UNESCO Chair for Cultural Heritage and Urbanism Established at RWTH
How can historical architecture and urban heritage be preserved in these times of climate change and rural flight?
UNESCO and RWTH jointly established the UNESCO Chair of Cultural Heritage and Urbanism, headed by Professor Christa Reicher, earlier this year. A total of 16 UNESCO Chairs in Germany are contributing to the implementation of the Global Sustainability Agenda; back in 2015, global heads of state and governments adopted this 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development for the implementation of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in New York.
Professor Christa Reicher, who was awarded the UNESCO Chair, also heads the Chair of Urban Design and Institute for Urban Design and European Urbanism at RWTH.
Opening Ceremony at Coronation Hall
On March 31, 2023, the official opening of the new UNESCO Chair was marked by a special ceremony at Coronation Hall at Aachen City Hall, with more than 200 guests from Germany and abroad in attendance. The venue near Aachen Cathedral – the first building in Germany to be declared a UNESCO World Heritage site – was a particularly appropriate choice of location, as Mayor of the City of Aachen Sibylle Keupen noted in her welcome speech. Rector of RWTH Professor Ulrich Rüdiger emphasized the relevance of the City and University sharing a common commitment to the Global SDGs as well as the UNESCO Chair’s significance for RWTH’s sustainability strategy. Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Architecture Professor Alexander Markschies then offered a look at this aspect from an architectural and cultural heritage perspective, while Dr. Roman Luckscheiter, Secretary-General of the German Commission for UNESCO, highlighted the importance and responsibility of the UNESCO Chair in light of national and global challenges in his welcome speech.
Two Panel Discussions
Professor Kunibert Wachten, former head of the Chair of Urban and Regional Planning at RWTH, gave the keynote speech at the event. Looking back as well as forward, he impressively outlined the role of cultural heritage in urban development. This was further addressed in two panel discussions: The first session – moderated by Dr. Jürgen Tietz from Berlin – featuring Dr. Birgitta Ringbeck, Professor Dr. Hans-Peter Noll, Dr. Jan Richarz, Michael von der Mühlen, Professor Dr. Christian Raabe, Cornelia Zuschke, and Drs. Hans Hoorn as guests, focused on the significance of cultural heritage in terms of its identity-forming effect and also touched on the topic of sustainability as a whole. The second session, moderated by Dr. Maram Tawil from Amman and including Professor Ercan Airbas, Professor Dr. Reiner Finkeldey, Dr. Irene Wiese-von Ofen, Dr. Markus Naser, Professor Dr. Jorge Pena Díaz, and Dr. Siné Diakrité, saw questions of interdisciplinary and international experiences discussed.
Projects Set to Launch
In her talk “Is Yesterday the New Tomorrow?”, Professor Christa Reicher outlined the questions the UNESCO Chair intends to address. The existing network with local, national, and international partners is to be further expanded in teaching and research. Some of the projects already took shape during the one-and-a-half-year application phase for the UNESCO Chair, for example, the national projects “Lebenswerte Zukunft Zollverein-Nordstern” together with the cities of Essen and Gelsenkirchen and the continued education on urban monument preservation with the city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Cross-border projects such as the “NEW REGIONAL BAUHAUS”, which will soon be launched in the Dutch municipality of Heerlen as a German-Dutch initiative with a joint course of study – Transforming City Regions, which will be run by RWTH and Dutch universities – and the CLIMATE WUNDERKAMMER – part of this year's Biennale Architettura exhibition in Venice – are also promising and strengthen the long overdue disciplinary crossing of borders in research and teaching.
“Around the world, more and more people are drawn to cities,” says Professor Dr. Maria Böhmer, President of the German Commission for UNESCO. “Today, cities are as dynamic as they are complex, but they are faced with increasing challenges. Climate change, rural depopulation, resource management, and resilience are the big issues facing urban development today and in the future. At the same time, the question arises as to how historic city structures and urban heritage can be preserved,” explains Böhmer. “I am delighted that Christa Reicher, a proven expert and excellent scientist will be conducting research on these topics at the new UNESCO Chair in Aachen.”
Pooled Expertise and Intercultural Dialog
The UNESCO Chair in Aachen will research the topics of urban design, building culture, and the preservation of urban heritage, as impressively demonstrated by the projects invoked during the opening event. Not only the built environment plays a major role in these contexts, but also issues of social interaction and the relationships between city and countryside. The chair focuses on different levels of analysis – from the neighborhood to the district, from the city to the region – to develop sustainable and inclusive future perspectives for urban spaces.
“In the national and international discourse on the further development of neighborhoods, cities, and regions, we have often found that cultural heritage aspects are not adequately taken into consideration. Questions of identity and future viability can only be answered taking into account the architectural and cultural origins of the location in question. With the establishment of the UNESCO Chair of Cultural Heritage and Urbanism, we want to take the expertise pooled at our department to a new level and expand the intercultural dialogue with institutions in the Global South,” says Professor Christa Reicher.
RWTH Rector Professor Ulrich Rüdiger added: “The establishment of the UNESCO Chair proves that we at RWTH are doing justice to the enormous increase in importance that sustainability and resource management have experienced in a wide variety of areas. Professor Christa Reicher’s research will make a further contribution to the climate-friendly development of inner cities. The project is perfectly aligned with our commitment to make the best possible contribution to shaping science and society and preparing both for the future.”
Background
In a large global network, more than 900 UNESCO Chairs in over 110 countries are collaborating to integrate UNESCO's goals in science and education. There are currently 16 UNESCO Chairs in Germany – all with a stellar track record of research and teaching in UNESCO's fields of work. They aim at advancing research, training, and program development in all of UNESCO’s fields of competence, promoting north-south and south-south collaboration and, more generally, intercultural dialogue. UNESCO Chairs promote partnerships between higher education and research institutions and societal actors in countries of the Global South, in Germany, and in Europe. They contribute to creating, disseminating, and applying knowledge to promote sustainable development worldwide.
More information:
Interview with Professorin Christa Reicher
Audio contribution at Deutschlandfunk online, Febuary 17, 2023
Cultural Heritage and Urbanism: New UNESCO Chair at RWTH Kolakowski, Peter
Sources: German UNESCO Commission/RWTH Aachen
Photos: Heike Lachmann
– Author: Dietrich Hunold