Built Heritage Sites Research Articles

The War in Tigray and Its Immediate Impact on Cultural Heritage in Eastern Tigray

Abstract The study aimed to conduct an assessment of the damage caused by the two year war in Tigray on some of the cultural heritage from Eastern Tigray. Field surveys and interviews with local inhabitants were used to collect relevant data. The gathered data were analyzed and interpreted using a qualitative approach. The survey results showed that churches, monasteries, mosques, towns, and villages were frequently shelled by combatants and that there was significant and deliberate destruction of built heritage sites and looting of sites and treasures. These data suggest that the aims of this destruction were to (1) dominate local historical narratives and identities, (2) suppress communities, and (3) exploit resources for personal gain. The hate speech engraved on the walls indicated that cultural heritage in Eastern Tigray was targeted with intention. This intentional destruction of important cultural heritage was expressed in the horrific massacre of civilians and religious leaders. The current preliminary assessment overall shows that iconic cultural resources were heavily damaged and historic documents and treasures were looted following the two-year war in Tigray. We conclude this study with an urgent call for recovery projects aimed at preventing further loss of cultural heritage in Eastern Tigray.

Economic and Institutional Factors Influencing the Selection of Project Delivery Models for Built Heritage Conservation in India

ABSTRACT Selecting a suitable project delivery method is one of the most critical decisions responsible for project success in heritage conservation. This is an area where projects have greater uncertainties and governance issues in comparison to other building projects. India has a huge inventory of built heritage sites, but the heritage conservation sector is highly fragmented, with a wide range of project delivery methods. This paper discusses the selection of project delivery in the Indian context, using the theoretical lenses of agency theory, transaction cost economics (TCE), and institution theory. A conceptual framework has been proposed to explain the selection based on economical and institutional constructs. Our conclusion is that when institutional factors are weak, projects are executed departmentally or through non-priced contracts. In contrast, strong institutional forces discourage non-priced contracts and replace them with priced contracts.

Using a digital participatory approach to facilitate inclusivity in Jordanian heritage sites: Stakeholders’ requirements and a proposed system

Abstract The combination of social engagement engines and immersive technologies, such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and digital twins holds great potential for the development of tourism industry during the designing and planning stages. When introduced to experts, this innovative approach allows us to advance creative solutions while keeping the community engaged and enhancing the decision-making process. Virtual designing and planning processes can significantly transform the workflows of professionals and promote inclusive practices in all Jordanian archaeological and heritage sites, particularly those involved in the “Accessible Tourism” project. This article presents an exploratory quantitative study conducted through a comprehensive literature review and participatory interviews. The study involved 23 participants from the “Accessible Tourism” project. It focused on identifying professionals’ barriers affecting the application of inclusivity in historical sites. Additionally, the study defined challenges and requirements to determine digitally inclusive applications. The study results highlighted the challenges faced by stakeholders and experts in developing inclusivity in built heritage sites in Jordan, such as interdepartmental communication, historic preservation constraints, and comprehension of accessibility codes. It also addressed the difficulties in engaging users with disabilities or marginalized communities in developing inclusive facilities. Based on these findings, a unique framework for remotely analysing target users within an immersive environment is proposed. This framework has been developed in collaboration with key stakeholders and set the stage for further research and collaboration. Future research should emphasize the importance of inclusive practices and user involvement in designing accessible and enriching tourism experiences at Jordan’s heritage sites.

