Behavioural Decision-Making in Sustainable Conservation of Built Heritage

The role of heritage buildings in pursuing a more sustainable built environment has been widely discussed in the last decades, from their importance to cohesive and inclusive communities to their contribution to resources conservation and therefore to reducing materials-related carbon emissions. Norms, policies, standards, and design-aid tools have been developed to encourage urban conservation, but a question persists: why are best practices not yet widely implemented? Decision-making processes have an intrinsic behavioural dimension. Decisions are influenced not only by conscious and rational factors related to heritage buildings and their adaptive reuse, but also by a conjugation of social, psychological, and emotional factors related to the designer. This research uses the “Theory of Planned Behaviour” to analyse architects’ design decisions and reveal the common beliefs, challenges, and opportunities in the conservation of heritage buildings. The results show that while responsibility for the failure in the implementation of conservation is often attributed to third parties, individual attitudes and personal beliefs strongly correlate to the adopted behaviours and, thus, need to be targeted for effective change. Understanding the behavioural dimension of the decision-making process in the adaptive reuse of built heritage is essential to maximize the effect of tools and policies that support actual change toward the growth of a circular economy and a more sustainable future.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care. Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Heritage & Architectur

Contributions to a Revised Definition of Sustainable Conservation

The inclusion of Heritage in the global agenda for sustainable development has contributed to a broader discussion around the interconnection between heritage and sustainability. However, the definitions of both concepts lack consensus. In the last decade, hundreds of definitions of sustainability can be identified in the scientific literature. Often these definitions focus on different dimensions of sustainable development and do not cover the overlapping of social, economic and environmental aspects. The indicators vary according to the main goal and/or specific building under assessment. Moreover, the concept/notion of heritage is understood as a social process based upon definitions and values, which are dynamic and evolve. During the last decades, there is growing attention for the integration of such comprehensive concepts and several frameworks have been developed. However, a systematic definition of the relation between the two concepts is lacking. Some authors even pointed out that the multiple approaches, too specific for each context, lack objectivity and reduce credibility. The main goal of this paper is to contribute to a revised definition of sustainable conservation at the intersection of these two concepts, based on a narrative review of the recent literature and international reference documents, developed by different organisations, such as ICOMOS, the United Nations, and the International Organization for Standardization and the European Committee for Standardization.Architectural Engineering +Technolog

Building passport for the sustainable conservation of built heritage

Purpose: This research presents the development of a Building Passport for Sustainable Conservation (BPSC) as a questionnaire with a set of 23 core indicators, for a baseline assessment of heritage buildings. The aim of this tool is to identify priorities for future interventions, by recognising the contributions of heritage buildings to sustainability that should be preserved and the fragilities that need to be improved. Design/methodology/approach: The BPSC uses a selection of core indicators for sustainability observable on heritage buildings. It was applied to four different case studies of modern heritage in the Netherlands, to verify its applicability and limitations. Findings: The results suggest that this tool has the potential to contribute to an expedite assessment, reaching consensual evaluations of priorities for sustainable conservation, while reducing the time and cost of the process, contributing to support informed redesign decisions. Originality/value: Recently, existing building sustainability assessment (BSA) tools have been adapted and new BSA tools developed for heritage buildings. Some tools target existing buildings, but seldom cover cultural significance and heritage values. Others target the after-redesign situations – aiming at assessing how sustainable the redesign is. Often BSA tools are complex and time-consuming, with extensive indicators and data requirements. The BPSC developed in this research covers the main aspects of sustainability and related heritage values, in a simpler tool for a baseline assessment.Heritage & TechnologyHeritage & Value