On the reality of historical building. Value Setting and Constructive Recognition

In the summer of 2023, after more than nine years, the funding period of the DFG Graduate College 1913 "Cultural and Technical Values of Historical Buildings", which has been based at the BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg since 2014 and, in cooperation with the Humboldt University of Berlin and the Institute for Spatial Social Research in Erkner, scientifically researches historical buildings in the field of tension between art, technology and society in different time horizons and cultural circles, will end.

The collegium started in April 2014 with the initial question of why we (must) have a special appreciation for historical buildings and what concrete cultural and technical knowledge in the past and present is responsible for this. Aware of the cultural conditionality and the incompleteness of all historical knowledge, and with a view to the successful implementation of a finding-oriented, diachronic research program in the past nine years, this initial question can be formulated more critically and openly: In what ways do we shape and reshape historical buildings in each case in the process of research-based cognition? What role do the individual, disciplinary steps play in the recording, documentation and evaluation of historical buildings? How do valorization and cognitive reflection relate to each other? Does interdisciplinary research, beyond the gain in concrete material knowledge, create its own intermediate space of exchange and knowledge production beyond the concrete object, in which the focus is not on the exactness of concepts, but on mutual understanding and the possibilities and limits of historical knowledge?

These questions will be addressed by the DFG Graduate College in its final conference on the topic "Zur Wirklichkeit historischen Bauens. Value Setting and Constructive Recognition" from June 28 to 30 in Berlin and Cottbus. The kick-off event will take place on June 28, 2023 at 6:00 pm in the lecture theatre of the Behrenshalle on the Wedding Campus of the TU Berlin. The keynote address will be given by Prof. Dr. Ingrid Scheurmann on the topic "Wertsetzungen und Erkenntnisprozesse. Reflections on Historic Preservation and Architectural Conservation in Times of Climate Change". This will be followed by a reception. On June 29 and 30, 2023, the event will continue in the lecture hall of the Brandenburg State Museum of Modern Art, Dieselkraftwerk Cottbus.

For up-to-date information on the program, please visit the GRK1913 page.
Registration for the event by email at dfg-graduiertenkolleg-1913@b-tu.de.