Foreword by the castle captain
Dear Reader, dear Colleagues,
in my role as Burghauptmann, I would like to welcome you to the first Projectworld Newsletter of Burghauptmannschaft Oesterreich.
Since 2013, Burghauptmannschaft Oesterreich has submitted a number of EU projects and some of them have actually been approved. As a result, important requests of further education in the field of maintenance of historic buildings could be tackled and implemented.
In addition to the EU projects, Burghauptmannschaft has also given space to other innovative ideas and artistic expressions, achieving versatile and exciting synergies.
Employees, tenants, project partners and the general public have benefited from all these project initiatives and will continue to do so. Once kicked, the ball rolls and there are always new ideas and goals that are worth pursuing.
In 2016, Imperial Palace Vienna was awarded the European Heritage Label at the request of Burghauptmannschaft Österreich. As a result of our active role among the award-winning sites, we have recently become coordinator of the EHL @Network, a structure that will provide valuable expertise and tools to all existing and future bearers of the heritage label, supporting them in mastering their Cultural Heritage mission.
In the new Projectworld Newsletter, we inform you about our previous and ongoing activities, disseminate our EU projects and content, and contribute to even better networking in the emerging new Cultural Heritage sector.
Support us in our future tasks by sending in your contributions, wishes and suggestions. We are happy to offer you a platform for sharing and networking..
Please send suggestions, wishes and possible contributions to projektwelt@burghauptmannschaft.at
Reinhold Sahl
Burghauptmann
| Did you know that... that Reinhold Sahl is in office as Burghauptmann (captain of the castle) since 2010, seated in the Imperial Palace Vienna. A function that can be traced back to the medieval burgrave's office, as well as to the office of a Roman Praefectus Castrorum. With relative certainty, this office exists at least since 1530, but is also mentioned before as early as 1443. This makes the captain's position one of the historically longest existing in Europe, if not worldwide. This goes along with a great responsibility for the Historical Heritage of Austria and its maintenance. More about the history of the Burghauptmannschaft Austria can be found here. |
The Big Step - the first EU project of Burghauptmannschaft Oesterreich
In 2014 it became reality: this MODI-FY project application in the brand new programme Erasmus + was approved by the Austrian National Agency and thus laid the foundation for the following project activities of Burghauptmannschaft Oesterreich.
The main goal of MODI-FY (Maintaining Historic Buildings and Objects through Developing and Up-grading Individual Skills of Project Managers: Fostering European Heritage and Culture for Years to come – Maintenance of Historic Buildings and Objects by Developing and Improving Individual Capabilities of Project Managers: Promoting European Heritage and Culture for the Future) was to give maintenance managers and maintenance assistant managers for historic buildings (referred to in the application as project managers and assistant project managers) the opportunity to acquire the required certified skills and competences expected and anticipated by responsible organisations / authorities.
These include
- recognition of previous learning and already available skills
- blended learning offer for Project Managers and Assistant Project Managers for Historic Objects
- Train-the-Trainer training for specialists in the maintenance of historical buildings
- establishment of a European certificate issued by ECQA - European Certification and Qualification Association
It was hard work to derive and define a unified system from 7 national terminologies and terms. Long discussions and explanations were necessary to provide the basis for relevant learning content and certification.
In autumn of 2017, it was done: MODI-FY modules were available and the first courses were held under the umbrella of the newly created The European Heritage Academy (EHA).
Occasionally the way there was stony - it was a challenge to harmonise the everyday work with the project requirements. The learning curve of staff was also steep and going upwards, with a few short slumps due to the challenging project activities.
But in the end, everyone was satisfied with the result - the project partners, as the MODI-FY modules cover the training needs of maintenance managers, the National Agency, as the project results correspond to the proposed activities in the application and the users of the project website or certification platform, as finally their informal and non-formally acquired skills are also recognised.
More about the project MODI-FY can be found here.
The Great Future - the national follow-up project The European Heritage Academy
Based on MODI-FY elements, The European Heritage Academy, founded in late 2017, acts as a hub for the systematic further education of maintenance managers throughout the European Union and is constantly being expanded.
Behind the EHA, as the Academy is briefly referred to, stand Burghauptmannschaft Oesterreich and the Bundesdenkmalamt Oesterreich/Monument Office (BDA) as bearers who have responded to the growing need for further education in the field of Historic Buildings.
For a long time, the training aspect in responsible organisations was rather neglected or left to the leaders or even the individual employees. In addition, the at the time called Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs, whose area of responsibility includes Burghauptmannschaft Oesterreich, was given responsibility for their own basic technical training. Thus, this could not sufficiently cover the special requirements of Historic Buildings.
Burghauptmann Reinhold Sahl, however, wanted to ensure that existing knowledge and competencies are, on the one hand, recorded and maintained in the organisation, while at the same time necessary further education steps are set in a structured and planned way. So, the idea for the MODI-FY project was born.
After completion of MODI-FY the task was to make these existing learning elements and courses available to a wider circle of maintenance managers, which led to the founding of The European Heritage Academy, EHA for short.
