Strengthening Architectural Heritage Protection Education via Erasmus+ SAH project

On September 13-14, Erasmus+ “Capacity Building in Sustainability of Architectural Heritage” (SAH) project consortium met at the National University of Architecture and Construction of Armenia (NUACA) to continue discussions on the project progress and the decisions of the Governance Board.  SAH  was launched in 2021 and will be run for 36 months by the representatives of University of L’Aquila (Coordinator, Italy), National Technical University of Athens (Greece), Tabriz Islamic Art University (Iran), Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen University (RWTH, Germany), National University of Architecture and Construction of Armenia (NUACA), Goris State University (GorSU),  and Armenian Union of Architects.

Armenia has a thousand-year-old and rich historical-cultural heritage, hence Armenian partner teams of SAH consortium attach great importance to the exchange of practice and experience with the European and Iranian partners in the field of preservation and restoration of cultural heritage.

The aim of SAH capacity building project is to update and improve the architectural heritage and protection curricula of Armenian and Iranian Universities while ensuring the sustainability of the architectural heritage. Local teams have been working on introducing new subjects/modules, as well as to create a new interdisciplinary teaching model for the field of architectural heritage for Bachelor and Master study programs.  6 modules to be fully developed and taught at the National University of Architecture and Construction of Armenia (Yerevan) and Goris State University (Goris, Syunik) include:

1. Digital Technology for Heritage

2. Theory and Methodology of Preservation of Architectural Heritage

3. Surveys for Heritage

4. Historical Materials and Technologies for their Conservation

5. Historic Building Conservation

6. Cultural Significance of Heritage

In order to make the architectural heritage protection discipline more sustainable, the introduction of these  modules in NUACA is aimed to lead to the development of a new program in Architectural Heritage – one of the first of its kind in Armenia. Participation of Armenian Union of Architects in SAH project helps to strengthen the architectural heritage conservation education by providing guidance on national professional standards and facilitating their introduction into the new curricula.