This lecture aims at opening a discussion on several ‘contradicting’ concepts and theories that deal with the conservation and restoration of lacunae and missing elements in historic buildings.The historic buildings are in many ways very similar to the human beings. When some of their elements are broken or lost, the solution seems sometimes obvious, but in most of the cases several solutions exist and that makes the decision making process a complicated one.

The lecture will be delievered by Dina Bakhoum and Mohamed Lashien.

Bakhoum is the Conservation Programme Manager at the Aga Khan Cultural Services-Egypt (the service company of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture), where she has been working since 2004 on managing and coordinating heritage conservation and restoration projects in Historic Cairo. She worked on several conservation projects in Cairo and in the Pharaonic Theban Necropolis in Luxor alongside prominent institutions in the field. She also teaches Islamic Architecture at the American University in Cairo and lectures on various topics related to heritage conservation, management and maintenance at various local and international institutions.
 

Lashien is an architect working as the site manger of the Aqsunqur Mosque (also known as the Blue Mosque) Conservation Project with the of Aga Khan Cultural Services-Egypt (the service company of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture). Since 2003 he has been working with AKCS-E on numerous other heritage conservation projects in al-Darb al-Ahmar in Historic Cairo. In addition to that he worked with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture on the documentation and conservation project of the Great Mosque of Djenne in Mal.

The lecture will take place at The Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo, 29 November, 6pm