Professors and scientific collaborators
Gert-Jan Burgers is professor of Heritage Studies at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He was also director of CLUE+ and project leader of the pan-European Innovative Training Network Heriland. Before that, he was director of the Royal Dutch Institute in Rome (2012-2013) and head of the Heritage and Antiquities departments of the same institute (2006-2013). In these capacities, Burgers has developed, led and published a series of major heritage projects over the past decades, with funding from national and international public organisations, including NWO (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research), Italian government agencies and the European Union, as well as commercial sponsors.
Prof. dr. Freek Schmidt is professor of History of Architecture and Living Environment at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Within this chair, architectural history is conceived as critical historical research into the social, cultural and historical dimensions of architecture as design, layout and transformation of the living environment. Here, architecture encompasses more than buildings; it is also about urban planning, landscape architecture, housing culture and the domestic environment. It is not only about design of the space that surrounds man, but considers all forms of appropriation and use that are important for the value and meaning of that space. Outside VU Amsterdam, Freek Schmidt is an advisor on spatial quality and ‘welstand’ in Amsterdam, at MOOI Noord-Holland, and a committee member for the Culture Fund and the Cultuurfonds, and several architectural competitions. He regularly publishes nationally and internationally on the built environment of the early modern and modern periods. Freek is closely involved in the teaching of the Master's programme Architecture, Cities, Landscapes: History and Heritage.
Dr. Iris Burgers is an architectural historian and assistant professor of Architectural History at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She teaches and supervises theses in the Bachelor's programme Media, Art, Design and Architecture (MADA) and the Master's programme Architecture, Cities, Landscapes: History and Heritage (ACL), with a focus on architectural history, urbanism, and spatial heritage. Her PhD dissertation (2021) examined the architectural and cultural history of Schiphol Airport between 1920 and 2006. Her current research project is titled “The Architecture of Gas: The Spatial Implications of Gas as an Energy Source in the Netherlands (1810–2023)”. The project aims to investigate the spatial cultural history of the consequences of the Dutch energy transitions to gas: from nineteenth century urban gasworks and domestic applications to the discovery of the Slochteren natural gas field in 1959, the subsequent transition to natural gas and its spatial consequences.
Dr. Marilena Mela is assistant professor in the Department of Art & Culture, History and Antiquity (AHA) at VU Amsterdam and closely involved in teaching the Master's programme Architecture, Cities, Landscapes: History and Heritage (ACL) and the Bachelor's programme Media, Art, Design and Architecture (MADA). She earned her PhD at VU Amsterdam as part of the European Marie Curie-funded project HERILAND. Previously, she studied architecture and architectural theory at the National Technical University of Athens. Her forthcoming book, Assembling the Archipelago: Heritage in Energy Transitions and Climate Action(Routledge, 2025), explores the roles of heritage in sustainability across four island landscapes in the Netherlands, Greece, Scotland, and Italy. Her research interests lie at the intersection of heritage, sustainability, landscape, and climate—focusing more broadly on the situated links between inherited pasts and imagined futures in the face of the climate crises. She teaches courses and supervises theses on heritage, history, design, landscape, and urbanism. She also collaborates with the award-winning collective Boulouki (Europa Nostra Award 2024), whose work centres on traditional building practices and local knowledge within Greek landscapes.
Dr. Gabriel Schwake (Dr) is assistant professor in the Department of Art & Culture, History and Antiquity (AHA) at VU Amsterdam and closely involved in teaching the Master's programme Architecture, Cities, Landscapes: History and Heritage (ACL) and the Bachelor's programme Media, Art, Design and Architecture (MADA). Gabriel completed his graduate and undergraduate studies at Tel Aviv University and obtained his PhD from TU Delft. He is the author of Dwelling on the Green Line: privatize and rule in Israel/Palestine (Cambridge University Press, 2022) and several articles focusing on the influences of neoliberalism, nationalism, conflicts, and identities on the process of spatial production. Gabriel has previously been an assistant professor at the University of Sheffield, and he has taught and conducted research stays at different universities, including the University of Cambridge, TU Delft, TU Darmstadt, and the Groningen Architecture Academy.