Towards a Holistic Narration of Place: Conserving Natural and Built Heritage at the Humble Administrator’s Garden, China

World Heritage tourism in China regulates conservation approaches employed across natural and built heritage sites. However, focusing on the revenue-generating potential of these sites sustains material authenticity and technical conservation methods. The outcome is a conflict between conservation and commercialization, where socio-cultural values are overshadowed by the process of museumization. Underpinned by critical heritage theory and a focus on intangible heritage, this research seeks to confront this conflict by examining the shifting conservation practice at the Humble Administrator’s Garden (HAG), a World Heritage Site and Classical Garden of Suzhou, China. A mixed-methodological approach explores the interplay between architecture and landscape within its heritage conservation process, utilizing archival research, semi-structured interviews with HAG Management, and visitor journals. The study shows how HAG’s heritage is shaped by visitors’ personal experiences and emotions alongside expert interpretations, resulting in the foregrounding of diverse narratives that contribute to a holistic sense of place. Within its politicized system, the safeguarding of intangible heritage requires constant negotiation among the municipality, the market, and emerging narrators. Attempts to reinterpret its former heritage buildings demonstrate a changing conservation discourse as the site transitions from an exclusive literati estate to a multivocal space of cultural encounter. The study illustrates how a focus on narrative representation unifies architecture and landscape, reimagining centuries of literati culture. This makes conceptual space for considering how conservation management can inform a more holistic narration of ‘place’ at similar World Heritage sites via the foregrounding of previously silent stakeholders.

Outside Inn: Exploring the Heritage of a Historic Hotel through 360-Panoramas

This research project investigates the potential of 360-panorama tours to improve the situated and contextual interpretation, virtual visitation, and spatial understanding of recorded or simulated built heritage sites. Our chosen case study was the Subiaco Hotel, a significant heritage building designed by Summerhayes Architecture, which we documented using 360-degree photographs and linked with other media to create an interactive 360-panorama tour. Today, 360-degree panorama tours such as Google Street View enable the virtual exploration of heritage sites and historic buildings. They demonstrate limited interaction and immersion across a range of platforms and devices, without the requirement of expensive virtual reality headsets, but typically do not integrate other media to leverage spatially richer ways to communicate the historical developments of architectural interiors and exteriors. The primary goals of this study were to establish a comprehensive step-by-step workflow for creating an interactive tour of a significant heritage site, demonstrate how other media such as text, videos, and 3D models can be linked, gather feedback from cultural heritage professionals, and offer future research directions and development guidelines. Apart from detailing an optimized workflow for developing interactive 360-degree virtual tours for heritage buildings, we also offer guidelines for optimal panoramic tour creation and implementation.

Translating Change: A Continuity of Craft Heritage at Coventry Cathedral, UK

Change is historically seen as incompatible with built heritage. Paradoxically, change can charge heritage with enough cultural activity to facilitate its ongoing valorization. Change may therefore be better understood as a collection of recreations by contemporary societies, like how UNESCO portrays intangible heritage. However, to understand built heritage in this way, interpretative approaches must reconceptualize physical sites as constantly evolving in response to their ever-changing sociocultural context. Expanding on the history of linguistic analogies for architectural interpretation, this article explores ‘translation’ as an analogy that can illuminate constantly recreated traditions at built heritage sites. Using the Grade 1 listed Coventry Cathedral, UK, the craft traditions associated with the site are used as a vehicle to reconceptualize built heritage as constantly recreated in relation to temporal traditions (or ICH), which both perpetuate and transform the physical building across time. The article concludes by suggesting physical changes made to the site have simultaneously sustained and changed its craft traditions. Through constant recreation or translation, the site has maintained a commitment to its history whilst continually responding to present-day social needs. This not only ensures relevance to contemporary society but also creates a rich foundation for translation of its heritage into the future.

