Dialogue on the mission statement for culturally relevant construction in the UNESCO Wachau World Heritage Site

A uniform strategy for the building development of the Wachau should be elaborated. ©Welterbegemeinden Wachau
A uniform strategy for the building development of the Wachau should be elaborated. ©Welterbegemeinden Wachau

Citizens asked for their opinions. In June 2019, within the scope of a public civic dialogue, the citizens of the Wachau were able to talk to experts about their wishes and suggestions as the basis for the future management of building development in the Wachau World Heritage Site.

Since summer 2018, the experts in culturally relevant construction, Heritage Impact Assessment, World Heritage management, protective zones and monument preservation (Prof. Cristian Abrihan, Vienna, and Prof. Michael Kloos, Aachen), have been developing strategies for culturally relevant construction in the UNESCO Wachau World Heritage Site as part of the project Process support “Mission statement for building in the Wachau World Heritage Site”.

The Wachau was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites as a cultural landscape in 2000. Now, on the basis of the management plan adopted in 2017, a harmonised strategy should be developed to control building development in the Wachau World Heritage region. To this end, a participation process was initiated in order to ensure the tight integration of players from the 15 World Heritage Wachau municipalities, from the areas of politics, business and agriculture, the local population, experts in building research and monument preservation, the city and regional planning authorities as well as local planning into the dialogue on culturally relevant construction.

So far, more than 15 key meetings have been held with stakeholders in the Wachau as well as a workshop with mayors, representatives of the Federal Monuments Office, Federal Chancellery, the provincial government as well as the working group for the protection of the Wachau and ICOMOS Austria. In May, a mayors’ workshop was held at which everyone worked on a harmonised strategy for culturally relevant construction as the basis for the future management of structural development in the Wachau. In June, 20 students on the course “Construction culture heritage” at the RheinMain University in Germany will participate for a week in a workshop entitled “Assessing and developing” on culturally relevant construction in the Wachau with reference to the pilot municipalities of Rossatz-Arnsdorf and Spitz an der Donau.