Space Heritage Research Articles

Assessing the soundscape of heritage streets in Melaka: the ISO/TS 12913-2:2018 method of data collection

The value of heritage sites is often distinguished through their architectural and physical features. However, the characteristic of a place is forged through the combination of multiple sensory elements. Acoustic is an essential element in the study of heritage spaces related to music, performance, congregations, etc. However, in the study of heritage sites, the acoustic elements are often overlooked even though they are an important element that adds spirit to the place. How people perceive their environment aurally is just as important as how they perceive it visually. This paper discusses the application of soundscape assessment methods recommended in ISO/TS 12913-2:2018. The technical specification presented comprehensive guidelines and alternatives on how a soundscape assessment should be conducted. The field study method and all its data collection protocols are reviewed and explored for implementation in the study of heritage streets in Melaka World Heritage Site. Characterising the soundscape profile of Melaka heritage streets will assist in understanding another facet of user experience and the acoustic ecology of the site.

Authenticity and spectrality of space heritage: Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan

The Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the world’s first and largest operational spaceport for orbital and human launches, stands out for its historical significance in the space heritage but remains largely unknown to the wider public. Using a qualitative case study research approach, this study explores how post-Soviet Baikonur heritage is commodified and interpreted by various stakeholders, identified through snowballing sampling who are directly or indirectly involved in Baikonur space heritage and museums, as well as extensive content analysis of policy documents, historical and documentary accounts, tourist brochures, museum websites and multimedia digital environments from the Baikonur cosmodrome. The research shows that tangible and intangible heritage play a key role in the commodification of Baikonur visitor experience: Baikonur historic buildings and memorabilia preserved, presented, and used for visitors. Particularly, intangible dimensions such as site atmosphere and spectrality reinforce the originality of the Cosmodrome and the perceived authenticity of the site. This study contributes to advancing the literature and practice of the nexus between authenticity, collective memory and tourism development related to a unique international space heritage site in Kazakhstan. It enhances the political and societal understanding of the role of space heritage in the post-Soviet region.

The Social Production of Industrial Heritage Spaces in the Background of Cultural Governance: A Comparative Study Based on Cases from Taipei and Hong Kong

This article borrows Heri Lefebvre’s space production theory to discuss the cultural governance of East Asian cities and how culture is used as a means of spatial organization in a structured way. Text analysis, field investigation, and comparative analysis are used as the main research methods to explore the specific social production process of Taipei’s Songshan Cultural and Creative Park and Hong Kong’s The Mills. The social production processes of these cultural spaces took place in the same period, having some similarities, and they mostly involved transformation from old factories and old buildings in urban areas. However, the cultural governance strategies in Taipei and Hong Kong are different. On the one hand, the Taipei government’s continuous cultural policy has spawned diverse cultural spaces rooted in factory renovations and unified under the authorities’ imagination of “Creative Taiwan”. A benign model of cultural heritage protection has been formed in terms of community participation, industrial development, and ecological conservation in Taipei. On the other hand, Hong Kong’s cultural governance pays more attention to landmark cultural projects from the perspective of tourism development. Mainly driven by private capital, The Mills completed the transformation from a factory to a cultural space. The Mills’ transformation process is also the epitome of the decline of Hong Kong’s textile industry. In addition, different cultural governance strategies and cultural policies in Taipei and Hong Kong affect the dominant forces in the social production process of cultural spaces. The main driving force of cultural spaces in Taipei is the local government, while the production of cultural spaces in Hong Kong involves more stakeholders, such as private developers, non-profit organizations, etc., and presents the characteristics of a multi-path and multi-participant historic building activation process. Moreover, at the regional level, the abandonment and reuse of industrial buildings in Hong Kong and Taipei are rooted in the migration of local traditional manufacturing to mainland China with cheaper labor and the upgrading and transformation of local industries. This comparative study complements the global picture of cultural space production and also provides references for other areas.