Heritage interpretation from supply and demand perspectives: the case of culinary heritage workshops in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT Interpretation helps visitors understand the value of resources and the need for preservation. Existing interpretation principles focus more on natural and built heritage sites, rather than intangible cultural heritage, such as traditional foodways. Hence, this study examined the interpretation of culinary heritage from the supply side (i.e. heritage owners and tour operators) and demand side (i.e. visitors), and revealed how culinary heritage interpretation differs from that of tangible heritage. First, existing interpretation principles in the literature were categorized and synthesized. Next, Hong Kong was selected as the study site. Observations were conducted on nine culinary heritage workshops in Hong Kong, and thirty heritage owners/operators and workshop participants were interviewed. Findings revealed that ‘culinary’ elements were introduced through a standardized process with value-added activities, whereas ‘heritage’ interpretations were non-standardized. From the perspectives of consumers and suppliers, five themes of effective interpretation were identified respectively. Participants seek interpretations that are personalized by heritage owners, showcase all possible traditions, and enable post-event sharing. Owners/operators design interpretations that facilitate idea exchange and promote innovative revitalization. A new model is proposed for culinary heritage interpretation, which extends the interpretation timeframe to pre-, during, and post-event and highlights the needs and personal involvement of heritage owners.

Vegetation, Bulldozing, and Urban Change-Related Risks to Built Heritage in Bawshar, Oman

ABSTRACT Built heritage in Oman faces many natural and cultural risks. Socio-economic development has negatively affected the built heritage in Bawshar, one of Oman’s most developed cities. This study identifies and measures the current and potential risks to built heritage in Bawshar, focusing on vegetation, bulldozing, and urban change-related risks between 2000 and 2017. It also provides baseline data to help heritage managers protect the sites most vulnerable to risks. Satellite imagery and geographic information systems were used to classify change-related risks to built heritage. Risk maps were produced for the built heritage sites under threat over different periods in Bawshar. The results showed that 60%, 28%, and 11% of very high- and high-risk zones faced bulldozing, vegetation, and urban change-related risks, respectively. The methodology adopted in this study can help measure the type and magnitude of risks to built heritage in cities with characteristics similar to those of Bawshar.

Built heritage and planning laws in Africa: the Nigerian Experience

Built heritage has been and is being threatened by natural and man-made factors such as urbanisation, climate change, civil unrest, and activities of extractive industries among others. These factors have led to the destruction of built heritage culminating in a gap in the cultural history and identity of the people. Over the years, in every country, there have been different regimes that have regulated the preservation and sustainability of built heritage sites, ranging from the traditional pre-colonial era, the colonial era and the post-colonial era. This article from the perspective of law and history, examines the trajectory of the heritage management systems over the years in Nigeria to identify necessary areas of improvements that are needed to adequately manage and protect built heritage against the identified endangering factor of urban development. From its comprehensive analysis, this paper argues that in-order to adequately manage built heritage, it is important to adopt a holistic approach that will require the harmonisation of the various heritage management systems while taking steps to document indigenous conservation methods. On the other hand, harmonisation of all heritage laws with town planning laws is essential for sustainability.

Semantic segmentation and photogrammetry of crowdsourced images to monitor historic facades

Crowdsourced images hold information could potentially be used to remotely monitor heritage sites, and reduce human and capital resources devoted to on-site inspections. This article proposes a combination of semantic image segmentation and photogrammetry to monitor changes in built heritage sites. In particular, this article focuses on segmenting potentially damaging plants from the surrounding stone masonry and other image elements. The method compares different backend models and two model architectures: (i) a one-stage model that segments seven classes within the image, and (ii) a two-stage model that uses the results from the first stage to refine a binary segmentation for the plant class. The final selected model can achieve an overall IoU of 66.9% for seven classes (54.6% for one-stage plant, 56.2% for two-stage plant). Further, the segmentation output is combined with photogrammetry to build a 3D segmented model to measure the area of biological growth. Lastly, the main findings from this paper are: (i) With the help of transfer learning and proper choice of model architecture, image segmentation can be easily applied to analyze crowdsourcing data. (ii) Photogrammetry can be combined with image segmentation to alleviate image distortions for monitoring purpose. (iii) Beyond the measurement of plant area, this method has the potential to be easily transferred into other tasks, such as monitoring cracks and erosion, or as a masking tool in the photogrammetry workflow.

