Dora Chatzi Rodopoulou
Architect Engineer and postdoctoral researcher at the University of the Aegean.
Dr. Dora Chatzi Rodopoulou is an Architect Engineer and postdoctoral researcher at the University of the Aegean. In May 2021 her doctoral dissertation entitled “Control Shift - Industrial Heritage Reuse in Review” was awarded the European Heritage Award - Europa Nostra Award, the top honor in the cultural heritage field.
The research was conducted as part of a PhD program in the Heritage & Architecture Section, AE+T, TU Delft in collaboration with the Urban Environment Laboratory of the School of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens, and was funded by an Onassis Foundation scholarship. Further financial help was provided by the British School of Athens, the Stichting Fonds Catharine van Tussenbroek, and the EU Erasmus+ programme.This doctoral research focuses on the industrial heritage reuse practice in Europe, with emphasis on the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Spain, and Greece, providing a much-needed alternative framework for its enhancement. The thesis addresses a key issue which lies at the core of any cultural heritage management policy. More specifically, it explores the range of potential tensions, dilemmas, ambiguities, and balancing between the industrial heritage values preservation, on the one hand, and the operational, financial, and social demands regarding its use, on the other.
Apart from contributing to the scientific discourse, the intention of this doctoral research is also to become a useful springboard for the practitioners that engage with industrial heritage reuse in Europe. In order to achieve that, Dr. Dora Chatzi Rodopoulou’s dissertation presents an international and retrospective review of how industrial heritage is preserved and harnessed in four European countries, allowing experience and knowledge drawn from one country in this field to inform approaches in another. Moreover, her research offers inspiration and raises awareness through the detailed analysis of twenty case studies of best practices and the ReIndustrialHeritage online platform, which constitutes an extensive digital registry with more than 150 cases of industrial heritage sites reuse across Europe.
Through a systematic analysis of European practices, the research dissertation identifies the mechanisms that decisively influence the industrial heritage reuse. Apart from the specifics and the potential use of the building sites and their surrounding space, the role of stakeholders, as well as the influence of several parts regarding the management of preservation projects and the quality of interventions, is also taken into consideration.
