Modern Heritage: Director of UNESCO World Heritage Centre meets with DOCOMOMO Chair
The meeting between Mechtild Rössler, Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, and Ana Tostões on 10 November 2015 focused on conservation and documentation of Modern Heritage worldwide and allowed to strengthen the links between the World Heritage Centre and DOCOMOMO (International Committee for Documentation and Conservation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods of the modern movement).
The Director of the Centre highlighted the cooperation of DOCOMOMO with the World Heritage Centre since the launch of the Programme on Modern Heritage in 2001, and thanked DOCOMOMO for its participation in the forthcoming 'International conference on urban conservation: role of the Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape in safeguarding modern heritage in the Arab States', to be held in Kuwait City from 1 to 3 December 2015.
The discussion focused on raising awareness of the importance of the architecture, town planning and landscape design of the modern era, which is considered to be particularly vulnerable because of weak legal protection and low appreciation among the general public; and enhancing the significance of this heritage and its preservation. Some of the pivotal issues concerning identification and valorization were also discussed.
Ms Tostões also presented DOCOMOMO’s latest publications, notably on African Modern Heritage, a virtual exhibition on modern heritage recently developed by DOCOMOMO and the theme of the upcoming 14th International DOCOMOMO Conference: Adaptive re-use, The Modern Movement, Towards the Future, organized in Lisbon, Portugal, 1st to 12th September 2016.