Erasmus+ UNINET: University Network for Cultural Heritage – Integrated Protection, Management and Use

In 2019 BTU has joined the 3-year ERASMUS+ UNINET project together with the Politechnika Lubleska in Poland, the Panepistimio Ioanninon in Greece, the Università degli Studi di Firenze and the Università di Bologna in Italy, as well as the partners Fondazione Flaminia (Ferrara) and Fondazione Romualdo del Bianco (Florence). This project includes the development of didactic materials and case studies concerning three topics, protection, management, and use of cultural heritage, which is divided into architectural and archaeological heritage as well as cultural landscapes. Each of the three years is dedicated to a different topic for which the individual partners develop the respective syllabi and learning material.

Part of the project were three summer schools held in 2019, 2020 and 2021, which were carried out to implement the content for the seminars developed by each partner. Lectures delivered by the different partner universities covered theoretical aspects on the strategies to protect, manage, and use in a sustainable manner architectural and archaeological heritage as well as cultural landscapes. A variety of case studies served to demonstrate how these theories are implemented into practice.

More information on the project can be found here and on uninet.pollub.pl.

      

International Summer School on Sustainable Protection of Cultural Heritage

Host: Politechnika Lubleska, Poland
Venue: Lublin, Poland
Date: 23–27 September 2019

The first summer school was held in Lublin/Poland for one week in September 2019. Lectures delivered by the different partner universities covered theoretical aspects on the protection of cultural heritage. Excursions to different sites in and around Lublin were designed to present challenges and solutions for the protection of built heritage.

International Summer School on the Sustainable Management of Cultural Heritage

Host: BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg
Venue: Online
Date: 12–16 July 2021

As this summer school was to be initially carried out on campus in Cottbus together with students and professors and lecturers from the partner universities, this summer school needed to adapt its programme according to the Covid 19 regulations: The event was held online with all participants, while at the BTU several preparatory meetings prior to the summer school were held to ensure a more intensive engagement with the topic of the Summer School. These included online information sessions, as well as a one-day field trip to the East Side Gallery in Berlin, which served as a case study that allowed students to research one of the fields with which site management is concerned: site interpretation.

The East Side Gallery is one of 4 sites that are part of the Berlin Wall Foundation. An essential element of the field-trip was a workshop organised by the Berlin Wall Foundation during which three topics were addressed and the students were asked to explore and provide ideas on:

  • Potential topics for future site interpretation
  • Conflicting values in site management: monument protection vs. street art
  • Interactive tools and themes for future site presentation

As an engaging communication and information platform students employed the Miro Board (idea and design by Svenja Hitschke).

Lecturer: Acting Professor Dr. Alexandra Skedzuhn-Safir

Assistant lecturer: Svenja Hitschke M.Sc.

International Summer School on Sustainable Use of Cultural Heritage

Host: Università degli Studi Firenze
Venue: Online
Date: 19–23 July 2021

As this summer school was to be initially carried out on campus in Florence together with students and professors and lecturers from the partner universities, also this summer school needed to adapt its programme according to the Covid 19 restriction: The event was held online with all participants, while at the BTU several preparatory meetings prior to the summer school were held to ensure a more intensive engagement with the topic of the Summer School.

The topic of this summer school was the use of cultural heritage, which concerns a variety of fields: interest for research, tool in education, fostering of identity, building as a resource, or it can have a touristic purpose. However, depending on the cultural heritage, its uses will vary, but will always need to take account the cultural significance of a site so as to use a site without ignoring, overshadowing or obliterating its values.

Part of the preparatory meetings of the summer school included online information sessions, as well as two field trips to Berlin: to the former Flakturm with bunker in the public park Humboldthain and the air-raid protection during connected to the subway station Gesundbrunnen in Berlin; both of them were built during the Second World War. These sites serve das examples to explore the cultural significance of this uncomfortable heritage and to assess their present-day uses. A lecture delivered by architect Jens Caspar who had worked on the conversion of the so-called Boros Bunker in Berlin has been able to give the students a deep insight into this adaptive re-use of a bunker, negotiating between the demands of modern living and the preservation of the values of the bult heritage.

As an engaging communication and information platform students employed the Miro Board (idea and design by Svenja Hitschke).

Lecturer: Acting Professor Dr. Alexandra Skedzuhn-Safir
Assistant lecturer: Svenja Hitschke M.Sc.