EHA offers a Europe-wide accredited, certified advanced training at EQF level 4 and 5, which will be increasingly required in public tenders in the future. Trainings combine many years of experience in the maintenance of historical monuments, as well as in the field of training and further education, thus enabling rapid learning success in a pleasant learning environment. The objectives are to communicate the current state of architectural conservation and the necessary competences for owners as well as maintenance managers of Historic Buildings. Therefore, in addition to the training and certifications or validations, ongoing update workshops are offered. This way EHA creates the pre-condition for perfect learning results and highest customer satisfaction.
In addition to the modules developed in the MODI-FY project, the Academy offers training in traditional crafts, as foreseen in the PRO-Heritage project, and other relevant educational elements derived from other current and future (EU) projects.
Beside those, Federal State Days are organised, which offer participants from the federal states and neighbouring German-speaking countries the opportunity to network and exchange expertise.
EHA courses are offered on an ongoing basis and, together with online learning, form the basis for certification by ECQA - European Certification and Qualification Association (www.ecqa.org), an Austrian-based international association.
Find more information about The European Heritage Academy here.
The Big Surprise - the Horizon 2020 project PRO-Heritage
In June 2017, Burghauptmannschaft Oesterreich had submitted a project proposal for Horizon 2020, which landed on the waiting list with more than 90% points achieved. Hardly anyone remembered it at the end of 2018 ...
And then suddenly, out of the blue, the approval for PRO-Heritage came; a project that seeks to provide training to professionals and craftsmen that conciliates traditional competencies and skills for optimising energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy in historically built heritage. The learning elements are based on best practices of the partner organisations. In addition, PRO-Heritage Protect traditional built Heritage skills - creates a structure and environment for regular exchanges of journeymen across Europe to learn from each other, to share and exchange competencies and skills.
The main objectives of PRO-Heritage are
• the protection of traditional skills and capabilities for built Cultural Heritage, which are important for energy efficiency and renewable energy
• the need to involve adequately trained and skilled professionals and craftsmen in "gentle" conservation, maintenance and ongoing care
• the need to certify these professionals and craftsmen to enable them for recognition of their competences, skills and abilities.
Achieving greater energy efficiency in Historic Buildings is seen as a WIN-WIN Situation for everyone - owners have lower energy bills, residents enjoy modern comfort at reasonable prices, and society reduces overall energy consumption and carbon footprint, which is inevitable in these times.
The Horizon 2020 Project PRO-Heritage started in February 2019 and you can find more about the project here
The Big Task - the Cultural Heritage Label and the EHL@Network
In 2016, Imperial Palace Vienna was awarded with the European Heritage Label, or EHL for short. Since 2013, the European Union is excelling sites that are symbolic of Europe's shared history, unification and identity. These include monuments, memorials, archaeological and industrial sites, cultural landscapes, cultural assets or intangible cultural heritage.
The label focuses on European achievements and values such as peace, freedom, democracy, the rule of law, tolerance and solidarity, bridging historical events with the present.
To date, 38 sites have been awarded EU-wide, including Imperial Palace Vienna (2016) and Carnuntum (2014). Among others, Schengen and the Maastricht Treaty were added throughout the 2017 selection round (source: https://www.creativeeurope.at/eu-kulturpolitik/europaeisches-kulturerbe-siegel.html ).
Since the award ceremony, Burghauptmannschaft Oesterreich has also been actively involved in what used to be the informal network of EHL bearers.
So, when the call for an official EHL network was available at the end of 2018, as logical consequence a proposal was a must - even though the submission deadline was January 3rd (!). Thus, Christmas holiday good bye ...
With great ambition, a comprehensive project proposal with a total of 19 bearing organisations of EHL sites as partners and a further 10 as associated partners was developed and submitted - and became successful.
The EHL@N project is just about raring to go and will pick up speed in the coming months - more on that in the next newsletter.
Flashlight - BIMherit
Burghauptmannschaft Oesterreich is not only active as an applicant and project partner in (EU) projects. In many cases, it acts as a client, venue or, in case of BIMherit, as demand carrier or consumer, meaning Imperial Palace Vienna is virtually involved as "guinea pig" or pilot location.
BIMherit is a project funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) with the aim of producing a guideline for the introduction of BIM (Building Information Modelling) especially for Historical Buildings. It contains concrete guidelines for the introduction of BIM in Historical Buildings in Austria and should generally be applicable in listed buildings. The basis for this is a clear definition and function of BIM for Cultural Heritage, the derivation and definition of BIM interfaces to internal IT systems and involved contractors (construction companies, restorers, planners, architects, etc.).
BIMherit explores, with the involvement of various stakeholders, whether BIM is the right or the best way to model and document objects such as Historical Buildings. The project's approach to innovation and project operation allows for a reasoned decision on continuation if, after analysing the problem and the market or describing the BIM functions and the appropriate use for Cultural Heritage, it becomes clear that BIM is inappropriate. The continuation of the project with funding was approved by the FFG and will even entail a follow-up project in which the BIMherit results are being implemented.
BIMherit will be completed in September 2019 and you can also find information about the project here.
| Current EHA course dates: 12.-14.11.2019 Module 3: Heritage Management A 14.-16.01.2020 Module 4: Heritage Management B Update workshops by appointment Here you can register for the desired modules and dates. |