Rock art Conservation and Tourism in Iringa Region, Tanzania

Much of the archaeological research in Tanzania over the last three decades has focused on sites that have yielded early hominin fossils and the resulting data has been analysed and discussed with the goal of generating knowledge about hominins bio-cultural evolution. Previous research focused on monumental, built heritage sites along the coast of the Indian Ocean and the interregional trade networks that existed from 1000 to 1500 A.D located along the coast of the Tanzania. This regional research prioritization in Tanzania and bias has resulted in the marginalization of some geographical regions in Tanzania from a research perspective and a resultant lack of understanding of important sites in the interior archaeological sites. Our research shifts attention from the famously well researched sites to the less investigated sites in the interior of Tanzania. We have noted that many of these sites currently face many natural and anthropogenic threats. Thus, we propose a number of sustainable management and conservation strategies to mitigate threats to these non-renewable heritage resources of Iringa Region, particularly the rock art sites. We highlight the roles of different stakeholders including the Government of Tanzania in the conservation and management of the country’s patrimonies.

The role of augmented reality in revitalizing the tourist space of the built heritage via perception

Successive Technological innovations have provided new possibilities for activating tourism in the built heritage sites. Augmented reality (AR) technology is considered is emerging as one of the technologies witnessing great demand from the authorities concerned with the places of built heritage. Therefore, there is a need to study this technology and its potential to improve the perception of the tourist space in order to activate it in tourism where this topic was not covered in previous studies. The aim of the research is to develop a theoretical framework that explains the perceptual aspect of augmented reality and its role in revitalizing the tourist space of the built heritage. The research thus goes to review previous studies on the relationship between built heritage and augmented reality technology, then it presents the basic concepts about revitalizing the tourist space and the perceptual aspects of augmented reality technology, indicators of the conceptual framework are extracted and discussed. The framework represents a tool in enhancing the design and construction of augmented reality models for the built heritage, as well as the possibility of using it to assess the perceptual aspect of these models with the aim of revitalizing the tourist space.

Underground Environments, Worldviews, and Sustainable Stewardship

This paper examines an aspect of a value-based approach to underground built heritage (UBH). A key tool for the manager of any built heritage today is the mapping of its manifold values for different audiences, to inform their management strategy. This paper first reviews an important paradigm shift that has occurred in the humanities and in cultural heritage management, leading to the recognition of the centrality of the worldviews and lived experience of the different members that make up communities. Drawing on a selection of examples from the literature, it then demonstrates how many UBH sites across a wide spectrum of cultures acquired cosmological and cultic value and significance in a way that is qualitatively different to most built heritage sites above ground. The spectrum of challenges that this poses to the UBH site manager is then outlined by reviewing literature on a selection of UBH examples, from prehistoric archaeological sites to living religious sites. Some key guiding principles are proposed for the management of these different scenarios. Culturally sensitive management that respects the existing value systems of local communities is indispensable wherever such communities are present. Decision-makers need to be keenly aware of these value systems and need to recognize, empower, and complement existing traditional systems of stewardship.

Safeguarding Cultural Heritage using novel technologies: The perspective from a UK volunteer-led site

Continuing anthropogenic induced climate change poses risks to Cultural Heritage (CH) across the world. In the UK, concerns about future flood risks, increased number of heatwaves and changes to freeze-thaw cycles are at the forefront for managers of CH assets. Importantly, in the UK, and unlike many European countries, cultural, natural and built heritage sites are often run by or with the help of groups of volunteers, whether that being at a national level working in partnership with organisations like Historic England or at a local level with small community trusts. Mellor Archaeological Trust is one such local charity which aims to preserve, maintain and protect the local CH assets for our community and future generations. Climate change and its impacts are, therefore, a big concern for the trust as it looks to plan for the future. After a successful pilot of the STORM service, Mellor was able to demonstrate how the use of inexpensive and novel technologies can help small and large volunteer-led organisations in protecting heritage whilst ensuring that correct procedures are followed. In this paper, we demonstrate the successful use of the STORM service from a UK perspective explaining the benefits and drawbacks and highlight how such services should be utilised by other organisations.