Planetary geoarchaeology as a new frontier in archaeological science: Evaluating site formation processes on Earth's Moon

AbstractOn October 4, 1957, Homo sapiens crossed a new threshold of technological innovation after constructing an artifact capable of entering Low Earth Orbit and effectively paving the way for a future of space exploration. This artifact was Sputnik 1, launched by the Soviet space program which triggered the “space race” of the mid‐20th century. Over the past 65 years, we have continued to explore and populate our solar system with rockets and spacecraft including satellites, probes, landers, and rovers. This expansion into our solar system has left traces of our presence on several planets including the Earth, Mars, Mercury, and Venus along with Earth's Moon, Titan, and several galaxy travelers in the form of asteroids and comets. Today, we have entered the realm of a new privatized and global space race, effectively a “new space race” or “new Space Age.” As we expand our material footprint into new extraterrestrial environments, there is a growing need to understand the types of unique site formation processes capable of altering, destroying, or preserving this rapidly increasing archaeological record known as space heritage. Such understandings are germane to the subdiscipline of geoarchaeology, that part of archaeology dedicated to studying the interaction between humans, cultural heritage, and environmental systems from a geoscience perspective. Closely aligned and partially overlapping with the subdisciplines of space archaeology, archaeological science, and planetary geology, we introduce a new subfield we call planetary geoarchaeology to open discussion about how geoarchaeologists can play a role in addressing current and future issues surrounding the preservation and management of space heritage. To demonstrate the potential of the subdiscipline, we focus on the current archaeological record of the Moon, describe lunar site formation processes, and discuss the implications for the current and future preservation of space heritage in the lunar setting. Planetary geoarchaeology can be applied to practically every type of extraterrestrial environment, provided humans have left behind a measurable record. We hope this paper will spur more research studying human–environment interaction in space.

The Innovative Growth of Space Archaeology: A Brief Overview of Concepts and Approaches in Detection, Monitoring, and Promotion of the Archaeological Heritage

Space Archaeology (SA), also known as Satellite Archaeology, Satellite Remote Sensing for Archaeology, or Archaeology from Space, is part of the wider interdisciplinary field of Remote Sensing for Archaeology. The application of satellite data in archaeological investigations has proven useful for landscape observation and analysis, the detection of archaeological traces, the reconstruction and monitoring of natural and anthropic processes, and the management and promotion of archaeological heritage. During the last few decades, the increasing number of SA studies has demonstrated innovative growth in archaeological disciplines due to the significant enhancement of spatial technologies, the advancement of visual inspection and image processing techniques, the development of data fusion methodologies, and the improvement of multi-temporal analysis methods. Therefore, a broad overview of the current situation in the concepts and approaches of SA is necessary to gain greater awareness of the current potentialities and limitations of this science to better address future studies. The present work provides a review of the scientific literature by exploring the different aspects of SA and the goals achieved to date in three main application fields: Detection, monitoring, and promotion of archaeological heritage. The contributions reviewed were divided within each of these three categories by analyzing the type of SA data and methods applied. The results indicate that (1) most studies aim to detect archaeological sites compared to monitoring and promotion; (2) optical images are used more than SAR data; and (3) techniques of image enhancement and visual interpretation are applied more than other data processing methods. This brief overview allows us to consider SA as an evolving discipline, an engine for cross-skills training, as well as a promising future science that can play a key role in the frontier of sustainable development and the new space economy.

Quantitative Estimation of the Internal Spatio–Temporal Characteristics of Ancient Temple Heritage Space with Space Syntax Models: A Case Study of Daming Temple

Ancient temple heritage space is a subcategory of integrated spaces with profound religious architecture, culture, and landscape. The temporal and spatial characteristics, spatial layouts, and functionalities of ancient temples are gradually transformed during different periods in their development. However, quantitative topological estimation tools, e.g., space syntax and detailed digital spatial models, have seldom been adopted in related studies on ancient temples. Daming Temple is a typical representative of the revitalization of Buddhism monastic building heritage in China. This research studies the spaces of Daming Temple, Yangzhou City, in three different periods and explores its spatio–temporal characteristics based on two space syntax models, i.e., the angle segment analysis (ASA) model and the visibility map analysis (VGA) model. By multi-step quantitative estimation, changes in the mean depth (MD), mean connectivity, and intelligibility of the temple have been observed. The global spatial structure is thoroughly revealed, which indicates the changes in the ‘temple-residence-garden’ inter-relationship. It is indicated that dynamic spatio–temporal characteristics of the temple have been undergoing changes chronically. Some phenomena are found to be effective in offering reasonable explanations for these changes, i.e., the changes in relationships among spaces, visitors’ pathfinding difficulties, and spatial design techniques. It also found that there are certain correlations between temporal–spatial changes and spatial conservation strategies for building heritages. The case study can provide some valuable references for the conservation, reactivation, and redesign of related historical and cultural building heritage in East Asia.

