On October 22, under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia and with the support of the UNESCO Georgian Affairs National Commission an interdisciplinary science conference by name “Traditional Hall Architecture in Georgia” was held at the Chubinashvili Centre. Art historians, ethnologists, archaeologists, architects, specialists of ethno-design and experts of cultural heritage protection took part in the conference.
The papers concerned a complex conception of the hall phenomenon in Georgia, its adaptation in modern life and the question of its nomination in the UNESCO list of the monuments. The conference was dedicated to the 100th anniversary of V. Beridze. An appropriate attention was paid to the hall genesis, its spatial composition, its connection to church architecture, building principles, semantic meaning, adaptation, social functions and other issues. A new material, unknown before, discovered during expeditions by archaeologists, as well as by art historians was presented. It showed the significance of hall architecture from the new point of view. Together with the conference there opened an exhibition “Rachian and Tushian Dwelling”, which clearly demonstrated the variety and high artistic quality of traditional folk architecture. The photographs belong to Mariam Kiladze and Nestan Tatarashvili, while still library of hall architecture belongs to Shalva Lezhava. Zurab Lezhava’s ethnographic sketches and sketches of Colchian dwellings (“odas”) executed by an architect Katsia Giorgobiani were presented at the exhibition.