Interview
Oliver Martin
World Heritage Convention
Oliver Martin is a Swiss architect who completed his Master’s degree in Architecture in 1998 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETHZ Zürich. He then pursued studies at the same institute, completing a PhD in technical sciences and history of architecture in 2002.
Oliver Martin held several positions at the Swiss Federal Office of Culture until he joined the management board in 2012 as Head of Section Baukultur. He spear-headed the “Davos Process”, a movement to encourage a high-quality living environment based on the Davos Declaration of 2018. He served as a member, and subsequently chairman, of the ICCROM Council from 2013 to 2021.
Oliver Martin has been involved with World Heritage since 2001 when he participated in the creation of the Swiss government’s first Tentative List. The team selected large complex sites that would benefit from heightened awareness and improved conservation offered by World Heritage designation. He then prepared several nomination files for the Swiss government and worked on preparing international expert meetings held in Switzerland on buffer zones (2008) and transnational serial sites (2009). He served as an expert member of the Swiss delegation to the World Heritage Committee from 2010 to 2013 and remains the national focal point for World Heritage.
Interview with
Oliver Martin
August 2023
The following audio excerpts are from a virtual interview with Oliver Martin conducted by Christina Cameron and Mechtild Rössler in August 2023. Oliver Martin discusses the impact of the Cairns reforms, particularly through the lens of cultural diversity, the quality of the Advisory Bodies work, the negative impact of geopolitics, the threats to World Heritage sites from conflicts, climate change and the mining industry, and the challenges of considering sites of memory.
- 1. The World Heritage Convention
- 1a. Involvement of Oliver Martin in World Heritage
- 1b.The Cairns reforms, Global Strategy and Representativity of the List
- 1c. Policies and decisions that have influenced the implementation of the Convention
- 1d. Successes and failures of the Convention
- 2. World Heritage Committee
- 3. Category 2 Centres
- 4. The Advisory Bodies: IUCN, ICOMOS and ICCROM
- 5. Engagement of States Parties
- 6. Intentional destruction of World Heritage
- 7. Role of civil society
Oral Archives of the
World Heritage Convention
Under the leadership of the Canada Research Chair on Built Heritage at the University of Montreal, an international team of researchers conducts interviews with pioneers of World Heritage to capture memories of important moments in the history of UNESCO Convention.
Launched in 2006, this initiative is part of the UNESCO History project that celebrated the 60th anniversary of the creation of UNESCO. The Oral Archives project records the precious witness of people closely associated with the creation and implementation of the Convention. Their recollections and views have greatly enriched the book by Christina Cameron and Mechtild Rössler, Many Voices, One Vision: The Early Years of the World Heritage Convention (Ashgate/Routledge, 2013).
