Grethe Pontoppidan is an architect and heritage consultant based in Copenhagen, Denmark. She runs her own consultant firm, arkitekturet, that is primarily working with assessments of cultural value, Cultural Management Plans and awareness building of modern built heritage from the 20th century. As well as her engagement in ISC20C, she is a member of the DOCOMOMO/DK Bureau and longstanding chairman of an expert committee for modern heritage under the non-profit Danish heritage organization By og Land Danmark. As such she is responsible for advising on and recommending post-1940 building sites for national listing.
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As a Vice President to the ISC20C bureau, Grethe is engaged in coordination of the Education Initiatives together with Susan MacDonald. Additionally, she will be working on the dissemination of the Historic Thematic Framework and on building up a Climate Change discourse within ISC20C. Grethe has been a member of ISC20C since 2017 and since then actively involved in the ICOMOS Heritage Alert for the Viking Ship Hall and the INNOVA CONCRETE working group and responsible for running up the INNOVA CONCRETE international launch event in the hall in 2019.
Grethe graduated from the Royal Academy of Architecture and has been working 20 years as a practicing architect, form 2014 focusing on modern heritage and taking a postgraduate Master in Architectural Heritage (NORDMAK) from the Aarhus School of Architecture in 2018.
Her approach to heritage is based on the understanding of conservation as a democratic, sustainable, and interdisciplinary management of change that combines a broad, often unconventional toolbox ranging from research, assessment of heritage sites, strategic planning based on cultural significance to civil and NGO engagement and dissemination initiatives. She has raised new public debates on modern heritage in Denmark, including about the Viking Ship Hall, historic concrete and its conservation, and standardized single-family housing from the 1960s.
Grethe graduated from the Royal Academy of Architecture and has been working 20 years as a practicing architect, form 2014 focusing on modern heritage and taking a postgraduate Master in Architectural Heritage (NORDMAK) from the Aarhus School of Architecture in 2018.
Her approach to heritage is based on the understanding of conservation as a democratic, sustainable, and interdisciplinary management of change that combines a broad, often unconventional toolbox ranging from research, assessment of heritage sites, strategic planning based on cultural significance to civil and NGO engagement and dissemination initiatives. She has raised new public debates on modern heritage in Denmark, including about the Viking Ship Hall, historic concrete and its conservation, and standardized single-family housing from the 1960s.
