The Sense of Contemporary Architecture in the Preservation of Cultural Heritage

Name: The Sense of Contemporary Architecture in the Preservation of Cultural Heritage
Start: 2023-05-29T00:00:00+02:00
End: 2023-05-31T23:59:59+02:00
Location: Wagner House, Riga, 4 Riharda Vāgnera Street

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The Sense of Contemporary Architecture in the Preservation of Cultural Heritage

29/05/2023 - 31/05/2023

Riga, Latvia

The Sense of Contemporary Architecture in the Preservation of Cultural Heritage

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As part of the Latvian Presidency of the Council of Europe, the National Heritage Board of Latvia is organizing an international conference “The Sense of Contemporary Architecture in the Preservation of Cultural Heritage” which will take place in Riga on 29-31 May.

It is often the case that the architectural heritage is damaged by the architectural sector itself, but there are also many success stories where high-quality contemporary architecture contributes to the preservation and re-use of cultural heritage.

Over a period of 30 years, the Council of Europe, with the involvement of other international institutions, has built a European platform for professional cooperation on cultural heritage based on democratic principles. It has produced several international conventions, a series of recommendations, and a model of highly-valued expert assistance for the new Member States, and has successfully set the tone for heritage conservation. As a result, almost all European countries have gained a mutually understandable philosophy of heritage conservation, a better-groomed cultural landscape, more professional approaches to the maintenance and nurturing of cultural assets, and a stronger focus on the awareness and recognition of cultural values. This system culminated in the Faro Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society.

The National Heritage Board of Latvia calls for highlighting the best examples in Europe where contemporary architecture has positively contributed to the preservation of cultural heritage: by raising quality through well-considered contemporary design, by efforts to use what has already been built and thus avoid demolition, by compact construction, minimum consumption of materials, use of renewable energy, and ‘repair-instead-of-replace’ mindset, as well as by construction that incorporates responsibility for the future.

We invite a representatives from heritage institutions to experience the cultural heritage of Latvia and to share the most prominent positive examples at the international conference highlighting the role of contemporary architecture in the preservation of cultural heritage.

Registration is open until April 21. The number of participants is limited.

Agenda

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A little bit of history

A European Heritage Summit was first organized in London on 26–28 April 2006 by Dr. Simon Thurley, former Chief Executive Officer of English Heritage. The mission of the Summit was to gather for the first time the European cultural heritage leaders who had the opportunity to exchange their experience and initiate common actions. It was attended by 23 European states which agreed in the Final Statement to continue to meet annually as a forum of European heritage heads, known as the “European Heritage Heads Forum”. Future hosting countries are chosen by general agreement at the annual meeting.

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