1) Conservation & Adaptive Reuse

Paul Dujardin is a leading cultural strategist and senior advisor on European affairs to the Flemish Minister of Culture and Welfare (Belgium). With decades of experience in cultural diplomacy, multilateral cooperation and inclusive governance, he has shaped policies and institutions across Europe, the Arab world and the Global South.

He serves as Commissioner-General for Heritage in the Brussels Capital Region, President of Europa Nostra Belgium, and Council Member of Europa Nostra. He also sits on the boards of Culture Action Europe—the leading European think tank for cultural policy—and the Kanal Pompidou Museum in Brussels, and is a guest lecturer and expert at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB).

Paul’s work spans continents and sectors, connecting heritage with contemporary creativity, civic resilience, education, social justice, urban development and international relations. Rooted in a cross-cultural family and a lifelong engagement with Africa, he approaches culture as a humanistic tool for equity, solidarity and dignity. Guided by the words of Toni Morrison—“If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else”—he dedicates his work to empowering communities, amplifying unheard voices and sustaining culture as a space for memory, meaning and shared humanity.

Alessandra Vittorini is an architect with a PhD in Territorial and Urban Planning. She has held senior positions at the Italian Ministry of Culture and served as Director of the Fondazione Scuola dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali.

From 2012 to 2020, she directed the Superintendency for Architectural Heritage and Landscape of Abruzzo, and later the Superintendency for Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for L’Aquila and the earthquake-affected area, coordinating activities and programmes linked to the post-2009 earthquake reconstruction. She led the restoration of the Basilica of S. Maria di Collemaggio, which received the European Heritage Award/Europa Nostra Award 2020 (Grand Prix, Conservation category).

Between 2020 and 2024, she directed the Fondazione Scuola dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali, an institute for training and research in cultural heritage management, promoting research and training programmes nationally and internationally, including the PNRR national digital skills training programme for cultural heritage.

She is a member of the Technical Committee of the Extraordinary Government Commissioner for post-2016 earthquake cultural heritage reconstruction, serves on the Advisory Board of the Master in Management of Cultural Heritage and Institutions at Politecnico di Milano, and participates in several scientific committees, including Intrecci: International Journal of Architectural Conservation and Restoration and the series Ethics and Cultural Heritage of the Italian National Research Council. She is Vice-Chair of the Selection Committee for “Conservation and Adaptive Reuse,” a member of the Jury for the European Heritage Awards/Europa Nostra Awards 2025, and sits on the Scientific Committee of the Archaeological Park of Ostia Antica-Rome.

Jonas Malmberg (b.1974) has M.Sc.Arch at Oulu University 2002 and M.A. at Helsinki University 2012. He is preparing PhD on Säynätsalo Town Hall. Since 2012 he has been employed at Aalto Foundation. He has been a member of the board of DOCOMOMO Finland since 2014 and chairman since 2023, and a voting member of ISC20C.

He was the main author of Paimio Sanatorium CMP 2015 and participated in Sevan Writers’ House CMP (Armenia 2019), and has lectured at various universities. He co-edited the book DOCOMOMO Finland – Register Selection (2018). His previous places of employment include the Finnish Heritage Agency and Finnish Architectural Review.

Michiel Purmer (born 1972, Utrecht) studied Historical Geography at Utrecht University. Since 2000, he has worked for Natuurmonumenten, a Dutch NGO managing over 110,000 hectares of nature reserves, including a wide range of cultural heritage sites, where he serves as Senior Heritage Specialist and advisor on cultural heritage.

He earned his PhD with the thesis Het landschap bewaard (The Landscape Preserved) at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2018. In 2020–2021, he held a position at Groningen University alongside his work for Natuurmonumenten. He guest lectures at universities and regularly publishes on heritage and landscape.

Michiel is a member of the National Consultation Panel on Heritage of the Netherlands and serves on the board of the Dutch Network Historic Cultural Landscape (Netwerk Historisch Cultuurlandschap). He is also a member of the Landscape History Committee of the Limburgs Geschieds- en Oudheidkundig Genootschap and is currently preparing a landscape biography for Saba in the Dutch Caribbean on behalf of the Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency.

In addition, he is active in numismatics and the study of clay pipes, and will this year be appointed to the Advisory Committee on Coins of the Dutch Ministry of Finance, where he will evaluate and select designs for special Dutch coins.

