Tai Kwun Conversations: IN OUR HANDS Series–Heritage in Times of War

Dr. Maxime Decaudin teaches landscape architecture at the National University of Singapore and holds a PhD in Art History from Sorbonne Université. His research interests include environmental history, landscape and heritage studies. Titled ‘A Barren Rock’: An Environmental History of Hong Kong Landscapes under British Colonization, his doctoral dissertation explores the historical agency of nature in the long nineteenth century. Prior to joining NUS, Maxime taught landscape architecture at the University of Hong Kong for ten years.

Founded in Paris 20 years ago, Atelier Sylvain Roca is a mobile studio based on research, creation and global encounters. Through the growing flexibility of lifestyle and work — prior to the recent upheavals caused by the global crises —the workshop’s practice is driven by a certain curiosity and an appetite for lasting immersion in a geographical and cultural elsewhere. It draws advantage from its ever-increasing ability to explore the opportunities and possibilities created by these discoveries and unexpected encounters. It draws advantage from its ever-increasing ability to explore the opportunities and possibilities created by these discoveries and unexpected encounters.

The workshop's deliberately diverse range of challenges includes scenographic and architectural concepts that are always tailor-made and imbued with poetry. They reflect our curiosity, commitment and desire to dream. They constantly stimulate and nourish our enthusiasm to imagine and materialise. The scenography workshop designs architectural arrangements, for temporary and permanent exhibitions, in France and around the world, notably at the Musée d'Orsay and the Grand Palais in Paris, the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, the British Museum in London, and the Heritage Museum in Hong Kong. A scenographer and interior designer, Sylvain Roca trained in applied arts in Paris, Montreal and Tokyo.

The workshop brings together independent talents from multiple backgrounds, experiences and generations.

Since 2013, Yves Ubelmann is president and co-founder of Iconem, specialised in digitalisation of 3D rendering of cultural heritage sites in danger. Graduated from the National School of Architecture in Versailles in 2006, Yves has worked as an architect in the Near East and in Central Asia (Syria, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan) for the study and interpretation of archaeological sites. This experience has led to the development of a technological approach to study archaeological sites by digital imaging.

Iconem is currently active in around thirty countries to promote the conservation of cultural heritage threatened by looting, urbanisation, mass tourism, armed conflicts, and climate change. His team develops very large-scale digitised solutions for natural and cultural sites, allowing their recording at very high resolution. Iconem works with various governments, museums, or international institutions such as UNESCO.

Dr. Bastien Varoutsikos is a cultural heritage expert and archaeologist, with over 12 years of experience in implementation of heritage projects in the Middle East, the Sahel and Central Asia. He received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from Harvard University in May 2015. He is currently the Director for Strategic Development at the ALIPH Foundation where he oversees the implementation of new axes of work such as the intersection of climate change and cultural heritage. As Deputy Director then Cultural Heritage Advisor for Turquoise Mountain, he managed the implementation of projects aiming at the documentation and protection of cultural heritage in Afghanistan and Jordan. As Director of Development at Iconem, he oversaw the implementation of scientific and preservation projects using remote sensing technology in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Overall, his activities have focused on scientific and cultural outreach, intangible heritage documentation methodology and ethics, and cultural project management. Across more than a dozen papers published in peer-reviewed journals or broad audience outlets, he explored the relationship between cultural heritage, politics, media and new technology.