PRESENTATION

The Materials Conservation Laboratory (MCL) of the Department of Architecture, Middle East Technical University, was established in 1967, as an educational and research laboratory in the newly established "Department of Restoration", a graduate program for the architects for the preservation of the architectural heritage. The laboratory has served as a teaching and research unit in charge of materials studies for the conservation of cultural heritage. It is the most important center in Turkey for the development of scientific conservation studies and improvement of conservation practice. MCL aims at diagnostic analyses of historic structures and materials for the active decay factors and sources, development of conservation treatments, selection and preparation of compatible repair materials, and the establishment of maintenance and monitoring programs for historic structures. MCL has more than thirty years of experience on site and laboratory investigations of historic structures in Turkey. It has been the task of the laboratory to study technological properties of historic building materials and their problems for the purpose of their conservation.

In autumn 2003, the "Graduate Program in Restoration" started to accept science and engineering students to Ph D. program. Starting from 2007-2008 Fall Semester, The Graduate Program in Restoration accepts graduates of four year bachelor's degree programs in all disciplines. At present, four PhD theses research and three master's theses research are going on in MCL.