Rūta Leitanaitė is a Lithuanian architect, cultural policy expert, curator and lecturer with over 16 years of experience in architecture and cultural heritage. She is Creative Director and Board Member of the Architects Association of Lithuania (AAL) and, since 2023, Chair of the National Council for Architecture of Lithuania, advising the Ministry of Culture on architectural quality, heritage protection and cultural policy.

She is a member of the European Commission’s expert sub-group Safeguarding Heritage in Ukraine, contributing to strategies for securing and documenting heritage assets, guiding quality reconstruction, and preserving cultural identity in post-conflict recovery. From 2021 to 2023, she served on the Executive Board of the Architects’ Council of Europe (ACE) and continues to chair its Task Force Solidarity with Ukraine, coordinating the Creative Europe project UREHERIT: Architects for Heritage in Ukraine. She has also led initiatives under the New European Bauhaus, including Holistic Renovation of Modernist Housing and NEB LAB Public Infrastructure for Ukraine.

An Independent Expert for the EU Mies van der Rohe Award since 2011, Rūta has extensive experience evaluating architectural and heritage projects. She also promotes public engagement with cultural heritage as host of the national radio programme We Need an Architect.

Pablo F. Longoria is an architect and urban planner specialising in cultural heritage conservation and restoration. He earned his Master’s in Architecture and Urban Planning from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid in 1993 and has since led landmark projects safeguarding some of Spain’s most treasured monuments and historic sites.

As Executive Director of World Monuments Fund Spain, he has overseen major initiatives including the restoration of the Salon Rico in Medina Azahara, the Partal Oratory at the Alhambra, the Chapel of San Blas paintings in Toledo Cathedral, and the management plan for the Roman Aqueduct of Segovia. He has also led innovative projects such as the Virtual Reality conservation study of La Garma cave in Cantabria, recognised by Forbes as one of the world’s most notable VR projects.

Beyond his executive role, Pablo is an international educator and scientific director, contributing to UNESCO’s City Lab on Historic Urban Landscapes, ILUCIDARE capacity-building programmes in Cairo and the Caribbean, and numerous academic forums on heritage, architecture and sustainability. As an independent consultant, he has advised on global heritage projects, including Heritage Impact Assessments in Kazakhstan, Bahrain and Uzbekistan. A long-standing member of ICOMOS, he continues to combine scholarly insight with hands-on expertise, shaping both policy and practice in cultural heritage preservation worldwide.

Dorottya-Lilly Makay (born 1971, Cluj County, Romania) is a civil and structural engineer specialising in built heritage conservation, with over 30 years of experience in heritage protection and structural design. She holds a PhD in Civil Engineering from the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, focusing on Baroque roof structures, and completed early international internships with ICOMOS UK (1996) and US/ICOMOS (2003), enhancing her expertise in historic structure research and conservation.

Her career bridges academia, professional practice and heritage advocacy. Since 2018, she has been an Associate Lecturer at “1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia and previously taught at Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca on historical load-bearing structures and built heritage conservation. Professionally, she has led projects as administrator, project manager and structural engineer at IROD M Ltd. (founded 2003) and CONSOLIDEM Ltd., covering restoration of historic monuments as well as civil and industrial constructions.

Dorottya-Lilly has contributed to over 350 technical assessments and more than 360 restoration and reinforcement projects, including St. Michael’s Church, Cluj-Napoca (European Heritage Awards/Europa Nostra Award, 2024) and Calvaria Roman Catholic Church (Europa Nostra Award, 1998). She has published widely, presented at international conferences, and lectured in heritage protection training programmes. Actively involved in NGOs and committees for heritage preservation, she works with the Kelemen Lajos Association for Monument Protection, the Transylvania Trust Foundation, and other national and local historic monument committees.

Lidija Martinović (born 1997, Cetinje, Montenegro) is a visual artist and conservator-restorer whose work bridges fine arts, conservation-restoration and museology. She completed her undergraduate studies in Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Montenegro (2015–2018), including a semester at the Faculdade de Belas Artes in Lisbon through the Erasmus programme, and earned her Master’s degree in Conservation and Restoration of Applied and Fine Arts at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad in 2021, with a thesis on the conservation of chromolithography of Herzegovinian Slaves.

Currently pursuing a PhD in Art History at the University of Belgrade, specialising in museology and heritology, Lidija combines academic research with practical conservation work. She has participated in numerous regional conservation and restoration projects and was awarded the 2018 University of Montenegro Annual Award for Best Drawing. Her professional interests focus on the conservation of paintings and paper, documentation, and the role of museums and archives in safeguarding cultural memory.