News Flash

• Meeting in Germany at the RWTH Aachen University

  Training Course and Steering Group Meeting in Germany within Erasmus+SAH Project

  On January 30 to February 3, 2023, a five-day training course and steering group meeting were held at the RWTH Aachen University, within the Erasmus + SAH project with the participation of the representatives of the institutions of the Project partner universities from the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Armenia. 

  The five-day course was quite informative and effective. Professional specialists and university professors presented many topics and lectures related to the study, restoration and preservation of architectural heritage to the participants of the seminar. The topics are as follows:

  • Historiographic Approaches to urban analysis
  • Urban Ethnographic Approaches
  • The Cultural Landscape Approach and the UNESCO World Heritage Management System
  • Managing Heritage Site: the Tool of Heritage Impact Assessments
  • Heritage-led Urban development. German examples and debates
  • Heritage and regional development. Insights from the ongoing transformation of the open cast mining Rheinisches Revier, Germany
  • Drones and Laser Scanning
  • Digital Visualization
  • BIM Building Information Modelling based tools & technologies toward fast and efficient RENovation of residential
  • Digital and classical methods of landscape research
  • “Big.Beautiful.Buildings”
  • Residential Heritage – Values and Challenges of Preservation
  • Modern Large Housing Estates: Trajectories of change
  • Large Housing Estates in Germany: Recent challenges and future perspectives

  On January 31, there was also a meeting of the project management board, during which the project coordinator Massimiliano D’Innocenzo presented the progress of the project, a number of financial and technical issues, and what to do next. A decision was made to form international student groups from the students of the project’s partner universities to work on research projects. For those groups, a two-week summer school will be organized at L’Aquila University, during which students will carry out practical work in the framework of research projects while participating in the courses. It was also planned to hold a workshop in April 2023 at GSU, during which the topics of the research will be clarified.

  The project coordinator said that they are going to apply to the European Education and Culture Executive Agency to extend the duration of the project to six months.

  In parallel with the training courses, guided visits to the historical and cultural monuments were also implemented.

  The seminar materials will be provided to project partner universities for the further development of academic modules and courses.

   

     

   

   

• Meeting in Italy

  Steering Group Meeting in Italy within Erasmus+SAH Project 

  On June 16-17, 2022 a steering group meeting was held in L’Aquila, Italy within the Erasmus + SAH project with the participation of the representatives of the institutions of some of the Project Consortium member countries: Italy, Greece, Germany, Armenia, and Iran. 

  The meeting was welcomed by Anna Tozzi, Professor at the University of L’Aquila in Italy and project coordinator, and Massimiliano D’Inocenzo, member of the coordination team.

  The project partner universities and organizations presented their institutions on the first day of the meeting. Then the activities and results implemented within the project were presented in detail. Particular emphasis was placed on presenting the results of the first working package. It should be noted that the RWTH Aachen University and Goris State University are responsible for coordinating the implementation of this package. The problems arising after the Russian partner’s exclusion from the project and the steps for the solution were discussed.

  The second day of the event was dedicated to the discussion of educational modules developed by Armenian and Iranian universities, several issues related to the guidance and update made by European universities, as well as the purchase of equipment and financial problems.

  At the end of the meeting, it was decided to hold the next steering group meeting in Armenia during the second week of September and to conduct one-week training of teachers in October at the National Technical University of Athens.

   

   

   

   

• Online Workshop P3

   A regular meeting of the consortium of the international project (SAH) was held on 19 January, 2022.

  Erasmus+ SAH project continued its activity in 2022 by the regular online meeting of the Project Consortium.

  The Project activities planned by five work packages (preparation, development, quality assurance, dissemination of information, management) for 2022 were presented by each work package supervisor. The concerns and suggestions were expressed by the Consortium representatives to provide smooth running of the Project in 2022. The issues of the upcoming Workshop were also discussed.

  On January 19, 2022, a regular meeting of the consortium of the international project (SAH) was held as part of the Erasmus + program. The project started in January 2021, and due to the current situation with the Covid-19, such meetings are still held online.

  During the meeting, the project participants, led by the chief coordinator, the University of L'Aquila, discussed the current status of the implementation of tasks for all work packages (there are 5 in total).

  In addition, the participants considered the quality of the project, the development of new modules for master's programs in the restoration and preservation of architectural heritage based on the analysis and monitoring of professional competencies previously carried out within the framework of the project, and also discussed the purchase of equipment for all partners and the timing of the preparation of the necessary reporting documentation.

