Born in Albania and nurtured with love by students, teachers, and professionals from across the Western Balkans and beyond, the Regional Restoration Camps (RRC) are the living embodiment of Cultural Heritage without Borders’ motto “we restore and build relations.” For 15 years, the RRC have revitalised traditional knowledge and crafts while restoring buildings and instilling a sense of belonging among participants and residents – starting in one small town and now reaching across borders.
Cross-border/international
Albania
Kosovo
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Montenegro
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Serbia
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Greece
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
Yes
The RRC program received funding in 2013-2014 from the European Union (EU) under the “Preparatory actions for preserving and restoring cultural heritage in conflict areas in the Western Balkans call for proposals 131266” for the project titled “Western Balkans – From Historical Integration to Contemporary Active Participation” Contract: 2011/277-768. See more information here: https://sites.google.com/site/wbculturalheritage131266/277768
No
Yes
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Cultural Heritage without Borders Albania Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Elena Last name of representative: Mamani Gender: Female Nationality: Albania If relevant, please select your other nationality: Greece Function: Executive Director Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Rr. Ismail Qemali 34/1, Zyra 31 Town: Tirana Postal code: 1019 Country: Albania Direct Tel:+355 69 203 9190 E-mail:elena.mamani@chwb.org Website:http://chwb.org/albania/
The CHwB Regional Restoration Camps (RRC) represent a simple, successful, scalable educational model, which has grown, from 2007 to today, from a few students in Albania to 50 instances at 16 locations in six countries, with a diverse array of participants. The Camps form part of a Balkans-wide push to encourage people to value and care for their local heritage. The main objectives are to use cultural heritage to build relations among students and young professionals in the Western Balkans, creating conditions for reconciliation as a prerequisite for peace and democracy, and to promote sustainable living and a sense of belonging through the preservation of traditional crafts and techniques.
Over the course of two weeks, participants follow a rigorous but fulfilling schedule, combining theory – through engaging lectures and presentations – with hands-on restoration work on historic buildings in cities, towns, and villages in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, or Serbia. Each intervention directly helps local residents – using traditional materials and techniques to repair their valuable buildings and providing a new means of understanding, interpreting and revitalizing them.
The Camps contribute to the preservation of unique historical landscapes and promote a sense of belonging for both the participants and local residents alike. Diverse groups of participants, who come from countries across the Western Balkans and the rest of Europe, build relationships of learning and respect with each other and with the owners of the historic houses, mills, wine cellars, and other buildings that are restored. Collaboration with local universities means that students who participate in the Camps are able to apply their experience directly to their studies.
This application will demonstrate how the Regional Restoration Camps uphold the New European Bauhaus principles of sustainability, inclusivity, and beauty.
heritage
tradition
craftsmanship
learning
relationships
One of the Camps’ main objectives is to promote sustainable living and a sense of belonging through the preservation of historical places and traditional crafts and building techniques. In this regard, the learning environment created by the RRC is designed to develop participants’ competencies in ways that align with the European competence framework on sustainability. The RRC teach participants to value sustainability and think towards the future by valuing the full lifespan of buildings and materials, demonstrating the use of natural, locally sourced building materials and showing how historic buildings can be maintained and adapted rather than torn down and replaced. The blend of hands-on, interdisciplinary theory and practice helps participants - often coming from partnering public universities - embrace complexity and develop critical thinking when faced with the challenges of sourcing traditional materials and conducting interventions in historic buildings that maximize reuse and minimize destruction and waste.
In terms of the long-term sustainability of the traditional crafts taught at the RRC, the continuous employment of skilled craftspeople for the Camps (54 craftspeople over the course of the program, many employed repeatedly) supports them financially and promotes their skills as drivers of local economic activity. Introducing youngsters to traditional crafts also has long-term outcomes. Some RRC participants learn and practice these skills further. Others gain a renewed sense of appreciation for traditional and sustainable building techniques and will incorporate these into their work.
