ANDREW SHEPHERD, UK based conservation architect

Andrew is a conservation architect based in Sheffield, U.K. for over 40 years. He has enjoyed instructions involving a substantial range of projects of a dazzling variety for Scheduled Ancient Monuments, designated heritage buildings and buildings in Conservation Areas. These have ranged from the repair of a derelict dovecote, to works to major industrial buildings, monuments, houses and many others! He has always worked on a wide range of ecclesiastical buildings undergoing repair or improvement for different faiths and denominations. Additionally, he has had extensive experience of dispute resolution, Expert Witness in Building Defects, Professional Negligence and other construction related disputes having acted as Arbitrator, Adjudicator, Mediator and Conciliator. He was involved with post graduate education for Building Conservation at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London for 15 years, which has led to ongoing teaching/workshop participation for over 20 years in Eastern Europe and the Balkans. He is an EU Accredited Heritage Expert involved with heritage training NGOs in Kosovo, Bosnia- Herzegovina, Serbia, Albania and Romania.

SILVIA NALDINI, researcher and lecturer at Delft University of Technology

Silvia Naldini is researcher and lecturer at Delft University of Technology. Her field of work for over 30 years has been in Building Conservation – Preventive conservation and planned maintenance. Theory and practice. She is active in the Dutch program Monumentenkennis (Monuments and knowledge) in development and implementation of the MDCS system - Monument Diagnosis and Conservation System.  She founded the project Monumentenwacht moves on the empowerment of inspectors of the national Monumentenwacht organization for built heritage maintenance and preventive conservation. She was responsible for the research (TU Delft and RCE) on the integral transformation of Dutch museums in the last 30 years (‘Metamorphosis’ https://books.bk.tudelft.nl/press/catalog/book/697.  She currently leads a project aiming at a proactive, integral transformation of Regional (small) museums in the Netherlands and their potentials to become social hubs. 

BORIS HOCHEL, Slovakia based architect

Boris Hochel is Slovakia based architect with a focus on eco-architecture, traditional carpentry and architectural conservation projects. He lives in Bratislava, Slovakia.

BEKIM ÇEKO, PhD in Architecture, researcher and lecturer at UBT

Bekim Ceko is a researcher and lecturer of Conservation of the Built Heritage and History of the Architecture at the University of Business and Technology- UBT, Faculty of Architecture and Spatial Planning, based in Prishtina. He is also the Head of the Steering Committee of Kosovo Institute of the Protection of Cultural Monuments. Çeko obtained his PhD in 2017 in the field of Architecture from the University of Trakya, and holds the degree of Bachelor and Master in the field of Architecture from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. He has been working in several projects mainly restoration and advisory projects within Kosovo and abroad. He also facilitates the development of strategic and technical documents managing and implementing cultural heritage issues.

AVNI MANAJ, architect, Kosovo Institute for Protection of Monuments

Graduated architectural engineer, architect at the Kosovo Institute for the Protection of Monuments. With over 20 years of experience in the field of cultural heritage with various international institutions and organizations, in the implementation of many conservation/restoration projects of monuments. Chairman of the Professional Review Commission of conservation/restoration projects, member of the State Commission for the assessment of war damage in 1999 and member of various professional commissions and boards. Manaj is a member of ICOMOS since 2017.

SAMI ISUFI, architect, Islamic Council of Republic of Kosovo - Institute for Islamic Cultural Heritage 

Sami is a researcher of Islamic architecture and since 2011 he is the leader of the documentation of the Islamic architectural heritage of the Republic of Kosovo. To date, as a co-author with Esat Ramadani, they have prepared 10 monographs in the field of Islamic architectural heritage. He studied in the field of architecture at the University of Pristina. He defended his master's thesis in the field of Islamic cultural heritage under the supervision of Professor Ing. Dr. Techn. Caroline Jäger‐ Klein (Professor of the Technical University of Vienna and UBT). Isufi has started his doctoral studies at Istanbul Technical University. 

ESAT RAMADANI, architect, Islamic Council of Republic of Kosovo - Institute for Islamic Cultural Heritage 

Esat studied at the University of Prishtina, Faculty of Architecture, and finished master studies at the “Berliner Hochschule für Technik” in Berlin. Esat works as an independent architect and is engaged in the Islamic Council. In addition to his general engagement as an architect, he designed and built a significant number of Islamic architectural objects such as mosques and other endowment buildings and participated in the supervision of the restoration of some Islamic cultural heritage objects. As a co-author with Sami Isufi, documented the Islamic architectural heritage of the Republic of Kosovo in the form of a monograph, as well as organized the international competition and exhibition for the Central Mosque project in Pristina.