Oshrat Wolfling-Assa, Ruth Liberty-Shalev & Tal Alon-Moses
In the spirit of the 1945 UNESCO Constitution, the World Heritage Committee strives to promote international cooperation. It is evident in the Committee’s support of transboundary* and transnational** properties as tools for encouraging international cooperation and improved representation of state parties and heritage themes. Thus, international cooperation does not merely aid heritage protection but also endorses UNESCO’s intents to foster ‘intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind‘ and to boost the 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development Goals.
The presentation will analyze transboundary and transnational properties on the World Heritage List and present their inscription trends and characteristics to examine whether they succeed in promoting cooperation and diversity. Our analysis will address four indicative aspects – the participants (i.e., the involved state parties and global regions); the inscription trends; heritage types (natural versus cultural); and lastly property types (transboundary versus transnational).
Our findings demonstrate a clear shift from natural transboundary properties in the 1980’s and 1990’s to cultural transnational properties in the last two decades. We will argue that despite the aspiration to promote international cooperation and improve representativity, most resulting inscriptions correspond to existing trends and inclines on the List, e.g., the dominance of the European/North American region. To conclude, we will address the proposed Erich Mendelsohn’s nomination considering our investigation.
* Transboundary property - a continuous area which extends across the borders of neighboring countries. ** Transnational property - a series of components located in the territory of different countries.
Oshrat Wolfling-Assa is a PhD Student in the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion, Israel, and a member of ICOMOS Israel. She is an active architect holding a bachelor’s degree (BArch) in architecture and a master’s degree with honors (MArchII) in architectural conservation, both from the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion.
Ruth Liberty-Shalev is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion—Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, where she leads the Conservation of Built Heritage Unit. She is also a practicing architect specializing in the conservation of archaeology and built heritage 1994 and holds an MA (cum Laude) in from Oxford Brookes University. Between 2008-2017 she served as head of the monitoring committee of the Israel National Commission to UNESCO, and on the Israeli delegation to UNESCO World Heritage Committees. Since 2022 she serves as Board member of ICOMOS Israel. Her practice, Ruth Liberty-Shalev Architecture & Conservation, is located in Haifa, Israel.
Tal Alon-Mozes is a landscape architect and Professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion—Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa. She holds a MLA degree from UC Berkeley and a PhD from the Technion. Her scope of interest includes the histories of the designed landscapes of Israel. Among her published works are two edited books on Israel’s modern landscape architects, and numerous articles.