Lastly, the relationships developed with the local community and small businesses have been particularly effective at promoting sustainable practices in historic environments. Many historic homeowners have continued to care for their homes in the ways demonstrated by the RRC and have shared this knowledge with friends and neighbors.
Another key objective mentioned above is to use cultural heritage to build relations among students and young professionals, creating conditions for reconciliation as a prerequisite for peace and democracy. As the 15-year experience of the Camps has shown, this approach positively affects not only participants but trainers and local community members, as well.
RRC participants often take great pride in their hand-produced work. Whether it involves replastering a wall, conserving a painting, or restoring a stone archway, participants enjoy learning how to shape natural materials such as stone, lime plaster, and wood and use them to produce a beautiful result. At the same time, craftspeople have the satisfaction of demonstrating and passing down their expertise, as well as learning how to teach their valuable skills to a new generation. Through the RRC, owners and residents of historic buildings take renewed pride in their heritage and their role in preserving local history. As noted above, this also leads many homeowners to care for their historic homes in more thoughtful ways. Restoration work conducted at the Camps has also revealed hidden aesthetic beauty, such as an 18th century house mural that had been hidden beneath layers of limewash or an intricately carved and painted wooden ceiling that Camp participants salvaged and restored.
Another element of RRC is learning to interpret historical landscapes and cultural artefacts – in turn reviving the connection between people and place through local stories, folktales, art, and history. Through these interpretive activities and the everyday work and play of the Camps, participants share in cross-cultural exchange with each other: singing each other’s songs, cooking each other’s foods, or learning phrases and sayings in other languages. Following their RRC experience, participants commonly stay in touch and visit each other. Sometimes, even romance blossoms amidst the rasping of saws and the ringing of chisels.
Part of building relations is understanding and appreciating diversity in all its forms, something that CHwB-Albania encourages through the design of the RRC. At every Camp, participants are exposed to diverse viewpoints and knowledge from trainers and other participants who come from many different backgrounds. To encourage diverse participation, the RRC makes the experience as accessible as possible for all participants. Those attending from the Balkans do not pay any fee for the experience; their lodging, food, tuition, materials, and travel costs are covered for the duration of the Camp. Beyond a demonstrated interest in the fields of restoration, conservation, or interpretation of heritage, prerequisites for attendance are low, and the RRC welcome participants with a wide array of interests and motivations. The language of the Camps is English, which puts participants from all Western Balkan countries on an equal footing and allows for the widest range of local and international expertise in the theoretical portion of the curriculum.
Many historic sites throughout the Balkans are physically, emotionally, or intellectually inaccessible to residents and visitors alike. For CHwB, though, restoring and celebrating the historic environment does not mean that heritage must be inaccessible. Design for all is a key component of the Camps, and it is practiced in both the interpretation of historic sites and the physical restoration works.
The longer-term effects of the increased accessibility and visibility of cultural heritage through the Camps can be seen in the revival of historical sites, such as the wine-growing village of Rogljevo, Serbia (host to 7 Camps) and the UNESCO World Heritage city of Gjirokastra, Albania (host to 21 Camps). Lastly, the inclusion of master artisans in the implementation of every Camp values their experience at a place and time when many of them are underappreciated and underpaid for their highly skilled work.
The continuous implementation of RRC over 15 years has provided ample opportunities for positive feedback between the organizers and beneficiaries of the Camps. Firstly, the selection of work sites always follows local priorities and needs. In some cases, residents request that restoration work is done on their home as a part of a Camp; in other cases, CHwB-Albania works with the local bodies to determine the key interventions. Conducting 150+ interventions on historic sites has had a ripple effect, encouraging other residents to care for their historic buildings and improving the quality of the educational experience. Interventions have included individual monuments but also public spaces like the fountains in Dhoksat (Albania) or the restoration of the old bridge connecting two neighborhoods in Gjirokastra (WHS).
