Office for the Protection of Cultural Heritage
Working in close collaboration with the Collections and Archives of the ETH Library and the departments at ETH Zurich in charge of collections, the Office for Cultural Property Protection (KGS) is responsible for developing and implementing emergency concepts in accordance with the specifications of conservation organisations, the emergency services, and federal laws and regulations.
Preventative and precautionary measures play an increasingly important role in considerations relating to the protection of cultural heritage. Specialist knowledge and technical resources are required for the evacuation, preservation, recovery and stabilisation of movable cultural property in particular. The following topic areas are implemented as precautionary measures:
- Emergency planning for all storage locations and exhibition spaces
- Labelling of high-priority cultural property
- Location-based risk assessment
- Support and advice during renovation and new building projects
- Collaboration with the emergency services and the Zurich Emergency Association
- Operation of a material store and definition of evacuation areas in the case of emergency
- Regular employee training on the handling of cultural property and role allocation
- Advice on preventive conservation measure
Many of the Collections and Archives of ETH Zurich are listed in the external pageSwiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Importance. This is published by the KGS department of the Swiss Federal Office for Civil Protection (FOCP), approved by the Federal Council and displayed in the external pageFederal Geoportal. ETH Zurich has a legally defined responsibility for cultural heritage which is partly of international, national and regional importance.
The following ETH institutions are listed in the Swiss inventory of cultural property as cultural heritage of national significance (category A, as at 01 January 2022):
- Archives of Contemporary History, Hirschengraben 62
- Combined Herbaria, Zollikerstrasse 107
- ETH Zurich University Archives, Rämistrasse 101
- Graphische Sammlung ETH Zürich, Rämistrasse 101
- Max Frisch Archive, Rämistrasse 101
- Natural science and technical collections*, Rämistrasse 101
- focusTerra, Sonneggstrasse 5
- Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (GTA), Stefano-Franscini-Platz 5
- Thomas Mann Archives, Leopold-Ruzicka-Weg 4
* Entomological Collection, Earth Science Collections, Anatomical Domestic Animals Collection, Collection of Scientific Instruments and Teaching Aids, Pharmacognostic Collection, Forestry Collection, Xylotheque, Zoological Collection.