Modern Heritage in the MENA Region

Prof. Dr. phil. habil. Hans-Rudolf Meier ist Leiter der Professur "Denkmalpflege und Baugeschichte" an der Fakultät "Architektur und Urbanistik" der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. In dieser Tätigkeit gibt er die Reihe "Forschungen zum baukulturellen Erbe der DDR" heraus, die im Bauhaus-Universitätsverlag erscheint.

In the past decades, the definition of built heritage has become broader and includes the architecture and urbanism products of the modern era, yet the recognition of this rich legacy is still lacking in West Asia and North Africa, the so-called MENA region. The susceptibility caused by the socio-economic and political conditions in this region has put the heritage of the modern movement for years under serious threat and addressing this issue was the main motivation behind this book. The book is emerged from a selection of papers presented during the International Conference «Modern Heritage in the MENA region», organized in Weimar in 2017. What this selection does hope to accomplish is to bring into attention the legacy of the modern era in the MENA region and, by providing new perspectives on this matter, bridge between practice and theory. This book particularly focuses on the 19th and 20th century legacy of architecture and urban planning. The selected articles intend to provide critical reflections on modern heritage practices in the region and aim to highlight challenges facing identifying, preserving, and documenting modern heritage as well as the role of new technologies in this process in three main fields of architecture, urbanism, and civil engineering.