Preventive Conservation Strategy for Built Heritage Aimed at Sustainable Management and Local Development

Different European and international actions increasingly indicate the importance of sustainable approaches to manage the existing building stock and the role of built heritage in this process. Ongoing research in context of the UNESCO Chair on preventive conservation, maintenance and monitoring of monuments and sites (PRECOM³OS) demonstrates that built heritage preservation approaches still mainly focus on curative conservation and restorative treatments, which does not always result in the removal of causative factors or minimising their impact to preserve of heritage values. Once conserved or restored, the historic structure can return to an environment leading to further deterioration, likely requiring future interventions, and establishing a reactive pattern of treatment. An alternative approach is preventive conservation, which starts from periodic condition assessments, early damage detection and planned interventions to minimise deterioration and enable long-term resource efficiency. While ample research advancements have been made on specific components dealing with sustainable development and preventive conservation, it remains unclear why preventive conservation approaches are not more widely disseminated and implemented in the built heritage field. This research therefore addresses the specific problem of operationalising preventive conservation in a sustainable development context. Herewith, the central research question is: What innovations and changes are required in the existing built heritage sector to operationalise a preventive conservation system aimed at sustainable management and local development? The doctoral research resulted in a preventive conservation strategy (PRECO-Strat), which entails a relevant and new approach to implement innovations and changes in the existing built heritage sector. PRECO-Strat is based on 2 fundamental building blocks, i.e. (1) the Preventive Conservation System (PCS) which structures the impact of a preventive conservation approach on sustainable management and local development and (2) the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) or quasi-evolutionary model based on sociotechnical innovations and evolutionary economics which demonstrates emergent innovation patterns and dynamics. Throughout the research process, the multi-level perspective is implemented in 4 case studies which analyse the development of different preventive conservation system components in the built heritage sector. Next to the Flemish Region in Belgium as main case study, 3 smaller theoretically sampled case studies were analysed, i.e. (1) a maintenance campaign in Susudel, Ecuador (2) the Monza and Brianza distretto culturale in Italy and (3) a cluster preservation activities in Kuldīga old town, Latvia. The research process demonstrates the effectiveness of the 2 building blocks in contributing to new knowledge on and understanding of the built heritage management sector as a complex system. The analysis based on the PCS holds diverse insights and provides the possibility to identify certain factors that are overlooked in the context of sustainable management and development. In addition, using the PCS in built heritage management case study research identified interventions and organisational mechanisms which appear effective but are inefficient in specific situations. The MLP application for the built heritage management sector generated a first set of innovation mechanisms and identifies factors facilitating or impeding improvement for specific local case studies. In addition, the MLP application demonstrates significant potential to enrich traditional approaches of assessing built heritage interventions and management decisions by identifying inefficiency in a larger and complex system. The outcome of iteratively conducting empirical research and analysing practical case studies resulted in the identification of specific characteristics and commonalities of innovations and changes required to introduce a preventive conservation system in the existing built heritage sector. The research demonstrated that the most efficient mechanism to induce change is a sequence of smaller initiatives developed by a local frontrunner, starting from an operational level and immediate needs, with sufficient organisational autonomy, with an extensive amount of applications and within a specific geographical concentration. In contrast to these geographically or organisationally concentrated characteristics and commonalities, the long-term operationalisation of an innovation is a coevolution process. This implies that even if an optimal PRECO-Strat can be defined for a specific case study, it still requires adaptation and phasing out suboptimal components for operationalisation. The main limit of this research process relates to the lack of long-term monitoring of innovation mechanisms and their impact. This research was primarily aimed at defining innovative models rather than a completely finalised and functional project. The results of this research can be further developed as a practical framework to understand local systems by means of long-term retrospective case studies and transition management as action research method.status: publishe

Preventive Conservation of Built Heritage: Foresight and Needs

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Caminos hacia la gobernanza participativa del patrimonio cultural

La base teórica, se fue enriqueciendo progresivamente con el trabajo conjunto realizado con representantes políticos y administrativos de las instituciones gubernamentales, incluidos también actores religiosos. Un gran cambio en el enfoque de Gestión de la Preservación de la Ciudad se produjo en 2011, cuando el proyecto pasó de involucrar a actores representativos a diseñar prácticas de intervención para involucrar las perspectivas de los ciudadanos. Los barrios seleccionados se consideran depositarios de importantes valores patrimoniales culturales que actualmente se encuentran en situación de riesgo y cuyas condiciones de habitabilidad están disminuyendo progresivamente. Durante las caminatas transversales, los participantes interactuaron con actores locales y fueron invitados a responder preguntas relacionadas con los diferentes temas de la conferencia. Enfoques participativos, participación pública, participación de la comunidad, participación de la sociedad civil, comunidades del patrimonio, etc. son expresiones cada vez más utilizadas en la gestión y conservación del patrimonio. Las estrategias culturales con el objetivo de lograr una mayor equidad social y entornos urbanos socialmente más inclusivos se han desarrollado desde finales de la década de 1990.The theoretical basis, was progressively enriched with the joint work carried out with political and administrative representatives of government institutions, including also religious actors. A large shift in the City Preservation Management approach came in 2011, when the project moved beyond involving representative actors, to design intervention practices to involve citizen’s perspectives. The selected neighborhoods are considered as repositories of significant cultural heritage values which are currently at risk and where conditions of habitability are progressively decreasing. During the transect walks participants interacted with local actors and were invited to respond questions related to the different conference topics. Participatory approaches, public participation, community involvement, engaging civil society, heritage communities, etc. are increasingly used expressions in heritage management and conservation. Cultural strategies with the objective of achieving greater social equity and more socially inclusive urban environments have been developed since the late 1990s