Re-emerging memories: humanitarianism and sovereignty in the Târgu Jiu Camp

This article briefly charts the debates surrounding the afterlife of a heritage space of political violence, the Târgu Jiu camp in Western Romania, and locates the ensuing narratives in the current contestations of the liberal democratic consensus in Central and Eastern Europe. The camp was an important Holocaust site and an equally relevant space for the early communist movement. Contrary to similar sites where competing interpretations of these histories are at play, this camp has been largely absent from debates on public memory of past political violence nationally. The significance of this space for local political history has been silenced. This article concerns itself with the long dynamic of silencing difficult heritage, its causes and implications and the selective perspectives on certain histories it entails. Târgu Jiu is a microcosm of this entanglement. Emerging in Romanian media and public debate at the time of the 2014 “refugee” reception crisis, this newly retrieved collecting memory of the camp capitalized on a history of past internal European displacement, Romanian victimhood and a sense of persecuted national sovereignty. Silencing made room for newer selective histories of this heritage space. Specifically, the complex history of the camp was appropriated into a type of politics of memory that reconfigures narratives about “liberal” values in the region. This article discusses the processes through which liberal, “European” values are appropriated and instrumentalized for the very opposite principles.

From Discordance to Assemblages: Renegotiating French and Portuguese Colonial Identities through Indian Tourism and Heritage Sites

This article examines two cities of discordant colonial heritage in India—Chandernagore, a former French colony in West Bengal, and Panjim, a former Portuguese territory in Goa—to demonstrate how these cities experience their colonial identities through heritage spaces. It explores the ways in which the museums and public spaces of these cities use memory and materiality to perform discordant colonial pasts which differ from the dominant narrative of the British Raj. Conceptualising discordance as a framework to trace the unique ways in which the museums and public heritage sites of these two cities mobilise their French and Portuguese colonial heritage, the article shows how these discordant colonial cities distinguish themselves from the British Raj and its legacies. The article affirms these differences not in terms of a duality, but a continual process of convergence and divergence that is mutually constitutive of heritage practices in the cities.

Network Construction for Overall Protection and Utilization of Cultural Heritage Space in Dunhuang City, China

An important recent issue in research is the effective protection and rational utilization of cultural heritage. In particular, the regional protection and utilization network of heritage space is the overall requirement for promoting cultural protection and high-quality development of its industry. Using Dunhuang city, Gansu Province, China, as a case study, it is argued here that the cultural heritage space is a living unit that is composed of not only cultural heritage but also its overall environment. By identifying the key historical factors of Dunhuang’s regional cultural heritage space, this paper explores the conservation factors and utilization factors. The suitability of the conservation factors and utilization factors is assessed through a two-way index of conservation and utilization. In addition, using a field strength model that considered various factors, the suitability characteristics of conservation and utilization were summarized. It was found that the conservation and utilization space of Dunhuang’s cultural heritage had three network features: same level overlap, primary and secondary combination, and significant differentiation. At the same time, these formed an organization network of “patch collage and corridor concatenation” and the network of “mine field pattern and branch extension”. From this, the sustainable development of the Dunhuang cultural space network can be realized through the combinations of site protection and ecological protection and environmental utilization and ecological restoration.

Social Use through Tourism of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Amazonian Kichwa Nationality

The traditional trend in heritage management focuses on a conservationist strategy, i.e., keeping heritage in a good condition while avoiding its interaction with other elements. This condition results in the link between heritage and tourism to be established as juxtaposed process, which gives rise to the need to broaden the concept of heritage and how it can be used through tourism to contribute to the local development of communities. The objective of this study is to show the different mechanisms of social use that the intangible cultural heritage of the different peoples and nationalities of Ecuador can have. For this purpose, the San Antonio de Killu Yaku community, parish of Puerto Napo, canton Tena, Napo province, is taken as a case study, based on an analysis of the current situation of tourism in the community. The cultural resources of the territory are taken as a starting point to transform them into tourist attractions for the construction of a thematic heritage space, in order to minimize the concern about the erosion and lack of appreciation of the ancestral manifestations and knowledge that the nationality possesses, due to the accelerated globalization of society. The analysis corresponds to a descriptive process of all the information collected with the proposed exploitation mechanisms through tourism activities. During the process, an increase in the exchange of knowledge was shown, as well as a constant cultural insurgency in which people maintain themselves to safeguard their cultures.

Tangible Heritage and Intangible Memory: (Coping) Precarity in the Select Partition Writings by Muslim Women

The partition of British India into two sovereign independent nations of India and Pakistan in 1947 was one of the most defining moments of the socio-political course of the sub-continent. The fight for independence from colonial rule and the rise of nationalism rooted in the religious discourse of two prominent religious communities- Hindus and Muslims, led to a precarious situation in the general atmosphere of the nation. It was even more pronounced in the case of women whose voices were marginalised and underrepresented in the discourse.Building on the theories of precarity and applying the theories of feminist geography, this paper aims to investigate how, through the everyday materiality of heritage spaces and historical memory, Muslim women tried to cope with the precarity of the time. It further aims to highlight the role of tangible and intangible heritage and memory in making sense of place in the select partition writings by Muslim women.

