Espacios públicos ‘desplazados’ en ciudades ucranianas: aumento de la diversidad y la inclusión en la reconstrucción urbana a través de la ocupación temporal

This research engages with the tragic consequences of “urbicide”, the deliberate destruction of urban environments. While urbicide erases physical and cultural heritage, temporary urban phenomena can lead to the development of new tangible and intangible heritage, which could drive reconstruction and transformation. These temporary urban spaces are the result of collective action indicating diverse forms of “agency”, negotiation and decision-making, which may lead to alternative urban development processes characterized by sense of belonging and social participation through “temporality”. Through a case study methodology involving two cities in Ukraine, the research argues that the interaction of the temporary use of space with its informal appropriation may lead to long-term collective leadership and increasing levels of “autonomy” in the making of urban places. These processes of urban transformation, therefore, call for collective actions that respond to local needs and shared heritage, shaping urban spaces and associated cultural values. Exploring the cities of Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv, the research sheds light on the potential for this new intangible heritage, emerging through the temporary use of city center spaces by internally displaced people (IDPs), to contribute to post-conflict urban reconstruction and identify the conditions under which more inclusive and diverse urban development processes can counteract the effects of urbicide.Esta investigación aborda las trágicas consecuencias del “urbicidio,” la destrucción deliberada de los entornos urbanos. Mientras que el “urbicidio” borra el patrimonio físico y cultural, los fenómenos urbanos “temporales” pueden conducir al desarrollo de un nuevo patrimonio tangible e intangible, que podría impulsar la reconstrucción y la transformación. Estos espacios urbanos temporales son el resultado de acciones colectivas que indican diversas formas de “agencia,” negociación y toma de decisiones, y pueden conducir a procesos urbanos alternativos, caracterizados por el sentido de pertenencia y la participación social a través de la “temporalidad.” A través de una metodología que aplica estudio de caso involucrando dos ciudades en Ukrania, la investigación sostiene que, si el uso temporal del espacio interactúa con su apropiación informal, esto puede conducir a un liderazgo colectivo a largo plazo y a niveles crecientes de “autonomía” en la creación de espacio urbano. Estos procesos de transformación urbana, por lo tanto, exigen acciones colectivas que respondan a las necesidades locales y al patrimonio compartido, generando espacio urbano y valores culturales. Al explorar las ciudades de Ivano-Frankivsk y Lviv, ésta investigación descubre el potencial de este nuevo patrimonio intangible, que surge del uso temporal de espacios urbanos por parte de desplazados internos (PDI), para contribuir a la reconstrucción urbana del posconflicto e identifica las condiciones bajo las cuales se puede lograr desarrollos urbanos más inclusivos y con mayor diversidad, capaces de contrarrestar los efectos del “urbicidio”

Tracing intangible cultural heritage

This paper presents an overview of the institutionalised discourse on ‘cultural heritage’ with emphasis on the recognition of intangible cultural heritage. The presentation has two parts: (i) The first part presents a timeline on shifts of definitions and of actions suggested towards safeguarding world heritage. With a view to trace the aggregation of what we could nowadays call ‘established heritage’, this part examines precise moments from the mid-twentieth century onwards which expanded the notion of monument to urban areas and towards – what is now known as – intangible cultural heritage; (ii) The second part examines the two typologies of heritage – tangible and intangible – through the prism of their definitions given by UNESCO in 1972 and 2003 respectively and identifies the aspects that differentiate process and outcome in heritage discourse

Dissolving [in]tangible cultural heritage: exploring material performative endurance in a locus of temporal transition

This thesis investigates and extends the concept of intangible cultural heritage in order to dissolve the normative and static image of tangible heritage fostered by conservation practices that promote spectacle-heritage. By understanding cultural expressions as processes of constant becoming—as opposed to framed outcomes—this research study aims to contribute to a theoretical discourse on material performative endurance in the field of architectural theory. Furthermore, it seeks to provide tools for unveiling the concealed heritage of a locus and to propose a theoretical framework for opening up new fields of enquiry and design in historic settings. The study seeks to examine the ways in which the intangible state of architectural heritage can be articulated and revealed through a discourse and a practice located on the borderline between conservation and architectural design. Current conservation practices posit and frame the subject of architectural heritage within criteria that correspond to its normative image—i.e. footprint or façade—and thus, fix the past and emphasise the solid and tangible. In this sense, the qualities that contribute to the shaping of cultural heritage as a continuous anticipation of creative expressions, are underrated. In other words, the established ideology of conservation, approaches the sensed or seen cultural heritage of the present, and fails to consider its un-sensed and unseen adaptive character. This thesis touches upon the aforementioned lacuna of heritage discourse and understands cultural manifestations within a hereditary cumulative process of continuous becoming. In opposition to a teleological model of thought, associated with fixed and framed outcomes, the intangible here is introduced as a flux of versatile processes that contribute to a constant material making. In order to unveil this quality of material heritage and examine the tangible-intangible outcomes of human creativity, the thesis proposes an experimental approach between theory and praxis and a hybrid research methodology. The section of theory advances a threefold conceptual apparatus and enunciates the intangibility of physical heritage as a multiplicity of people, their practices, and the outcomes of their cultural manifestations in time and space. Firstly, Tim Ingold’s notion of the meshwork is employed to convey the interrelations between urban artefacts and people (Ingold; 2007). Secondly, Michel Serres’ concept of noise is articulated to address the resonance of a locus’ time-states within its tangible place (Serres; 1995). Thirdly, Michel Foucault’s heterotopia offers a framework to examine the locus as a quasi-space where all possibilities are present (Foucault; 1986). The conceptual apparatus tests the hypothesis in praxis at a site of temporal transition, where place and memory are entangled. Chambers Street is selected as the locus of examination due to its complex transitional condition and as part of the long urban history and development of the city of Edinburgh. The research utilises experimental techniques, as well as tools for analysis of archival sources, documented evidence and past architectural manifestations as these have been practised in Chambers Street over the last four centuries. The interplay between theory and praxis is a recursive method which enables a way to ‘unlock’ the locus beyond its established footprint and façade, and to contextualise its material performative endurance. The analysis-through-drawing aims to demonstrate that the locus, rather than being a static cultural product, is variable, accumulating within its presence all past states of interventions with equal value. Thus, this thesis opens up fields of possibilities for future architectural practices as components of a constantly becoming heritage

The Conservation Challenges of Regenerating An Urban Industrial Zone: Exploring The Design Options

This document is a design project study which concerns the regeneration of an urban industrial zone. In particular it focuses on the conservation challenges that arise from the new development of Shrub Place Lane, where the traces from the past meet the new design options. As this study is guided by design methods, it is accompanied by a considerable number of illustrations while each part of the research constitutes a step for the final proposal. Due to the size of the area of focus and its component structures, the following study can be characterized as an urban conservation project and includes different phases of research. The new planning methods are formed through a detailed analysis of the site, based on cartographic sources, including previous case studies for its development and examples of regenerations in Europe that succeeded to conserve the original character of deserted places. This regeneration is guided strictly by conservation principles, in order to achieve a successful assimilation of the site into the urban fabric and propose an appropriate masterplan for its future development