DFG Research Training Group 1913

Cultural and Technological Significance of Historic Buildings

The objective of the DFG Research Training Group (RTG) 1913 funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) is to utilise knowledge from a variety of fields such as art, technology, and sociology to carry out academic research on historic buildings belonging to diverse historical and cultural contexts.

Historic buildings are understood in this context to be repositories of cultural value systems that include both the cultural and technical knowledge of their time. The RTG sets out to gain a greater understanding of these bearers of the architectural and technical achievements of their time through interdisciplinary research projects.

The academic work of the RTG aims to identify significant technological innovations and cultural processes by supporting individual research into historic buildings, cultural landscapes, and/or stakeholders. What is especially innovative in this regard is the focus on technical and technological aspects and their cultural and historical classification and evaluation. The cultural and technical aspects of the buildings are equally at the heart of the interdisciplinary discussion.

The RTG’s research topics and goals draw upon and contribute to the fields of historic building research, historic building technology, art history, historic preservation, archaeology, history and other social sciences. By utilising diverse knowledge and perspectives from these disciplines, the research programme links the scientific worlds of engineering and the humanities to develop new, shared frameworks for assessing and understanding historic buildings.

For further information, visit the website of the DFG Research Training Group.