The RRC also contribute towards preserving and sharing local history in support of a deeper sense of belonging. In addition to the physical interventions in historical buildings, the RRCs have treated and conserved 243 artefacts for local museums, developed heritage interpretation projects, exhibitions, trails, documentation of local landmarks, performances, or children’s activities. Cultural exchange between residents and participants is enriching for both. To quote Monda Jaho Babaramo, owner of a house in Gjirokastra, Albania that has hosted several RRC projects: “Wonderful experience. It is an exchange of different cultures. They bring their culture, and we show them ours.”
In addition to being a local civil society organization (CSO) itself, CHwB-Albania partners with other local CSOs wherever the RRC are held. This leads to a more sustainable long-term initiative as momentum builds through relationships based on trust and shared accomplishment, as well as shared funding and expertise. Former RRC participants have also founded new CSOs and initiatives in their hometowns and countries, drawing on the skills they learned at the Camps.
A key strength of the RRC is their blending of local and international expertise in response to local needs. This integrated stakeholder engagement opens up new avenues of communication and understanding amongst different types of stakeholders (educational, governmental, community) and on different scales, resulting in further engagement with these stakeholders beyond the RRC. The following is an overview of the variety of stakeholders that CHwB engages in designing and implementing the Camps (see supporting documents for more):
Local: As explained above, local residents are integral to the success of the RRC and participate in the process from an early stage – primarily in volunteering their historic homes as sites for restoration work but also sometimes hosting participants. Master craftspeople are often from the Camp location or nearby. They consult on the works to be conducted and guide and supervise participants in the hands-on element of the RRC. Local institutions consult on local heritage priorities and sometimes contribute classroom space.
Regional: Regional cultural directorates and agencies work with CHwB to identify priorities for interventions and provide governmental oversight of the works. Often they its their craftspersons who lead the the working groups.
National: Ministries of Culture and relevant national heritage bodies suggest priorities and then review and approve the restoration works prior to the start of the Camp. These bodies occasionally also send experts to lecture. CHwB also cooperates with universities, which have provided lecturers and, in some cases, integrated the RRC into their degree programs.
International: Experts in a wide variety of fields (see list below) come from around the Western Balkans, the EU, and sometimes further to give lectures and organize hands-on workshops with Camp participants. Many of them have been working with the RRC for years and are integral to shaping and refining the curriculum.
With the goal of providing holistic insight into the ways that cultural heritage can contribute to sustainable living, dialogue, reconciliation, and a sense of belonging, CHwB adopted a transdisciplinary approach in developing the curriculum for the RRC. Disciplinary knowledge represented in the Camps includes, among others: Anthropology, Architecture, Art and Design, Conservation, Engineering, Entrepreneurship, Heritage Interpretation, Heritage Management, Historic Preservation, History, Museum Studies, and Urban Planning. Courses taught by experts from these disciplines include: introduction to cultural heritage management and conservation; principles of site documentation; understanding applied materials (stone, wood, mud plasters, mortars and renders) in historical structures; environmental effects of materials; spatial planning and historic properties; and interpretation of cultural heritage, to name a few. The consultants who come to give lectures nearly always stay through the afternoon and evening to visit the work sites and provide guidance on hands-on exercises, which include surveying, analytical sketching, mortar segregation analysis, decay reporting, value analysis, and interpretation models.
This list of courses and disciplines intentionally incorporates both those that focus on ‘hard interventions,’ such as Engineering and Architecture, and those that focus on ‘soft interventions,’ such as Anthropology and Heritage Interpretation. A unique feature of the Camps is that participants are exposed to the technical skills needed both for conducting physical restorations and for understanding and conveying the values and meanings of historic places. These themes are not separated but studied simultaneously during the Camps. This transdisciplinary focus also provides consultants from various fields with opportunities to meet each other and discuss synergies in their work, contributing to a collegial atmosphere ripe for the spread of innovative ideas.
The RRC represent a new model for training a diverse group of students and young professionals on a rich variety of topics, which conveys local, regional and rights-based approaches to cultural heritage conservation. While the RRC are not the only training initiative related to cultural heritage in the region, they are the most diverse and longest running. RRC are innovative for their combination of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ investments in the local communities where they are held, as well as the rare opportunity for participants to gain hands-on experience working with real, listed monuments of culture, under the guidance of master craftspeople.
