Is Architecture Connected with Intangible Cultural Heritage? Reflections from Architectural Digital Documentation and Interactive Application Design in Three Aegean Islands

Pavlos Chatzigrigoriou,Vasiliki Nikolakopoulou,Panayiotis Koutsabasis,Spyros Vosinakis,Theodoros Vakkas

doi:10.3390/heritage4020038

Pavlos Chatzigrigoriou, Vasiliki Nikolakopoulou + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage4020038

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Journal: Heritage	Publication Date: Apr 21, 2021
Citations: 8	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of the Aegean

Abstract

The research project “Mouseion Topos” (in English: “Museums Place”), focusing on traditional local settlements situated at three Aegean islands, aims to contribute to the promotion of their physiognomy and intangible cultural heritage by connecting regional museums with each settlement. The present article, part of the project’s initial phase, via the application of the HERMeS methodology (version 1 and 2) and the development of the associate digital documentation tools, identifies and records the architectural and urban elements influenced by each settlement’s intangible cultural heritage as listed by UNESCO and presented by their corresponding museums. The research findings revealed connections between the museums’ content and the documented tangible heritage based on the formulated conceptual and heatmaps, which can be used at the early design stages of the current project’s interactive applications, especially in mobile tours. Finally, the research findings verify that despite the limitations and issues for further research, the introduced HERMeS methodology and digital tools are reliable and contribute to the respective field’s theory. The paper also provides beneficial deliberation on digital architectural heritage documentation methods and interactive technologies, highlighting points and areas of interest that the tourist industry, technology designers, museum curators, and architects can employ.

Highlights

Recording and preserving buildings and protecting a place’s cultural heritage are crucial because it leads to many conclusions about the evolution of our culture
Each settlement is associated with a museum showcasing the related and worldly-recognized, intangible cultural heritage
The geospatial information gathered through the architectural documentation is combined with conceptual mapping schemes attempting to connect the museum’s content with the settlement’s points of interest, which, together with the representative buildings, provide an informed understanding of the settlement’s physiognomy

Summary

Introduction

Recording and preserving buildings and protecting a place’s cultural heritage are crucial because it leads to many conclusions about the evolution of our culture. While old sites are forgotten, new representations emerge, and the landscapes of memory created, are scattered throughout the city depending on the formal urban design or traditional practices of different communities. To that matter, these landscapes of memory require the recording, control, and classification of representations of space. The “Charter of Athens” places the wider urban environment’s cultural elements in a framework of urban development planning perspective. In this sense, it can be considered a milestone in scientific thinking to protect heritage. In 1993, the second ICOMOS conference introduced inventory listings for historic building stocks, as well as scholarly work supporting the need to approach historic buildings and ensembles, as elements of cultural and architectural heritage and as “resources” [19]

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