Questionnaire on Reconstruction

Post trauma reconstruction after civil and armed conflict or due to natural catastrophes, or reconstruction of places that have been destroyed by redevelopment pressures have always been a fundamental concern to heritage practitioners.

In the last two decades, this concern has been augmented by the increasing use of reconstruction as an interpretation tool to recapture forms that render the lost grandeur of heritage places easier to grasp by visitors.

Background

Many ICOMOS National Committees and International Scientific Committees are involved at a practical and theoretical level on a daily basis with these matters. The University of Cottbus held a meeting in June, and is establishing a Toolkit for Safeguarding the Cultural Significance of Historic Urban Fabric Damaged in Armed Conflict and hosting a Conference in December, on the topic of “Catastrophe and Challenge: Cultural Heritage and Post-Conflict Recovery”: http://heritage-post-conflict.com. The University of Montreal organized a meeting in March this year.

A number of meetings have been held in recent times involving ICOMOS members. For example, members of the ICOMOS International Committee on Risk Preparedness (ICORP) are especially active worldwide, and the European Group of ICOMOS National Committees also discussed Reconstruction issues at its meeting last June in Athens. The ICOMOS International Committee on Interpretation conducted a survey among its members to identify attitudes towards reconstruction.

To initiate the development of an ICOMOS response to this pressing topic, a specialist meeting was convened last March at our ICOMOS Paris headquarters, the proceedings of which were published and made available here. ICOMOS will host a workshop in September at ICOMOS headquarters in Paris in order to draft a Guidance document with a narrow focus on World Heritage properties. Its conclusions will be reported at the Advisory Committee meeting in Istanbul and made available on the ICOMOS website.

An academic workshop will also be held in March 2017 at Bologna University as a pilot project of the ICOMOS Universities Forum initiative, which aims strengthen multidisciplinary ties between universities and ICOMOS. Its call for abstracts will sent to ICOMOS membership this coming autumn, and its outcomes will be later consolidated in a scientific publication. And of course, we will have the Scientific Symposium on this theme in our annual General Assembly in October. Papers to be presented should be available on the conference website in due course. These are just a few of the initiatives underway across the world.

There have been and undoubtedly will be more meetings on this topic at the national, regional and international levels, but their details have not been fully shared with us.

Questionnaire: Conferences and Initiatives on Reconstruction

Therefore, ICOMOS needs a comprehensive overview of the current state of events and discussions. For this purpose, we request that you fill the questionnaire and send it to maureen.pelletier[at]icomos.org by 31 August 2016 in order that you may share your knowledge about recent and future events on reconstruction and their outcomes. All the information received will be sorted and made available in the ICOMOS website.

Given that ICOMOS committees and members as well as many affinity institutions and organizations have been discussing reconstruction, ICOMOS is considering a step forward, i.e., whether or not a doctrinal text on reconstruction should eventually be developed by ICOMOS. Such a document could contribute not only to heritage practice worldwide, but also to heritage studies. If the answer were positive, ICOMOS will need to map how to proceed in this process, for example to create a working group, involving some related International Scientific Committees and interested members, as well as to establish a work plan. To develop an ICOMOS philosophical position on this complex matter, we need to hear from ICOMOS members and to do that we will provide a broad range of opportunities for engagement in this process.

All this needs to be discussed and we look forward for the Advisory Committee meeting to provide orientation on how to proceed. To facilitate these discussions in October, a summary report on the ICOMOS Reconstruction Initiative will be presented by Vice-President Toshiyuki Kono.

We look forward to receiving members’ comments at the Advisory Committee meeting or afterwards in writing.