CHwB has observed that it often takes 3 to 5 years of relationship-building and trust for the longer-lasting effects of a project to emerge, and many mainstream projects are not able to maintain a commitment long enough for real positive change to occur. In contrast, the long-term implementation of the RRC has allowed for uniquely deep and meaningful place-based engagement. Most of the chosen locations have hosted the RRC more than once, and the core location Gjirokastra, Albania has hosted more than 20 Camps over the course of 15 years.
Another innovation of the RRC is tying heritage-based training to peace and reconciliation (see Hadžić & Eaton 2017). The links that were cut by the wars of the 1990s are slowly being restored through the Camps’ focus on peacebuilding through building relations, which began with Albania as buffer zone and space for reconciliation. For example, the first Camps in Gjirokastra provided the neutral space for Serbian participants to work with Albanian Kosovar craftsmen, two of whom then travelled to teach at the RRC in Rogljevo, Serbia, their first trip to Serbia since the 1999 war in Kosovo. Building something together at the RRC requires cooperation among people from diverse backgrounds. When two people are focusing on the technical issues at hand, they leave their ethnic differences behind
One of the greatest things about the RRC model is its replicability in other contexts. The versatility of the Camps has been demonstrated through the diversity of contexts within which they have been implemented, from large cities like Prishtina (Kosovo) to smaller cities like Gjirokastra or Shkodra (Albania) to villages like Rogljevo (Serbia), Lëpushë (Albania), or Krivi Do (Montenegro). The curriculum of the RRC is also adaptable, able to be adjusted to highlight different heritage practices according to local needs. In the past, the Camps have deployed their unique blend of theory and practice to teach historical crafts, building restoration, artefact conservation, heritage interpretation, heritage entrepreneurship, or a blend of these skills. In terms of size, RRC have been implemented with as few as 9 and as many as 50 participants at a time.
While the RRC were shaped by the environment of the Western Balkans, their approach will be beneficial in places far beyond. In many parts of the world, ethnic tensions are growing, and people are losing their deep connections to place and their knowledge of sustainable traditional crafts and building techniques. The RRC offers a model for bringing people from diverse backgrounds together to restore relations with both people and place. In fact, the RRC has been the subject of a professional evaluation exercise that produced just that – a model of the Camps that outlines the guiding principles, resources, activities, and outcomes that define the program (see supporting documents). Other organizations can adapt this model to their needs and context, and several have already begun to do so.
Four main pillars of CHwB’s approach to the RRC have guided the work and made the program so successful. The first is the Camps’ multi-disciplinary curriculum that combines theoretical knowledge (given by leading experts in the fields of heritage restoration, conservation, documentation, and interpretation) and practical experience (guided by those same experts, as well as master craftspeople). These are innovative pedagogical methods, particularly for the Western Balkan region.
Second, the RRC contribute real, tangible benefits to the local community – most notably physical restoration work on historic buildings but also ideas and plans for heritage interpretation and, in some instances, conservation of historic artefacts. These tangible outcomes contribute towards a sense of belonging and raise awareness about the value of cultural heritage as a key element of sustainable communities. Crucially, the Camps demonstrate that a building does not need to be new to physically transform a community for the better.
Third, as explained above, the Camps aim towards intercultural peacebuilding through building relations amongst participants from diverse backgrounds. The RRC are generally (though not always) held in a village or small-town context – which aids bonding and relationship-building among participants and contributes to heritage preservation and restoration efforts in places that are often overlooked.
Fourth, the RRC are seen to be integral, rather than tangential, to participants’ broader educational goals. While sheer numbers are one indication of increasing impact, long-term success is being secured by integrating the Camps as a practical part of university curricula in the region. University integration is vital in educating the next generation of restoration professionals by giving them much-needed hands-on practice and encouraging high quality standards.
