Elective course Fall Semester 2024

In Collaboration with S AM Swiss Architecture Museum

Team: Silke Langenberg, Andreas Kofler, Andreas Ruby, Yuma Shinohara

At a time when the maintenance of existing buildings is seen as an essential element of the building revolution, the theory and practice of heritage conservation is taking on an integral role. Nevertheless, heritage conservation still has to contend with image problems: people often misunderstand exactly what its aim is and, unaware of its mission, principles and (still highly topical) theories, the discipline is often assumed to have a purely conservative attitude.

50 years after the European Year of Monument Conservation in 1975, when the whole of Europe was dominated by the question of how to preserve the built heritage, there is no need for a fundamental repositioning, but there is certainly a need for an “update” on issues of monument conservation and its attitude in the face of current challenges. The joint exhibition at the S AM Swiss Architecture Museum in spring 2025 is dedicated to this topic.

The aim of the seminar is to develop concepts for communicating and exhibiting heritage-related content and debates that go beyond specialist discourse and address a broader public. As part of the course, participants will acquire in-depth knowledge of various exhibition strategies in the field of architecture and will have the opportunity to develop exhibits for an exhibition organised by the S AM Swiss Architecture Museum (Basel) in collaboration with the Chair of Construction Heritage and Monument Preservation at ETH Zurich and ICOMOS Suisse in spring 2025.