Welcome to the AntweRp Cultural HEritage Sciences (ARCHES) research group

ARCHES is a research group of the Faculty of Design Sciences associated with the educational programs of Conservation-Restoration (Dutch) and Heritage studies (Dutch). The acronym is not only a nod towards the Gothic arches decorating the inner yard of our campus, it refers explicitely to the group's mission to build bridges between various scientific fields as well. In particular, cultural heritage sciences is an umbrella name for different types of research, performed in a transdisciplinary way  in pursuit of improving the conservation of both tangible and intangible heritage.

To do so, ARCHES assembled an academic staff team with different backgrounds. Arranged according to length of service, this is:

• ​Geert Van der Snickt: spokesman of ARCHES, characterisation of movable heritage & chemical imaging
  
• ​Tim De Kock: geomaterials and characterisation of immovable heritage
• ​Marc Jacobs: Vice-dean, critical heritage studies & intangible heritage
• ​Helene Verreyke: Museum studies & preventive conservation
• ​Gerrit Verhoeven: History of heritage perception and experience
  
• ​Piraye Haciguzeller: Digital heritage & artificial intelligence
• ​Suzie Thomas: Chair of the Education Committee, dark heritage & participation
• ​Vincent Cattersel: Conservation of Furniture and polychromy
• ​Yonca Erkan:  Coordinator of doctoral research, Management of built heritage
• ​Natalia Ortega Saez: Conservation treatments for movable heritage
  
• ​Andrea Marchetti: Material characterization and degradation of complex composite objects
• ​Sophie Elpers: Intangible Cultural Heritage and Ethnology
• ​Ulrike Muller: history and theory of collections and museums

At the start of the academic year, ARCHES had over 40 members and counting...

Research in cultural heritage sciences can be typically situated in one or more disciplines of Life, Social and Natural Sciences (e.g. history, art history, engineering, analytical chemistry etc.), but distinguishes itself from these fields by a different finality in the sense that research is performed with the explicit and exclusive aim to enhance the preservation and/or curative treatment of heritage. To accomplish this, research typically employs a combination of methods and tools developed in the aforementioned disciplines. Within the ensuing range of research topics ARCHES has defined the following research spearheads:

• ​Critical heritage studies​
• ​Built Heritage​
• ​Chemical characterisation and imaging of heritage materials​
• ​Study of historical sources and (reproduction of) technology​
• ​Participatory approaches to Heritage
  
• ​Cultural history of Heritage​
  

Discover the research group's mission, members and an overview of the research projects and publications.