This September, the European Heritage Days invite us to reflect on “Heritage at Risk: Revive, Resist, Reimagine”, a call to safeguard the traditions, skills and places that shape Europe’s identity. The Council of Europe recognises culture and cultural heritage as essential to democracy, social resilience and citizen participation.
At Mad’in Europe, we see that heritage lives through the people who practise, preserve and transmit it. At the CRAFTOUR Conference, organised by Mad’in Europe at the European Parliament, Alfonso Pallavicini, President of European Historic Houses, highlighted the growing shortage of skilled heritage artisans:
“One key issue is to get the young people back to passionate work and make them understand how beautiful it is to restore something invaluable because actually it won't exist anymore if you cannot repair it.”
REVIVE, RESIST AND REIMAGINE are three complementary ways of keeping our cultural heritage diverse and alive: resisting through legal, political and community action; reviving by demonstrating heritage values to contemporary society; and reimagining heritage at the intersection of interdisciplinary research, design and creativity.
The stories and initiatives featured in this newsletter bring these three actions to life through the voices of craftspeople, architects, educators, heritage professionals and organisations. Across their different approaches, one essential thread connects them all: education and transmission. Because without passing knowledge, skills and values from one generation to the next, there can be no lasting resistance, revival or reimagination of our living heritage.
The European Heritage Days, From a French initiative to a Europe-wide celebration
1984 · FRANCE :
The French Ministry of Culture launches the first “Open House Day in Historic Monuments”, inviting the public to discover places usually closed to visitors.
1985 · GOING EUROPEAN :
Following its success, France proposes extending the initiative across Europe. The idea is embraced by the Council of Europe, encouraging other countries to launch their own Heritage Days.
1991 · A EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK :
As more countries join, the Council of Europe establishes common principles and coordination, bringing the different national initiatives together under the European Heritage Days programme.
1999 · A JOINT EUROPEAN PROGRAMME :
The European Union joins the Council of Europe as co-organiser, making the European Heritage Days a joint European programme under the permanent slogan “Europe, a common heritage.”
Reimagining How Craft Reaches the Next Generation
Understanding a threat only matters if it inspires action, starting with the next generation. This is exactly what the MINDCRAFTS project, coordinated by Mad’in Europe, set out to do: bringing heritage crafts into schools so that children encounter these skills early. By helping young people discover making through direct experience, the project sought to REVIVE interest in craft and REIMAGINE how heritage skills can be introduced and transmitted through education. Its guidebook remains a practical resource for teachers and trainers wishing to pass on a taste for heritage to the next generation.
Keeping Vernacular Thatching Alive
Heritage-related trades are not immune to change. In its 2025 Red List of Endangered Crafts, Heritage Crafts classifies Welsh vernacular thatching as critically endangered. For more than four decades, master thatcher Alan Jones has worked to REVIVE this tradition, showing how vernacular thatching is part of a circular local system where the same crops can provide both food and shelter. In our interview, he explains how keeping this knowledge alive can also RESIST the loss of local materials, farming knowledge, landscapes and the community connections built around them.
From 25 to 27 September, Alan will bring this knowledge to Tuscany for a three-day hands-on workshop near Massa Marittima, organised in collaboration with ARUNDO | Costruzioni Organiche.
Reconnecting Architects and Craftspeople
Transmission also depends on creating places where knowledge can be practised, shared and passed on. In Westhoffen, a small village in Alsace, Noé Morin and Nadia Everard, founders of La Table Ronde de l’Architecture, have opened a new school that brings architects and craftspeople back together. By placing traditional techniques, materials and hands-on learning at the heart of architectural education, the school seeks to REVIVE a shared culture of building and REIMAGINE how architects are trained for the future. We spoke with Noé about the vision behind this new school.
Who Keeps Heritage Alive?
To mark European Heritage Days, we met Virgil Declercq, a recent architecture graduate now studying law. Founder of Communauté Historia, board member of the Union des Artisans du Patrimoine (UAP) and author of HÉRITAGE, he advocates for a vision of heritage that goes beyond preserving the past. From RESISTING the disappearance of everyday heritage to REIMAGINING how architecture can reconnect with territories, local materials and craftspeople, we spoke with him about the role younger generations can play in keeping heritage alive and transmitting it forward.
