The chair concerned is CEPRO, the Dutch acronym for Cultural Heritage and Spatial Participative Development. The position resides with the Landscape Architecture and Spatial Planning group. Storms is currently an associate professor and will work towards the rank of full professor.
Colonies of Benevolence
The new chair is unique in the fact that it is affiliated with a specific municipality. The Drenthe municipality of Westerveld (made up of Havelte, Dwingeloo, Diever and Vledder) is the initiator/sponsor and is also the main field of work for the chair. The Westerveld heritage includes two national parks and the Wilhelminaoord and Frederiksoord Colonies of Benevolence..
Dutch municipalities face enormous challenges: Climate change, shrinking villages and the transition towards sustainable energy use and farming. These changes affect the governance and use of cultural heritage. Storms-Smeets is to work on these changes in collaboration with stakeholders through so-called living labs. These changes include reducing energy use in historic buildings.
Estates
Among the issues to be addressed is reassigning historic buildings and former estates. Storms-Smeets studied historical geography in Utrecht and Durham and obtained her PhD on the geography of historic country houses and estates at Leeds University. She has worked as a senior heritage advisor for the Gelders Genootschap since 2007.