A value-based monitoring system to enhance the preventive and planned conservation process

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Preventive and planned conservation as a new management approach for built heritage: from a physical health check to empowering communities and activating (lost) traditions for local sustainable development

El propósito de este documento es ilustrar los activos de un enfoque de conservación preventiva para estructuras históricas de techos de madera, como un medio para mejorar la calidad y la durabilidad de las intervenciones de mantenimiento y reparación.The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the assets of a preventive conservation approach for historical timber roof structures, as a means to improve the quality and durability of maintenance and repair interventions

Place attachment and challenges of historic cities: a qualitative empirical study on heritage values in Cuenca, Ecuador

The effect of heritage on place attachment is assessed by understanding how people “value” their heritage environment. In addition, the purpose of this paper is to assess the effects of place attachment on residential and investment trends according to two different social groups: local inhabitants and foreign immigrants. Design/methodology/approach: A single case study design for Santa Ana de los Ríos de Cuenca including an open-ended survey, combined with Likert-scale analysis. The survey protocol and questions for the respondent groups were structured according to place identity, place dependency and sense of place. Findings: The analysis bridges the gap between theory and practice and demonstrates interesting similarities as well as differences between both foreign and local respondent groups in terms of the attributes they consider as cultural heritage and their preferences in terms of residential or investment location choice. The research demonstrates that an increased understanding of place attachment as the link between place dependency and sense of place in a specific location can assist in defining effective built heritage policies in favour of local sustainability. Originality/value: The analysis of place attachment in relation to the origin of respondents revealed different perceptions on the role that a heritage environment might play on attracting or influencing displacement of local inhabitants and foreign immigrants. Based on original empirical data collection in Cuenca, Ecuador, this study identified research lines and actions which should be prioritised for improving management of this World Heritage Site.The effect of heritage on place attachment is assessed by understanding how people “value” their heritage environment. In addition, the purpose of this paper is to assess the effects of place attachment on residential and investment trends according to two different social groups: local inhabitants and foreign immigrants. Design/methodology/approach: A single case study design for Santa Ana de los Ríos de Cuenca including an open-ended survey, combined with Likert-scale analysis. The survey protocol and questions for the respondent groups were structured according to place identity, place dependency and sense of place. Findings: The analysis bridges the gap between theory and practice and demonstrates interesting similarities as well as differences between both foreign and local respondent groups in terms of the attributes they consider as cultural heritage and their preferences in terms of residential or investment location choice. The research demonstrates that an increased understanding of place attachment as the link between place dependency and sense of place in a specific location can assist in defining effective built heritage policies in favour of local sustainability. Originality/value: The analysis of place attachment in relation to the origin of respondents revealed different perceptions on the role that a heritage environment might play on attracting or influencing displacement of local inhabitants and foreign immigrants. Based on original empirical data collection in Cuenca, Ecuador, this study identified research lines and actions which should be prioritised for improving management of this World Heritage Site

A value-based monitoring system to support heritage conservation planning

Purpose — The purpose of this paper is to presents a conceptual framework for a value-based monitoring system that serves as the core element for heritage conservation planning of World Heritage Sites. It reports on the early stage of heritage management research within the PRECOM3OS framework, in collaboration with the University of Leuven in Belgium and the Universidad de Cuenca in Ecuador. A new management concept was developed throughout a five-year interdisciplinary and multi-actor growth process within an international setting. – The application of the preventive conservation approach to world heritage management places the concepts of authenticity and integrity at the core of the heritage monitoring system. Moreover, the monitoring system is converted into a decision support tool for intervention and maintenance planning, beyond the mere purpose of inventorying or generating alerts. – The regular update of information for condition, risks and value assessment strengths and support strategic heritage planning. The conceptual information system developed is based on an inventory system and updated through monitoring. Therefore, planners are supplied with a tool for alternative scenarios, potential prioritization of intervention, options for preventive conservation and multi-criteria support for strategic planning over time. – The monitoring system is not fully implemented in the World Heritage Site of Cuenca; however, a generic model is put forward, developed to generate a planning tool that can be applied for different heritage sites. – More specific, the integration of two concepts: the value assessment and monitoring from a preventive conservation perspective is considered an innovative contribution to the development of decision-making systems in the broader urban planning context of historic cities