   

  

   

   

• Online workshop P2

   Several online meetings and workshops were held from April to November, 2021

  Online meeting on the issues of Quality Assurance/ Online Workshop, held within the WP1 work package/ Seminar WP2 within the Erasmus+ international project on architectural heritage/ Online Workshop to Summarize the Activities of WP1/ Online Monitoring-Meeting

   12 April, 2021                                                                                                                                          

  Online meeting on the issues of Quality Assurance     

                                                             
  14 April, 2021

  
  Online Workshop, held within the WP1 work package

   

  8 July, 2021

  Online methodological Workshop dedicated to Quality Assurance System, held within the WP2 work package.The seminar was devoted to the implementation of the second working package of the project "Development: Institutionalization and approbation of BSc amd MSc in Russia, Armenia and Iran". Its leaders are Kazan University of Architecture and Engineering (KSUAE) together with the National Technical University of Athens (Greece). The functions of the leaders of this package include: coordination of work on the development of new modules and disciplines for curricula in participating universities, advanced training of teaching staff of participating universities in European universities with the invitation of international experts, publication of methodological textbooks for new modules, creation networks of resource scientific and educational centers in universities of Russia, Armenia and Iran and monitoring of the work of international student teams during the implementation of the project.

  In the first half of the workshop the KSUAE team outlined the goals and objectives of this work package, focusing on the importance of comparing the tasks with the qualifications and potential of the project team members, as well as calculating the administrative and resource support of the project activities. In the second part of the workshop, the KSUAE team together with Professor A. Tozzi (University of L'Aquila, Italy) conducted a methodological training for partners from Russia and Armenia in the field of ensuring the European quality of education in order to increase the effectiveness of the teaching staff on the development of new curricula and courses.

   

  3 September, 2021

  Online Workshop to Summarize the Activities of WP1

  The SAH Erasmus+ project online Workshop was organized on the 3^rd of September, 2021 to present the results of the survey on competencies and to summarize the activities of WP1.

   

  23 November, 2021

  Online Monitoring-Meeting

  The online monitoring-meeting of Erasmus+ SAH project was initiated by Erasmus+ Office in Armenia on the 23^rd of November, 2021. The representatives of Armenian partner universities (NUACA, GSU) and the Chamber of Architects of Armenia took part in the meeting. The achievements and challenges of the first year of the Project were discussed.

   

  

   

   

• Online Workshop P1

  Kick-off online Workshop of the SAH Project, 16-17 February, 2021

  On February 16 - 17, 2021 the first online meeting of the Erasmus + project SAH «Capacity Building in Sustainability for Architectural Heritage» was held with the project consortium. The Rector of Universita degli Studi dell'Aquila Edoardo Alesse made a welcoming speech.The representatives of the Erasmus National Offices from the participating countries took part in the meetings with a detailed report on what the project participants should pay attention to in the process of its implementation, taking into account also the peculiarities of resolving issues in each individual country; representatives of the European Commission with recommendations for the successful implementation of the project, as well as representatives of international departments of participating universities and academic staff responsible in each university for the development of new master courses in the field of sustainable development of architectural heritage, made short presentations about the university, their professional competencies and experience in theme of the project.

  The main objectives of the project are as following:

  • To update and improve the quality of educational programs for specialists in the field of sustainable development of architectural heritage in accordance with best EU practice to increase awareness and responsiveness to environmental and economic changes,
  • create innovative facilities in conditions of growing interest in architectural heritage,
  • and to Transfer knowledge, experience and latest technologies to partner countries.

  This project is very important and relevant not only for our University, but also for Russia as a whole. The use of European experience will make it possible to train specialists capable of solving modern strategic tasks of sustainable development of the architectural heritage.

  The Project partners are the Universities in Italy (the University of L'Aquila), Germany, Greece, Armenia, Iran (Tehran and Tabriz) and Russia (Kazan, Moscow, Samara, Arkhangelsk). During the two days of the Kick off Meeting, all stages of the project implementation, project management issues, the quality of the master courses developed within the project in each university, as well as the necessary reporting documentation for each partner within the project were discussed in detail.

  Tabriz Islamic Art University was represented by Prof. Farhad Akhoundi the Head of International Affairs and the Associate Professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism. In conclusion, the entire work plan for the current year was discussed in this valuable online session.