GASTVORTRAG – «HERITAGE OF CHILDREN» – MARIA KOUVARI

Architectural objects designed for children, in their vast majority permanently built and monumental, comprise the canon of what is selected and inventoried as built heritage, while many other sites and buildings appropriated and valued by the children themselves are rarely acknowledged. With their perspective largely subjugated to that of the adult, children can be seen as an underrepresented heritage group, or, as the synonymous term for children “minor” implies, as a “minority group” within heritage processes. The lecture first frames the topic of the cultural heritage of childhood and children and goes on to present how children have been addressed as subjects of analysis or legitimate actors in the historization and heritagization of the built environment, with a special focus on Switzerland. The objective is to shift the attention from the architectural object and the architect to the underrepresented heritage group of children and offer a critical understanding of heritage concepts and approches.