Iicas, CAAL GIS RESEARCH ASSISTANT

Dona is interested in understanding the values and relationship between a monument and its environment. By looking at these elemental roles we are able to preserve the buildings and without damage correctly introduce them into a modern setting. First encountering the preservation of historical monuments while participating in an international project in Ukraine in 2011, Dona then applied to and was accepted in the Uzbek-German master’s programme for building preservation and heritage conservation. In 2015 she successfully defended her master’s dissertation at the University of Applied Sciences, Potsdam (Germany) on the architecture of the palaces of the Bukhara Emirs of the late 19th to early 20th century. This uses an inventory and typological comparison as the basis for a concept of preservation. The dissertation was supervised by Professor Dr Lorenz Korn, Otto-Friedrich University of Bamberg and Professor Dr Mavlyuda Yusupova. She continues to work as part of the Uzbek-German Graduate Training Project Topography, conducting research on and identification of Tashkent’s architectural monuments and acts as mentor and moderator. With this in mind Dona sees the unique personality in each monument but enjoys the narrow winding streets of Bukhara. Her spare time is taken up with varied interests, from interior design to the arts and outdoor sports.