As should be clear throughout this application, local solutions to global challenges infuse and drive the Camps. The following are three of the global challenges that the RRC address:
1. Unsustainable growth: Many of the materials and techniques most commonly used in construction are ecologically costly to produce, transport, and apply. By using natural and local building materials and traditional craft techniques, the RRC highlight the values of sustainable traditional building techniques and encourage participants to think creatively about ways to adapt and combine new and old.
2. Ethnic division: Intercultural dialogue is one of the focal points of the Camps and one of the main means by which this activity is promoting peace and reconciliation in the Western Balkans. The immersive cultural atmosphere of the RRC encourages the growth of deep and lasting relationships between people and place and promotes an understanding of cultural diversity, which is meant to flourish into an appreciation of cultural freedom and support the concept of a ‘right to culture’.
3. Alienation from place: Many projects that aim to promote the cultural heritage of Southeast Europe do so through the lens of tourism – promoting the region as a beautiful/exciting/historic tourist destination. In contrast, CHwB’s activities promote Albania and the other countries where the Camps are located through a training activity that facilitates deeper encounters amongst people and between people and cultural heritage. In the case of the Camps, participants are not only visiting a historic city. They are living, working and touching the heart of the historic centre, seeing for themselves both the bright and the dark sides of heritage in the Balkans and lending their conservation work a sense of purpose. This kind of experience (as opposed to the tourist trip) builds lasting professional and personal connections across cultures – for participants, residents, and all involved.
The RRC are a mature, on-going program that has had a deep impact on many people and places across the Western Balkans and beyond. From 2007 to 2022, 50 Camps have been conducted, with more planned to take place in the future. Each Camp is a self-contained activity, providing participants with a comprehensive set of lectures on restoration materials and techniques and ensuring that the planned restoration interventions for each Camp are fully completed. However, while each Camp realizes individual results in terms of monuments maintained, students trained and connections made, the real value of the Camps is in their cumulative impact. While other sections of this application have outlined the long-term impact of the RRC, the scope of progress is perhaps most quickly captured in the numbers. As of January 2023:
• 50 Camps held
• 16 Locations in 6 countries (see top of application for details)
• 150+ Restoration interventions completed
• 1,032 Participants from 26 countries (84% from the Western Balkans)
• 62,800 Estimated total hours of practical work
In 2014, the RRC were recognized with the prestigious Europa Nostra Award in the category of Education, Training and Awareness-Raising (no monetary prize).
In future years, CHwB Albania will build on this success to deepen its engagement in areas where the Camps are active while constantly looking for new potential locations in the Western Balkans and neighboring EU countries. With the active involvement of its alumni and partners' base, novel formats are being tested with the aim of exploring the links between heritage, design, arts and culture based entrepreneurship, handicrafts and placemaking, all important elements in the larger picture of the efforts to rediscover and engrain a sense of belonging in citizens.
While the written response to the prompt on “key objectives … in terms of sustainability” outlines narratively how the objectives and practices of the Regional Restoration Camps align with the European competence framework on sustainability, this section will quote from the relevant documents to demonstrate the specific competencies that the Camps promote.
As noted above, the RRC teach participants to: 1) ‘value sustainability,’ by valuing the full lifespan of buildings and materials; 2) ‘embrace complexity in sustainability’ by deploying ‘systems thinking,’ ‘critical thinking,’ and ‘problem framing’ in the way participants collaborate to work on their restoration project; and 3) ‘envision sustainable futures’ through ‘futures literacy’ surrounding the role of heritage in future urban environments, a focus on the ‘adaptability’ of historic buildings as a key element of locally-driven sustainability, and ‘exploratory thinking’ as participants come up with creative ways to blend past wisdom with future-focused goals.
The RRC approaches learning in line with the European Union’s guidelines on Learning for the Green Transition, with a focus on “teaching and learning that is hands-on, interdisciplinary and relevant to local contexts” (https://education.ec.europa.eu/focus-topics/green-education/learning-for-the-green-transition). And consistent with GreenComp recommendations (p. 17), the RRC practice transformative learning that involves “cognitive (head), psychomotor (hands) and affective (heart)” methods to encourage critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration.