Resisting to Preserve Alsace’s Living Heritage
Denis Elbel, President of ASMA – Association pour la Sauvegarde de la Maison Alsacienne, takes us through the remarkable heritage of Alsace’s traditional houses, from their local materials and ingenious construction to the challenges of adapting them today. But safeguarding goes further than restoration: ASMA advises owners, works with craftspeople and architects, engages with local policymakers and, when necessary, takes action to prevent demolitions. Through different examples, Denis shows what it takes to keep this living heritage standing for future generations.
Non-formal learning can become an act of RESISTANCE. Through workshops, apprenticeships, community initiatives and direct transmission, craft knowledge continues to live, adapt and circulate, often outside formal education systems. The BRICKS project investigates these learning models and their complementarity with formal education, with the aim of developing recommendations for their better recognition and support by public authorities. Recognising non-formal education means helping to REVIVE endangered knowledge while strengthening the people, places and communities that transmit it to future generations.
The Roof : The First Line of Defence
Historic roofs are the first to RESIST the elements, quietly protecting Europe’s built heritage, yet the traditional skills needed to maintain them are increasingly rare. Architect Marco Ermentini explains why we must REVIVE these crafts and the knowledge behind them: safeguarding a building also means safeguarding the people and skills capable of caring for it.
From Understanding to Action
Facing this reality, concrete solutions exist, starting with understanding the sector before knowledge is lost. To RESIST the existing challenges, we first need to understand Europe’s crafts, their value, their ecosystems and the challenges they face. This is at the heart of CRAFTOUR’s Understanding & Valorisation objective: documenting crafts, raising awareness of their value and identifying those at risk. This knowledge can then inform policies and concrete actions to REVIVE Europe’s craft heritage and strengthen its transmission.
Reimagining Stained Glass Beyond Lead
How can traditional stained-glass craftsmanship RESIST changing safety and environmental requirements without losing its knowledge and techniques? As stricter rules on lead create new challenges for small workshops, Cerfav is helping to REIMAGINE the future of the craft. Working with artisans and researchers, it is developing and testing lead-free alloys, bringing craft, science and sustainability together to ensure that traditional knowledge adapts to today’s regulatory and safety challenges.
Reimagining Historic Buildings for Today
Research helps preserve traditional knowledge, but heritage also evolves through practice. Through projects such as the rehabilitation of Porto’s historic Mercado do Bolhão, Nuno Valentim Arquitectura shows how we can REIMAGINE historic buildings for contemporary needs while respecting their identity, materials and cultural significance. Adaptation, in this sense, becomes a way to REVIVE heritage by keeping it relevant, useful and alive.
Reimagining Traditional Crafts and Built Heritage
In this conversation, award-winning architect-conservator Elena Vasic Petrovic addresses a crucial dilemma facing heritage today: how can stone-slab roofing techniques and nail-free timber framing RESIST in an era of short project deadlines and rigid construction laws? She shares expert insights on how to REIMAGINE the relationship between traditional crafts and built heritage, so that these skills can continue to have a place in contemporary conservation.
The stories gathered in this newsletter show that keeping heritage alive is a collective endeavour. Craftspeople, educators, architects, researchers, associations, communities and public authorities all have a role to play in creating the conditions in which knowledge can continue to be practised, shared and adapted.
As Lodovico Folin, Director of the UNESCO Liaison Office in Brussels, reminds us:
“Traditional craftsmanship is perhaps the most tangible manifestation of intangible cultural heritage.”
To REVIVE, RESIST and REIMAGINE is ultimately to ensure that this knowledge remains alive, so that future generations can not only inherit Europe’s heritage, but continue to shape it and make it their own.
Calendar
This fall offers several unique opportunities to engage with heritage
September
11-13 : Artigianato e palazzo, Giardino Corsini, Florence, Italy
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October
6–8 : Crafted Origins: Celebrating Europe’s Craft Geographical Indications at OFICI Traditional Craft Fair, Cardona, Spain
29 – November 1: Salon International du Patrimoine Culturel (International Cultural Heritage Fair), Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, France
November
5-7: DENKMAL (European Trade Fair for Monument Preservation, Restoration and Urban Renewal), Leipzig, Germany
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