Running time

05.09.2025 – 18.01.2026

About

We are facing a necessary paradigm shift in the way we deal with and are aware of raw materials and resources. This change also calls for a re-evaluation of building materials and objects in the current discourse on conservation. What impetus is needed to redefine conservation and preservation in terms of object and method? Which actors are gaining in importance under these conditions? Preservation plays a pioneering role here: As a multi-faceted, networked discipline, it questions our relationship to the material reality of the built environment. Its methods are both timeless and up-to-date: repair as a sustainable practice for a culture of prudence. At the same time, heritage conservation raises questions about cultural participation – especially when intangible cultural heritage is included in conservation issues. The exhibition sheds light on heritage conservation as a discipline of care and as a central player in a sustainable building culture. The exhibition is being created in collaboration with the Chair of Construction Heritage and Monument Preservation, the Material Archive, the cantonal monument preservation department and other players in the construction industry. To mark the 50th anniversary of European heritage protection, it is part of the research project A Future for Whose Past?, which opens up new perspectives for a pluralistic culture of remembrance.

Project managers

Roxane Noëlle Unterberger (1991) is an architect and curator of the ZAZ BELLERIVE Center for Architecture Zurich.
Maya Kägi Götz (1971) is a historian and cultural manager and has headed the ZAZ BELLERIVE Center Architecture Zurich since 2019.