Reclaiming Heritage
About
Reclaiming Heritage is a worldwide collective team of volunteers and students based in Berlin, with projects in Chanco, Chile and Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti. We have cooperation projects with the Technische Universität Berlin, the P. Universidad Católica de Chile and funding from public and private donors.
Reclaiming Heritage aims at exploring the potentials of using reclaimed building materials for a sensitive post-disaster reconstruction that includes cultural values and the retention of heritage by means of material reuse and recycling. The main problem addressed is the relevance of the use of reclaimed materials in current contexts, underlining the economy of resources and architectural values of building with recovered materials, as opposed to a reconstruction based on new, more expensive materials. Reclamation of building elements from damaged heritage architecture slighted for demolition could help counter the losses of traditional building culture that continued to be perpetuated through the people who valued those structures, the crafts people who maintained them, and the community that shared knowledge about that trade. Re-using architectural components requires those networks, their values, and understanding of past practices to be continued.