Copernicus Sentinel imagery for more risk-resilient historic cities in coastal zones: contribution to the monitoring of Albenga archaeological site and delta of river Centa

Earth observation (EO) technologies and products are traditionally providing an extremely important contribution to a more efficient management of built areas and people during emergencies. Their employment could be extremely useful in monitoring and risk assessment of protected monument and sites situated in potentially vulnerable areas such as costal zones. Change detection has a crucial role in such activities, especially in case of hazardous events—on one side, this method can provide inputs in the phases of risk assessment and rapid mapping for immediate response; on the other side, over prolonged periods of time after the event, change detection can be used for purposes of option analysis of technical solutions and for overall recovery planning of the site. Workflow proposed is based on the use of Copernicus Sentinel-2 data to provide the comparison of changes occurring during extreme flooding events of river Centa, Liguria. Firstly, an investigation of NDVI and NDWI of the extreme flooding event occurring in November 2019 was conducted. The event was then put in correlation with another previously studied flooding hazard occurring in 2016 in the same area that has caused severe damages to the archaeological remains of the medieval church of San Clemente, situated within the Centa riverbed. In conclusion, the results from both years have been compared with ground truth data of topographic database in order to observe the extension of the flooded area and to provide contribution to the monitoring activities. The aim of the research was to offer some novel insight for a more informed decision-making during the risk assessment, risk management and resilience phases regarding the vulnerable built heritage sites found in coastal areas.

Do really the Audience's Views Efficiently Boost Built Heritage Conservation Policies?

The role of the audience in re-manufacturing built heritage sites and formulating their conservation policies has often been outlawed by the full control of the site authority through its singularity in formulating these policies. Excluding the locals from efficient participation in setting up these policies is usually attributed by the authority to the vague role that they would precisely play. However, the rich body of ICOMOS Charters and UNESCO Conventions has frequently considered the locals as “real custodians” of these sites, legitimising their participation in drawing up heritage conservation policies. This is due to the diverse cultural potential that can be made by them for the conservation policies of these sites. This paper investigates the precise role that the audience can demonstrate within re-manufacturing heritage and constructing its futuristic policies. It is indicated that the audience‟s views possess different motives culturally, historically and touristically that enable them to efficiently participate in re-manufacturing the architectural heritage of their traditional environments. Therefore, the public‟s deep experience towards their heritage issues can revive the site with some practical ideas stemming from its reality.

DIGITAL TOOLS FOR DOCUMENTING AND CONSERVING BAHRAIN’S BUILT HERITAGE FOR POSTERITY

Abstract. Documenting the physical characteristics of historic structures is the first step for any preventive maintenance, monitoring, conservation, planning and promotion action. Metric documentation supports informative decision-making process for property owners, site managers, public officials, and conservators. This information serves also a broader purpose, over time, it becomes the primary means by which scholars, heritage professionals, and the general public understand a site that radically changed or disappeared. Further, documentation supports monitoring as well as the character-defining elements analysis, relevant to define the values of the building for the local and international community. The awareness of these concepts oriented the digital documentation and training activities, developed between 2016 and 2017, for the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities (BACA) in Bahrain. The developed activities had two main aims: a) support the local staff in using specific recording techniques to efficiently document and consequently preserve built heritage sites with appropriate accuracy and in a relatively short period; b) develop a pilot project in collaboration with BACA to validate the capacity of the team to accurately document and produce measured records for the conservation and management of Bahrain built heritage. The documentation project has been developed by a multidisciplinary team of experts from BACA, Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS), Carleton University, Canada and a contracted researcher from the Gicarus Lab, Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI) in Italy. In the training activities, the participants have been exposed to a wide range of recording techniques, illustrating them the selection criteria for the most suitable one, according to requirements, site specifications, categories of values identified for the various built elements, and budget. The pilot project has been tested on three historical structures, both with strong connotations in the Bahrain cultural identity: the Shaikh Isa bin Ali house, Aljazzaf house and the Siyadi Majlis. These two buildings, outstanding examples of Bahrain architecture as well as tangible memory of the country history, have been documented employing several digital techniques, including: aerial and terrestrial photogrammetry, rectifying photography, total station and 3D laser scanning.

