“Daily use is the best protection” Philipp Speiser has been restoring in Egypt for many years. He is an honorary professor at the TU Berlin and director of the project “The Fatimid Cemetery in Aswan”, which was successfully completed in 2014 and in which a sector of the necropolis was documented and restored. Archaeological sites are being looted in Egypt – how are they currently being […]

“Daily use is the best protection”

Philipp Speiser has been restoring in Egypt for many years. He is an honorary professor at the TU Berlin and director of the project “The Fatimid Cemetery in Aswan”, which was successfully completed in 2014 and in which a sector of the necropolis was documented and restored.

Archaeological sites are being looted in Egypt – what are the current conditions for restoration in the country?

I can only speak for our project. I think restoration and looting have little to do with each other, except that places that are being worked on are better supervised during the work on site. The conditions for restoration are the same as before the revolution.

You have been restoring in Egypt since the 1980s. What has changed for you and your work since the revolution in spring 2011?

Nothing has changed for us since the revolution, as the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) still maintains excellent contacts with the Egyptian antiquities administration. We have the same Egyptian partners and local staff as before the revolution.

To what extent was the Fatimid Cemetery the target of looting?

On the one hand, the cemetery is naturally used regularly and is considered a sacred place that is respected as such. There is therefore constant supervision by the users, and its daily use is the best protection.

Secondly, there are no antiquities or finds that can be sold for profit.

In your opinion, how can the archaeological sites in Egypt be protected from looters?

Only through an appropriate presence of guards and wardens and a greater awareness among the population of the archaeological heritage and its importance. For this reason, the DAI has launched several educational programs for cultural preservation in Egypt. It is to be hoped that economic stabilization and the growth of tourism, particularly in the Nile Valley, and the resulting financial improvement will reduce looting.

Scientists at ETH Zurich have published an anthology on the planning process. It contains both practical examples and theoretical essays. And is a must for students.

Planning is mysterious. With increasing complexity, the process of a project becomes more decisive than the physical intervention. Whose voices are drowned out, what role do planners play in this process? Scientists at ETH Zurich organized a series of seminars on these questions with international scientists and practitioners from the planning world. The 232-page book documents the research results.

How to avoid planning errors

The publication has an exemplary structure and consists of two main parts: “Inspiring stories” and “Fundamental topics”. The first part presents seven completed and nine ongoing projects that demonstrate a variety of challenges and approaches to planning practice in Europe and the USA.

The essays on the “fundamental themes” discuss issues and innovative strategies. They should be considered in the various phases of the planning process. For example, the essay “Planning approaches or nothing comes from nothing” mentions that problem analysis at the beginning of planning is crucial and should not be ignored. The lack of a broad discussion of the problems was, for example, one reason for planning errors in the Stuttgart 21 project.

Focus on social aspects

The structure of the book fulfills its purpose of bridging the gap between practice and theory and reaching a broad audience outside specialist circles. The content of the publication is innovative and scientifically sound. It has a clear and concise structure, cross-references between examples and theory, an informative but restrained layout. The clear structure helps people with different backgrounds to better understand the planning process. Professionals can better understand innovative theories and the connection between theory and practice thanks to the example-oriented structure, the notes and the glossary.

Non-experts can rely on the detailed narratives and rich diagrams in the example chapters to understand key planning processes. However, the book’s perspective on planning focuses on social aspects. It leaves open how nature can be included as an important stakeholder in planning and how the process should change to adapt to climate challenges, for example.

A must-read for planning students

Furthermore, the examples focus on Europe, with a brief mention of the United States. Some non-European planning projects would be quite interesting for research and discussion. The European examples are sufficient for new insights, but exploring more projects in different contexts and developing theories, regardless of success or failure, would make the planning mechanism and theory more robust and universal.

This book is not a substitute for a comprehensive planning textbook, but it is innovative: a must-read for planning students who have mastered the theory but have little practical experience. It is also recommended for planners, politicians and others who are constantly looking for more efficient ways of planning.

The text was written in the “scientific writing workshop landscape architecture” at the TUM Chair of Landscape Architecture and Transformation with Prof. Udo Weilacher. As part of the seminar, students select specialist literature and work together on individual book reviews.

What value do undefined spaces have in a city? Dorothee Rummel poses this question in her dissertation “Undetermined spaces in cities: The value of residual space”.