August 1, 2018 | Publication: archimaera

The seventh issue of archimaera went live at the end of July. The issue entitled "Dialogue as a Challenge. Exploring, Preserving, Explaining and Developing World Heritage Sites" is edited by Daniel Buggert, Caroline Helmenstein and Anke Naujokat and includes contributions to the international conference "Building Research in Dialogue. Exploring, Preserving and Explaining World Heritage Sites", which was hosted by the Chair of Architectural History at RWTH Aachen University in November 2015.

Excerpt from the Editorial

"According to the UNESCO World Heritage Convention of 1972, World Heritage status is associated with five mandatory mandates which the signatory states must fulfil with regard to their World Heritage Sites: "the identification, protection, conservation, presentation and transmission to future generations". This task is complex because it requires the participation of very different disciplines with specific working and cognitive methods each. [...] The World Heritage status can act as an amplifier of the field of tension between such diverging commissions and interests, which basically meet at every monument. In the case of World Heritage sites, however, this often happens under particular time pressure, against the background of economic interests - such as competition for funding - and in the spotlight of the world public. Whether this situation is perceived as an opportunity or as a danger is decisively influenced by whether there is a productive interdisciplinary exchange that turns the diversity of perspectives into a positive one by promoting mutual understanding of goals and methods and enabling synergies. This requires that each discipline reflects its role and that at the same time the disciplines enter into a dialogue with each other. […]

These findings led to the conception of the international conference "Building Research in Dialogue. Exploring, Preserving and Explaining World Heritage Sites", which was hosted by the Chair of Architectural History at RWTH Aachen University in November 2015 and funded by the DFG. All the speakers at the conference worked or did research in the context of World Heritage sites, representing very different responsibilities, roles and perspectives. Their contributions and the discussion rounds explored the field of tension between the various UNESCO mandates for research, conservation, development and explanation on the one hand, and between the various actors and disciplines involved in a World Heritage Monument, some of which have different motivations, interests, questions and methods, on the other hand. This issue of archimaera magazine brings together the majority of the conference contributions."