The use of lime in our built cultural heritage

An afternoon seminar entitled "The use of lime in our built cultural heritage" was organised recently by the Malta Centre for Restoration, in collaboration with Arte Constructo, a Belgian firm that manufactures conservation products for the building industry.

The seminar was very well attended by architects and conservators. This was the first time in Malta when conservator-restorers have worked in collaboration with industry to share the common problems found in architecturalconservation, especially with regard to Maltese limestone.

Although Arte Constructo is a company with commercial interests, it has a long tradition of collaboration with the University of Leuven and is now collaborating with the Malta Centre for Restoration by donating some of its products, including natural pigments, so that tests can be conducted on Maltese limestone.

The programme consisted of two very interesting and informative lectures delivered by Roald Hayen, a Ph.D. candidate in the R. Lemaire Centre for Conservation Department of Building Materials of the University of Leuven. Mr Hayen's visit to Malta was made possible thanks to the financial support of Arte Constructo.

His first lecture was entitled "Lime revealed", in which he gave a brief overview of all the different types of mineral binders used in the building industry from ancient times till today.

The second lecture was more technical in nature and was entitled "Why weaker lime mortars may be better...".Mr Hayen explained the different aspects of chemical, physical and mechanical compatibility of lime mortars and explained why our built cultural heritage itself is a pre-eminent example of sustainable architecture.

The seminar came to a close with a lecture entitled "Tendencies in the use of lime for the interventions in our built cultural heritage", delivered by Marc Swolfs, one of the directors of Arte Constructo.

He gave an overview of all the company's products explaining all the their possibilities and uses both in the construction industry and for conservation purposes. He illustrated his presentation with examples of work carried out in Belgium, Holland, England and other places.

An advertised presentation entitled "Deffun" by Frank Chetcuti, an M.Cons. student at the Malta Centre for Restoration, was not delivered as the interesting seminar overran its projected time by more than two hours.

It was decided that this lecture would be delivered when a second seminar will be organised in the near future to communicate the findings of tests of the products supplied by Arte Constructo, on Maltese limestone.