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SERIEN PERSPEKTIVWECHSEL • CHANGE OF PERSPECTIVE
Foto: Hertiga for the Future
Ruth Schagemann ist viel unterwegs: Als Speaker von Heritage for the Future in der Pariser Nationalbibliothek oder ... to change the way our living environment is being planned, built, maintained, refurbished,
„Die Berufsanerkennungsrichtlinie setzt die
Mindestvoraussetzungen fest, unter denen
wir in Europa unseren Beruf automatisch
gegenseitig anerkennen. Deswegen ist diese
Richtlinie sehr wertvoll.”
Ruth Schagemann
... in Edinburgh mit den ACE-PräsidentInnen aus Schottland, Großbritannien, Irland, Wales und Nordirland after the outbreak of war in the spring of 2022 ...
Foto: ACE
042 • AIT 12.2023
r You have also been a member of the Executive Board of the Architects’ Council of
Europe (ACE) from 2016 to 2021. Since 2022, you have been the honorary president
of this non-profit organization, which represents more than 600,000 architects
from 35 European countries. What exactly does the ACE advocate and what are
your primary tasks?
The aims of the ACE are to promote the importance and the value of architecture in the
interests of the common good for a high quality of life in urban and rural areas and
to ensure the highest standards in education and practice. In doing so, we promote the
cross-border practice of our profession within the EU and beyond it. The ACE supports
the European institutions through cooperation and provides research results, knowledge
and expertise. Much can only be done together: The way we inhabit and manage our
planet has a devastating impact on the climate and on the biodiversity. We consume
huge amounts of land, raw materials and fossil fuels and generate unimaginable amounts
of greenhouse-gas emissions and waste. Furthermore, in our cities we are all too often
experiencing a decline in the quality of our built environment, which is reflected in a
trivialization of construction, a lack of design values and the decay of historic building
fabric and building culture. Urgent and important action is therefore needed to be taken at
all levels of government and in the construction sector as well. We really need to act now
managed and regulated. We simply have to adopt an attitude that comprehensively
promotes the common good and the quality of life and places people and nature at the
centre of all spatial and urban developments.
r In what form should these goals be realized?
This is where we as architects, interior designers, landscape architects and urban planners
come into play, because we are the agents of change who have the necessary knowledge,
expertise and experience in that respect. My term of office began at the end of the
pandemic, one month before the outbreak of war in Ukraine and at the beginning of a new
culture of reconstruction. In this environment, successes are difficult to measure, but I can
still give you a selection of examples. The ACE has awoken from its “pandemic slumber”.
The executive board, member organizations and all the various delegates are very active
in working together and getting involved. As a result, we are learning from each other and
are able to make this experience play a part in politics.
r You also campaigned for the Ukrainian architects and colleagues immediately
That is correct, one week after the outbreak of war, I advocated in the European Parliament
that we immediately include our Ukrainian colleagues in our discussions and funding
programmes. This can show how strongly the values of the New European Bauhaus
can take effect. Our Ukrainian colleagues have asked us to help them develop ideas,
legislations and planning tools for the reconstruction of Ukraine. And we have been doing
this intensively right from the start. The activities culminate in the EU-funded UREHERIT
project under the leadership of my Lithuanian colleague on the Board, Ruta Leitanaite. The
project is able to greatly promote ACE activities if everyone who is involved is committed to
ensuring that the rich cultural heritage is seen as a resource for sustainable cultural, social,
ecological and economic revitalization. At the same time, given the destruction of war, it
must be possible to overcome the challenges of preserving, redefining and emphasizing
national and local cultural identity.
r In January, you represented the ACE at the Davos Baukultur Alliance 2023
conference of culture ministers, which aims to promote building culture in Europe ...
This is right, because the promotion of building culture in Europe and internationally
plays an important role, as it is effectively about investing in a high-quality living
environment for all. The Davos Declaration of 2018 forms the basis on which the
Baukultur movement will continue in terms of academic content and strategic
political direction. At the same time, the movement advocates at a political level for
the implementation of strategies that recognize the cultural aspects of conservation,
planning and building and establish Baukultur as a political priority. The Davos
Baukultur process brings together these diverse international initiatives. In this, it is
important to discuss this topic not only within the circle of European culture ministers,
among whom there is already broad agreement, but also to extend it to other policy
areas. This includes the representatives of civil society and of the private sector.