URBAN TALK
July 7, 2015 | 18.00 Uhr | Room HBS 103

Pimpin de Azevedo
Conversation of Leh Old Town and Lhasa – Challenges and lessons learned

Since 1996 Tibet Heritage Fund (THF) has been working in the conservation of Tibetan and Himalayan towns, settlements and monuments. In Lhasa THF developed a community based conservation approach that has been reproduced in Leh Old Town since 2003. The THF conservation approach follows the principle that old cities need to be conserved as ‘living heritage’, which means not only to consider the building itself but to involve inhabitants to sustain the cultural aspects of the old cities. This approach tries to keep as much as possible of the original building and facade and at the same time to improve the living conditions of the inhabitants, sometimes involving new functions for the houses.

This lecture will present the THF conservation concept applied to Leh Old Town, and will compare the situation of preservation of vernacular architecture in Leh with that in the old city of Lhasa.

Pimpim de Azevedo is a Portuguese artist and Tibetan architecture conservator. She received her Masters degree in Heritage Sciene from the University College of London. Together with André Alexander, Pimpim established and managed the Tibet Heritage Fund (THF) in Lhasa and she has been working with THF from that time up to the present day.

Pimpim worked in the preservation of the old city of Lhasa, also taking part in architecture conservation projects in Amdo, Kham, Mongolia and India.  From 1995 to 2004 she studied with Tibetan master builders, learning different building techniques and materials used in traditional Tibetan houses and temples. During that time she did research on Tibetan architectural terminology and traditional techniques and materials used prior to the 1950s. 

The lecture series "Urban Talks" is jointly organized by the Habitat Unit and the Urban Management Program at Technical University Berlin.

Room HBS 103, TU Berlin
Hardenbergstraße 16-18
10623 Berlin