November 26/27: Industrial Heritage and Sustainability – New Approaches to our Legacy

In its ninth edition, the Berlin Forum for Industrial Heritage and Society addresses questions of climate protection and sustainability. In this context, objects and sites associated with industrial culture provide multiple approaches. They stand for innovation and pioneering spirit, but also for a past shaped by environmentally harmful resource depletion as well as social inequality. The forum is divided into two parts: The conference on 26 November offers (also online) exciting lectures and discussions, the validity of which can be reviewed on the following day during joint excursions.

Essentially, the aim is to apply sustainability criteria more closely to key aspects of industrial heritage, such as conservation and conversion. How can sites steeped in industrial culture become the cradle of a new age of economic activity and production? How, in the best case, can they become beacons for active climate protection and sustainability?

The Forum aims first and foremost to bring together people who are not only interested in these issues on a theoretical level. Rather, it is to be a meeting of people who, on their own responsibility, dedicate themselves to sustainable projects and concepts with a sensitive will to create. The aim is to exchange experiences and suggestions, an appreciation of the work of pioneers and the establishment of new networks in the region and beyond.

As always, the event is hosted by the Berlin Centre for Industrial Culture (bzi). This year, the Forum will be hybrid: face-to-face at the HTW Berlin, Campus Wilhelminenhof, and as a digital conference via Zoom. Thanks to the support of ERIH, online guests will be able to benefit from an English interpretation of lectures and discussions. The excursion on Saturday will take participants to industrial heritage sites in Berlin that are committed to sustainability, including the Malzfabrik, the ufaFabrik and the Ökowerk.

Programme (in German and English) and registration