Home > congratulations     Estimated colleagues and friends: Since its foundation at the end of the 1980s docomomo international has focused on creating a network, which could help to spread the occasions of debating issues related to modern movement’s innovative credo and its legacy, and to our concern for modern heritage. Many efforts have been made to break geographical and cultural boundaries and to reach countries outside Europe. This task has become more and more a priority, which I emphasized when I have been elected new chair, in September 2002, with a mandate of six years. Time is short, yet some results are already visible worldwide, such as the issues of the new docomomo Journal, dedicated to Modernism in Africa, and the most recent to Modernism in Asia Pacific. I wish to recall some of the goals of docomomo international. The acronym of the association clearly states that Documentation comes before Conservation. Documentation is essential to enlarge the knowledge of modern architecture in both its material and cultural aspects. The inventory of modern buildings, which is a tool to spread the awareness of the values of modern heritage among a larger public, receives its recognition from documentary investigations. The ongoing debate among docomomo members and within the scientific committees has extended the legacy of modern movement to investigate architectural production and landscape in the post-war II years. This is a way to encounter new experiences and ideas, which represent the development of modernity in different culture and geographic areas, also far from an Eurocentric position. In principle docomomo international deals with all countries and regions where modern architecture has been the tangible expression of innovative projects. docomomo international acts as watchdog against threats of disfigurement or destruction of modern buildings. This can be performed only with the assistance of Wps, and among them docomomo korea. Quite often modern heritage shows an intrinsical weakness, because of its functional and material brief, and because of a lack of recognition. Wps become the instruments to start any campaign to prevent modern buildings to be demolished, or even to loose their identity because of inaccuracy in restoration plans. Therefore, docomomo international provides a podium for architects, engineers, and conservationists to discuss case studies, technical problems and related solutions, and new materials for the preservation of modern architecture. The worldwide recognition of docomomo international can be related to the increasing number of modern buildings, which have been restored after having been included in the docomomo Register and presented in international conferences. Thanks for joining docomomo international. Our plans of actions need the collective support of you all.