Lessons from Island of Mozambique on limits of acceptable change

This paper recalls the eternal dilemma between transformation and protection. It argues on the assumption that protection is a challenging form of transformation, instead of being opposites, as often echoed in cultural heritage management. Follows a plea for more exact global targets on the protection of cultural heritage, elaborated into an introduction to the notion limits of acceptable change, and particular trends on its application. Next, this paper discloses the lessons learned from a case study on the Island of Mozambique, in Mozambique, with particular attention to the application of limits of acceptable change in urban planning, and the subsequent impact on the protection of its cultural (World) heritage. The conclusions recall the reality of applying such limits, and end recommending a roadmap towards the sustainable urban development of Island of Mozambique

How can urbanization be sustainable? : a reflection on the role of city resources in global sustainable development

This article is a contribution to the debate on the role of city resources in global sustainable development. It discusses the evolution of models in which urbanization is defined to be sustainable, as well as, their relation to the conservation of city resources. Further, it provides an in-depth reflection on the UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape, reviewing its elaboration and implementation, both in practice and research. The results are expected to help government officials, academics, activists, or interested citizens identify and address the sustainability of urbanization, as well as, discuss the role of conservation of city resources in global sustainable development

Interventions in built heritage: Managing which risks and for whom

This paper aims to illustrate the fundamental dichotomy involving interventions in built heritage. On one side, the influential factors; and on the other side, the resultant risks. Both researchers have decided to join the knowledge acquainted in the last years of research and present to their field of expertise an essential state-of-the-art on which are presented the risks that normally require management when intervening in built heritage, as well as, the respective beneficiaries. This literature survey allowed the researchers to verify that even if most frequently risk management is directly related to ‘financial losses’ and ‘human being losses’, there are also other fundamental losses which deserve equal attention. Those are ‘heritage losses’ as well as ‘material losses’. Further research should be undertaken, so that it is better understood per fundamental factors what and who exactly could contribute to the reduction of uncertainty and probability, together with the risks that normally require management

Interventions in built heritage: Managing which risks and for whom

This paper aims to illustrate the fundamental dichotomy involving interventions in built heritage. On one side, the influential factors; and on the other side, the resultant risks. Both researchers have decided to join the knowledge acquainted in the last years of research and present to their field of expertise an essential state-of-the-art on which are presented the risks that normally require management when intervening in built heritage, as well as, the respective beneficiaries. This literature survey allowed the researchers to verify that even if most frequently risk management is directly related to ‘financial losses’ and ‘human being losses’, there are also other fundamental losses which deserve equal attention. Those are ‘heritage losses’ as well as ‘material losses’. Further research should be undertaken, so that it is better understood per fundamental factors what and who exactly could contribute to the reduction of uncertainty and probability, together with the risks that normally require management

Historic urban landscapes : an assessment framework part II

Current theory defines conservation, or heritage management, as ‘managing thoughtful change’ and recommends a landscape-based approach towards heritage management. Moreover, it indicates a landscape-based approach to heritage management as a key indicator for sustainable socio-economic development. The recent UNESCO (November 2011) recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) provides guidance on such a landscape-based approach at international level. Yet, it is now up to the national and local governments to adapt, disseminate and facilitate its implementation. The research aims to develop a method to reveal the way historic cities currently manage contemporary socio-economic transformations. This is done by evaluating their management practices by means of an assessment framework. This framework has been deduced from a thorough literature survey to identify the evolution and guidelines on international cultural heritage management, including those proposed by HUL. The framework intents to be a method to reveal the differences and resemblances between existing local policy and management practices and those recommended by the HUL approach, defined for 4 dependent variables: attributes, values, stakeholders and strategies. The part of the framework presented in this paper to reveal how the values of cultural heritage are addressed in current policy. The recent adoption of HUL makes it difficult to assess the results of its implementation; therefore the framework will be used to assess the policy and management practices in cities that previously implemented measures similar to HUL such as Amsterdam. Keywords: Heritage Management, Historic Urban Landscape, Assessment Framewor

How sustainable rehabilitation designers really are

RE-ARCHITECTURE is a design process support system that aims to support designers, when involved in rehabilitation design developments. Before getting access to the full content of RE-ARCHITECTURE, users were asked to contribute to a pre-survey, by answering online Questionnaire B1. The analysis of its results, intended to identify the category of designers, their design processes and guiding principles. As RE-ARCHITECTURE aims to contribute to a more sustained and lifespan conscious rehabilitation design development, this pre-survey is fundamental to understand how sustainable rehabilitation designers really are and how appropriate RE-ARCHITECTURE can be to sustain their aims. This paper synthesizes the pre-survey results, where such issues were most evident