ICOMOS Lecture: Heritage based developments in Lamu & Zanzibar, Amstelkerk, 13 November, 19h30

Guest speakers: Mohammed Mwenje, Iga Perzyna, Khwemah Sykes and Berend van der Lans Date:  13 November Time: 19h30-21h00 (drinks and meal from 18h30) Place: LIVE at the Amstelkerk Amstelveld 10, Amsterdam Language: English

Dear ICOMOS-members and friends,   After a somewhat too long summer break, the ICOMOS-lecture series is starting up again. We are pleased to announce that our coming lectures will set stage at the Amstelkerk. Thanks to the support of Stadsherstel Amsterdam we are able to welcome you in this beautiful monument.     The topic of the first ICOMOS event on this new location will be Heritage based developments in Lamu and Zanzibar. We are very pleased to welcome our guest speakers Mohammed Mwenje, Iga Perzyna and Khwemah Sykes who are actively involved in heritage based projects on both islands.   Before we shift our attention to East Africa Paul Morel will welcome us, explaining a little bit about the Amstelkerk and the link between Zanzibar, Lamu and Stadsherstel Amsterdam. As usual drinks and a meal will be available on location, before the lectures begin.    Please find more information below. We hope to welcome you soon!   Warm regards,   The ICOMOS Netherlands Lecture Committee: Ankie Petersen, Anna Louwerse, Daan Lavies, Emma Egberts, Jean-Paul Corten, Milou Derksen, Remco Vermeulen   Registration: Please use the register form through this link Please note: – The registration form does not generate a billing instruction or confirmation mail. Just completing the form is all you need to do.   – Payments can only be done by bank transfer on the spot at the event

PROGRAMME – LIVE event at the Amstelkerk 18h30 Drinks and meal   19h30 Introductory presentation Liaison between Stone Town of Zanzibar and Amsterdam – Paul Morel 19h45 Presentation on Lamu – Kenya Lamu My Love: A ground for prosperity – Mohammed Mwenje & Iga Perzyna 20h15 Break   20h30 Presentation on Zanzibar – Tanzania Hifadhi Zanzibar in practice – Khwemah Sykes & Berend van der Lans 21h Q&A  22h End

ICOMOS-NL lecture
13 November 2024 LIVE in Amstelkerk Amsterdam

Introductory presentation
Liaison between Stone Town of Zanzibar and Amsterdam – Paul Morel

The Amstelkerk shows every aspect of the practice of Stadsherstel NV(!). Public space, offices, apartments, recreation, religion and contribution to the urban square come together in this building. Here Stone Town and Stadsherstel met for the first time. That was in 2011. Could the model Stadsherstel be useful in Stone Town too? How they went along and how Hifadhi Zanzibar Ltd was founded in 2015 are just a few of the topics outlined in this introductory presentation by Paul Morel.

Amstelkerk in the 1970’s

Presentation on Lamu – Kenya
Lamu My Love: A ground for prosperity – Mohammed Mwenje & Iga Perzyna

In August this year a number of hands-on community workshops that explored community engagement in the re-development of historical open spaces took place at Mkunguni Town Square in the historic centre of Lamu (Kenya).

With this central public square as case study, the meaning of urban heritage for the community was discussed, through traditional craft training spatial interventions were realised and the challenges of growth and development in the context of a World Heritage Site were debated.

The results of the project are currently processed for an exhibition and publication. Today they will be presented by Mohammed Mwenje, curator of National Museums of Kenya and Iga Perzyna, director of African Architecture Matters. The project was developed by the two organisations in collaboration with LAHESCO (Lamu Heritage Site Community Organisation) and supported by the Creative Industries Fund NL.

Workshops in Lamu

Presentation on Zanzibar – Tanzania
Hifadhi Zanzibar in practice – Khwemah Sykes & Berend van der Lans

After Hifadhi was founded by a group of local entrepreneurs from Zanzibar, a nineteen-century palace built by a princess from Oman was acquired in 2017. In the following years this building was transformed into a mixed-use building with a semi-public courtyard used for events, offices on the ground floor, workshops at the first floor and apartments on the second.

Together with the largest local music and film festival organisations and a women action group a proposal was developed for adaptive reuse of Majestic Cinema, a monumental cinema in Stone Town. In 2023 a Public Private Partnership Agreement was signed for the transformation of the building into the Majestic Culture Hub. This year the redevelopment process started, with support of among others UNESCO.

Hifadhi’s office manager Khwemah Sykes and Berend van der Lans, as consultant involved from the onset, will bring Hifadhi’s history, successes and challenges and cross links with Stadsherstel to the fore.  

Courtyard of Hifadhi building in Stone Town Zanzibar

About the speakers

Khwemah Sykes (in the centre of the picture) is office manager of Hifadhi Zanzibar Ltd and taking care of project and office management. She is trained as conservation architect in South Africa and United Kingdom and obtained her master degree via RIBA in the UK in 2007. She has extensive professional experience in practices in Tanzania and UK, from the onset of her career with a lot of emphasis on restorations and adaptations of historically important buildings.

Mohammed Mwenje is curator of Lamu Museums and Site Manager of the Lamu World Heritage Site since 2019. He has completed his Building Engineering studies at the Technical University of Kenya in 1994 and has since then extended his training path and working experience in the fields of urban and building conservation, material science, disaster risk management, tourism development and management of World Heritage Sites. Since 2007 he has been working for the Lamu World Heritage Site and as such been responsible for preparation of the Lamu Old Town State of conservation reporting since 2007. Next to that he has overseen a number of conservation projects and coordinated various conservation initiatives within Lamu town.

Iga Perzyna is an architectural historian and conservation professional; she holds a master degree in architectural history from Bartlett School of Architecture and in Historic Conservation from Oxford Brookes. Her master thesis from Bartlett looked at the government buildings in Monrovia, Liberia in the context of the post-independence nation building processes taking place in Africa. After graduating in 2014 she worked among others in Norway and Poland in the fields of cultural heritage management, placemaking and revitalisation of urban public spaces. Iga has been working with AAmatters since 2015, and acts as the director since 2022. She has been involved in historic urban landscape and heritage management projects in Zanzibar, Uganda, Pemba and Lamu.

Paul Morel (on the right in the top picture) is senior project leader and involved in international relations for Stadsherstel Amsterdam NV. Trained in sociology and building engineering, he started his professional career as contractor before joining Amsterdam Monuments Fund (AMF), where he became specialised in restauration and re-use of non-residential buildings. AMF merged with Stadsherstel in 2000, where he became responsible for a number of landmark projects such as De Duif, De Zwijger, NedPhO Koepel en Zonnehuis. In addition, he promoted the model of Stadsherstel internationally, and has been instrumental in the founding of Stadsherstel Paramaribo and Hifadhi Zanzibar, as well as the adaptive re-use of the Sacre Coeur in Casablanca.

Berend van der Lans (on the left in the top picture)has been working as an architect in Europe and Africa since 1992, with a special focus at restoration and adaptive reuse of 20^th century monuments. In 2001, he co-founded the ArchiAfrika foundation, followed by African Architecture Matters in 2010 together with Antoni Folkers. Until 2022 he acted as the director of AAmatters and was involved in many of their projects, and from the onset has been instrumental in the founding and management of Hifadhi Zanzibar Ltd. Since 2008 he runs ArchitecturePlus, an architectural practice based in Amsterdam.

The programme is realised with support of Creative Industries Fund NL, Stadsherstel Amsterdam NV, Hifadhi Zanzibar Ltd., ICOMOS Netherlands and African Architecture Matters.