Heritage Protection Perspective of Sustainable Development of Traditional Villages in Guangxi, China

China’s rapid urbanization process has had a significant impact on traditional villages, and a series of problems, such as heritage destruction, space abandonment, and population loss, have emerged. The village protection and development research process is considered to be a critical turning point. This paper aims to build a scientific evaluation system for the sustainable development of traditional villages in Guangxi, seek the contemporary development value in the process of heritage protection, and solve the contradiction between protection and development. In order to achieve this goal, firstly, relevant data from six sample traditional villages were obtained through the use of field surveys, in-depth interviews, and questionnaire surveys. The key indicators were determined by using the Delphi method and the analytic hierarchy process for scoring and evaluation, and the factors were given corresponding weights to complete the construction of the evaluation system and the classification of sustainable development levels. Secondly, the elements, functions, and values of traditional village heritage were statistically classified, and the differences between preserving the natural, historical living environment and adapting to modern development needs were analyzed. The results show that the sustainable development level of traditional villages in Guangxi needs to be balanced, and that the development degree in the living spaces and production spaces of villages in different distribution areas of geomorphic types is different. Therefore, additional protection and development modes should be adopted according to the specific environmental conditions of the traditional villages. Finally, this study proposes relevant heritage space protection and development strategies from aspects of heritage value extraction, characteristic industry development, spatial resources, and environment distribution, hoping to narrow the development gap between villages and to promote the sustainable development of village heritage spaces.

Visualising Heritage: a critical discourse analysis of place, race, and nationhood along the Erie Canal

ABSTRACT The Erie Canal forever changed the American environment, both materially and ideologically. Since 1825, the iconic New York waterway’s primary use has evolved from transportation to recreation. Today, leisure along the Erie Canal celebrates the “Empire State” throughout a Rust Belt still reeling from the racialised environmental injustices of industrial development and decline. This study collectively examines a wide sample of Erie Canal representations along its historic corridor to see their most recurring pattern: the dominant Erie Canal discourse. Through critical discourse analysis, this research qualitatively examines what is most often included and excluded in Erie Canal communication. The findings reveal a nostalgic, imposed gaze underpinned by the powerful ideologies of place, race, and nationhood that sustain inequality. We argue that in order for Erie Canal heritage spaces to initiate a democratisation process, these reproducing discourses of exclusion must be taken seriously.

Tourist accessibility of heritage spaces through the lens of spatial justice

ABSTRACT Guided by Soja's (2010. Seeking spatial justice. University of Minnesota Press) theory of spatial justice and Lefebvre's (1972. Le Droit à la Ville suivi de Espace et Politique. Éditions Anthropos) theory of spatial production, this study examined the accessibility of heritage spaces to tourists in Macao. The results of qualitative face-to-face interviews with ten key informants showed that there were discrepancies between how heritage spaces were represented in heritage policy and how heritage spaces were planned and managed. A simplified approach adopted in heritage preservation, due to the lack of expertise and in order to produce tourism products fast to appeal to tourists, had caused tourists to lose their appreciation of the authenticity of the city's heritage attractions. Besides, government resources were skewed toward heritage spaces located in the popular tourist sites, causing tourists to be not well informed of the existence of different heritage spaces along the historical corridor. Poor accessibility further affected all the heritage spaces. Tourists did navigate around the spatial injustice constraints by either not visiting the heritage sites that required intensive walking, or visiting only a few to obtain a general feeling of the city's heritage. This study contributed to the limited studies on spatial justice in heritage tourism and encouraged policies and practices to fairly distribute heritage spaces and resources.

From Bayou Heritage to Blue-Green Corridors: The development and contemporary urban functions of New Orleans’ Bayou St. John and Lafitte Greenway

Over the last two decades there has been an increasing recognition of the cultural significance of rivers, canals and related bodies of water and of residential, recreational and/or heritage spaces located along their banks. These perceptions have led them to be recognised as cultural landscapes that merit preservation, maintenance and/or development. This article furthers research on this area by investigating the history and contemporary operation of one such cultural waterway in New Orleans, Bayou St. John, and of the adjacent Lafitte Greenway, built around a former canal route. In particular, the article identifies the process of social and land- and water-scape modifications that have created neighbourhoods around them and the gentrification that has accompanied this. With particular regard to Louisiana as their location, the article also addresses the nature of bayous and the cultural significance of Bayou St. Johns’ name in that regard. Balancing its historical-archival account, the article includes detailed discussion of the contemporary circumstances of the bayou and greenway drawing on close perambulant observation conducted between 2016 and 2022.

