mechanisms, that caused the degradation. This diagnostic phase is basic to inform the design of the intervention on wood, giving the information needed to choose the correct methodology.

23. UNI 11206: Archaeological and archaeo-botanic wood. Guide lines for recovery and first conservation. Describes the basic criteria for the operation of recovery of wood, having archaeological or archaeo-botanic interest, and the parameters to be known for a good short-term conservation, before the eventual intervention of characterisation and restoration. The present criteria can be also adopted for wood having historical, artistic and ethno-anthropological interest.