Prof.dr. Jaap Evert Abrahamse is endowed professor of City, Landscape, Heritage: interdisciplinary approaches to urban transformations. Jaap Evert studied architectural history at the University of Groningen and obtained his doctorate cum laude at the University of Amsterdam, on the thesis De grote uitleg van Amsterdam. Stadsontwikkeling in de zeventiende eeuw (English version Metropolis in the Making. A Planning History of Amsterdam in the Dutch Golden Age). He works as a senior researcher at the Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency, where he led research projects focusing on the spatial dynamics of cities and landscapes, such as Atlas van de Atlantikwall, Atlas van de verstedelijking in Nederland/ Atlas of the Dutch Urban Landscape, en Atlas van Amstelland. He is currently setting up a research project on Dutch inner cities in the period after 1965 in an international perspective. He publishes regularly in the fields of urban planning, urban history, architectural history, landscape and infrastructure and is on the editorial boards of the Tijdschrift voor historische geografie and the series Historische atlassen.
Rob van der Laarse is emeritus professor Heritage and Memory of War and Conflict at the humanities faculties of VU Amsterdam and the University of Amsterdam (Westerbork Chair). He is also affiliated with VU Amsterdam's Art and Culture, History and Antiquity department, and has been fellow at the ESRI (Salford University), Jean Monnet fellow at the EUI Florence, fellow and theme leader at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS), and theme leader in the UvA priority program Heritage and Identity (ACHI). Since the early 2000s he was founding program director of Heritage Studies at the UvA and co-research leader at CLUE research school of VU Amsterdam, amongst others.
Dr. Imke van Hellemondt is researcher and lecturer in architectural history at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Besides, she is Chief Article Editor for the Journal of Landscape Architecture and member of NELA (Network of European Landscape Architecture Archives). The core theme of her research is nature-culture relationships in Dutch landscape design since the nineteenth century. More particularly, she focusses on landscape transformations based on ideas about ecology, sustainability, resilience, innovation and technology, aesthetics and ethics and on the relationship between science, humanities and design.
Hans Piena is endowed professor of Dutch Cultural History, in particular the study of objects, a special chair established by the Royal Dutch Antiquarian Society (KOG).
Internal PhD candidates
Alana Castro de Azevedo, Barriers to public participation in memorialization processes. Promotor: prof. G.J. Burgers. Co-promotor: dr. P. Wagenaar.
Maciej Swiderski, Gamification strategies for collaborative heritage planning. Promotor: prof. G.J. Burgers, co-promotor: dr. N. van Manen
Minke Walda, ‘Ter voorkoming van ontciering’. Decline and demolition in the urban network of Holland in the long eighteenth century (1680-1830). Promotor: prof.dr. F.H. Schmidt. Co-promotor: prof.dr. J.E. Abrahamse
External PhD candidates
Thomas van den Brink, Maritime Mindsets, Product-chains and Landscapes, Promotores: prof. dr. Carola Hein (TU Delft), prof. dr. Hans Renes and prof. dr. Ulbe Bosma.
Farnaz Faraji, Iranian Migrants’ Landscape Perception and the Historic Landscape Characterisation of Great Manchester. Promotor: prof. dr. G.J. Burgers, co-promotor: dr. Niels van Manen
Lin Jia, Associations among peri-urban public landscape character types, users' activities, and perceived restorativeness of high-density city. Promotor: prof. dr. G.J. Burgers, co-promotor: dr. Cyril Tjahja
Esther Starkenburg, Regeren vanuit de ruimte. Lodewijk Napoleon als hoofdontwerper van het onvoltooide koninkrijk Holland 1806-1810. Promotor: prof.dr. F.H. Schmidt, co-promotor: prof.dr. Susan Legene
Yingxi Zhang, Participation based management: Integrating gentrified urbanization into sustainable heritage communities. prof. dr. G.J. Burgers, co-promotor: dr. Cyril Tjahja