BUILT HERITAGE DOCUMENTATION AND MANAGEMENT: AN INTEGRATED CONSERVATION APPROACH IN BAGAN

Abstract. Good practices in heritage conservation are based on accurate information about conditions, materials, and transformation of built heritage sites. Therefore, heritage site documentation and its analysis are essential parts for their conservation. In addition, the devastating effects of recent catastrophic events in different geographical areas have highly affected cultural heritage places. Such areas include and are not limited to South Europe, South East Asia, and Central America. Within this framework, appropriate acquisition of information can effectively provide tools for the decision-making process and management. Heritage documentation is growing in innovation, providing dynamic opportunities for effectively responding to the alarming rate of destruction by natural events, conflicts, and negligence. In line with these considerations, a multidisciplinary team – including students and faculty members from Carleton University and Yangon Technological University, as well as staff from the Department of Archaeology, National Museum and Library (DoA) and professionals from the CyArk foundation – developed a coordinated strategy to document four temples in the site of Bagan (Myanmar). On-field work included capacity-building activities to train local emerging professionals in the heritage field (graduate and undergraduate students from the Yangon Technological University) and to increase the technical knowledge of the local DoA staff in the digital documentation field. Due to the short time of the on-field activity and the need to record several monuments, a variety of documentation techniques, including image and non-image based ones, were used. Afterwards, the information acquired during the fieldwork was processed to develop a solid base for the conservation and monitoring of the four documented temples. The relevance of developing this kind of documentation in Bagan is related to the vulnerability of the site, often affected by natural seismic events and flooding, as well as the lack of maintenance. Bagan provided an excellent case study to test the effectiveness of the proposed approach, to prevent and manage the damages of catastrophic events, and to support retrofitting actions. In order to test the flexibility of adopted methodology and workflow, temples with different features – in terms of architectural design, shape, and geometry – were selected. The goals of these documentation activities range from testing digital documentation workflows for the metric and visual recording of the site (reviewing strengths and limitations of particular recording techniques), to the definition of effective conditions assessment strategies.

Integrated rural heritage landscapes: The case of agricultural cooperative settlements and open space in Israel

• The present trends pose a threat to the continued existence of Israeli rural cooperative settlements and the surrounding open space. • There is a need for a integrative planning perspective combining rural settlements and open space. • The role that vernacular cultural built heritage sites play in the kibbutz and moshav environment today. • Encouraging relevant planning authorities to cooperate in designing an integrative plan for rural heritage landscapes and valued open space.

A history of conservation of built heritage sites of the Swahili Coast in Tanzania

ABSTRACTThe interaction between the Swahili Coast of the present-day Tanzanian coast and other parts of the Indian Ocean world dates back to the first millennium AD. This commercial communication resulted in the rise of several coastal city-states (stonebuilt towns), some of which date back to the tenth century. Unfortunately, some of these states started to collapse during the second half of the second millennium and the majority of them is in a ruinous state. These material remains, which according to the Tanzania’s Antiquities Act of 1964 deserve legal protection, have not been studied comprehensively mainly to establish their conservation history. The current article addresses this problem, and by analysing documents, it establishes the conservation history of monuments and historic buildings of the Swahili Coast in Tanzania. Research results indicate that some built heritage sites started decaying during the fourteenth century AD. Because of recognising the importance of these built heritage sites, communities of the region embarked on strategies to care these built heritage sites. This observation contradicts the European conventional wisdom maintaining that, in Africa, conservation of built heritage sites such as monuments and historic buildings began in the nineteenth century and was propagated by European colonialists.