Research on Innovative application of private intangible cultural heritage digitization from the perspective of rural revitalization

In the context of rural revitalization strategy, this study focuses on how folk intangible cultural heritage provides new ideas for rural revitalization, and further discusses the innovative application of digitalization and intangible cultural heritage. This paper first explains the intangible cultural heritage, and reviews the current situation of the protection and inheritance of domestic intangible cultural heritage. Secondly, it analyzes some problems and principles to be adhered to in the integration of digitalization and intangible cultural heritage. Finally, under the concept of meta-universe, the paper breaks through the obstacles of intangible cultural heritage in time and space, and puts forward corresponding schemes to promote the rural revitalization strategy of intangible cultural heritage empowerment.

APP design and research based on Sichuan Intangible Cultural Heritage

The market of Sichuan intangible cultural heritage APP and mini program based on mobile terminal is lacking. The “Internet+” mode is used to expand the modern living space of intangible cultural heritage, stimulate the social and economic benefits of intangible cultural heritage resources, and realize their activation and inheritance. By showing the relevant cultural deposits and materials of the intangible cultural heritage, and including the existing intangible cultural heritage resources at all levels in Sichuan province, more people will notice the beauty of Sichuan’s intangible cultural heritage resources. This project realizes the digital inheritance of intangible cultural heritage resources through “productive protection” through the Internet platform. In accordance with the law of the market, the appropriate production, use, derived into a rich Sichuan regional characteristics of products. At the same time, the intangible cultural heritage resources of Sichuan Province as the cornerstone, continuous development and ultimately build a national intangible cultural heritage platform.

Репрезентация архитектурного наследия Омского Прииртышья в контексте культуроохранного зонирования

The article provides an extended analysis of the forms of representation of the architectural heritage of the Omsk Irtysh region in the system of cultural zoning. Based on the modern legislative and regulatory framework of the problem of cultural conservation zoning and determining its place in the system of representation of architectural heritage and related concepts, its structure, stages and levels have been developed. Based on the materials that have determined the conditions for the creation of protective zones at the legislative level, conclusions are drawn. There are forms of representation of architectural heritage in the cultural space of cities and settlements of the Omsk region and many significant cultural differences of territories, manifested in the problems of expediency, destruction of architectural integrity, high-rise construction and the establishment of cultural conservation status. Based on the conclusions made by the author, a proposal is made about the need for additional legislative argumentation of the possibility of carrying out conservation and IP works.

Innovation Process Modelling for Human-Centred Cultural Heritage Spaces: Developing a Business Model Canvas for Smart Digital Immersion

The cultural heritage sector offers an opportunity to gain an insight into the customs and traditions of previous generations and acquire an understanding of the progression of society. This discipline is important for an individual to maintain a sense of identity in the world and attain knowledge of important historical events. Cultural heritage items that are reflective of a group within society can be presented in the form of artefacts or works of art in a setting such as a museum or art gallery. Innovation is key when implementing technological solutions to continuously look towards new methods that will efficiently showcase all items as desired and preserve this content for future generations. A museum for example generally exhibits tangible and intangible heritage with the difference being the ability to physically interact with the items. Emergent digital technologies offer an opportunity to progress from the traditional user experience to an immersive and personalised control system. This opportunity has not yet been fully explored within the cultural heritage sector where Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IOT) can be utilised in tandem to achieve this objective. The Business Model Canvas (BMC) was created to mitigate uncertainty regarding the operation of commercial ideas through enhanced visualisation. This paper presents a populated BMC for smart digital immersion in cultural heritage spaces and addresses the significance of an alignment with the human-centred philosophy when incorporating immersive technologies in the user journey.

Research on the Knowledge Organization of Intangible Cultural Heritage Spatiotemporal Data from a Digital Humanities Perspective

Intangible cultural heritage is an important part of China’s excellent traditional culture, and its inheritance and development are attached to a specific time and space. From the digital humanities perspective, the visualization of intangible cultural heritage spatiotemporal data knowl­edge is important for promoting the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage. Research on the spatiotemporal semantic model of intangible cultural heritage can show the multiple relationships of intangible cultural heritage spaces, which is conducive to the semantic description specification and effective expression of intangible cultural heritage spatiotemporal data.