Big Stuff is a triennial conference focused on the particular challenges of preserving and interpreting large technology objects. The first Big Stuff conference was held in Canberra, Australia, as a gathering of people who grappled daily with the challenges of technology objects that were too big to fit in showcases, too big to be handled easily, routinely tested the limits of floor loadings and expense budgets, and brought up awkward questions of operation versus static display. Conferences focusing on industrial built heritage are a regular occurrence, but meetings that delve into the different ways to preserve, restore and display the machines that they once held are a rarer beast.

Big Stuff 2019 will address the future of large scale industrial heritage in the face of a rapidly changing environment, where social relations, architectural and urban design, landscape environments, mobility infrastructures, and spatial functions are all being transformed, and where climate change adds another unknown to the preservation of historic buildings and machinery.

There will be a possibility for publication in the magazine “Architectus”, issued by the Faculty of Architecture of Wrocław University of Technology.

Interested in presenting? Send a 500 word abstract to Alison Wain by 31st July 2019

Date of the conference: 11.09.2019 – 13.09.2019

Place: Katowice (Silesia), Poland

Conference cost: 200 € / pp