International Symposium: Bridging Large Spans (BLS) From Antiquity to the Present - Second Announcement / Last Call for Papers (Istanbul, May 29 - June 2, 2000)

Abstract

Bridging Large Spans has been a challenging problem for mankind from the very beginning. Masonry domes, arches, aqueducts, and bridges of the Pre-Industrial Age; large structures of the Industrial Age in iron and steel, and finally, the striking structures of our descending century, either in concrete, glass or as textile membranes, however in every case supported by steel either as reinforcing bars, or steel tubes and cables, constitute the subject of the Symposium.

Istanbul is predestinated for this Symposium as host city due to its character of being a real bridge between Asia and Europe, such as between Eastern and Western Cultures. Finally, it has been always "The Metropolis" along the centuries; it constitutes a bridge also between Antiquity and the New Millennium. In the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ, there will be many celebration programs at historic sites of Christianity in Turkey, such as near Ephesus where Virgin Mary's house, chapel, and also grave are found, and also in Cappadocia with its churches of the early Christians carved in tuff hills and their underground cities.

The Symposium aims to provide an international and interdisciplinary forum for presentations and discussions on ancient and modern large span structures from the view point of structural engineers, architects, historians of architecture and also archaeologists in order to trace the development in materials and techniques of covering large spaces or of crossing long distances to date.