Assessing Values in Sustainable Heritage Conservation: Between Theory and Practice
A special issue of Architecture (ISSN 2673-8945).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 March 2026 | Viewed by 1375
Special Issue Editors
Interests: heritage; history; architecture; theory
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The evolution of the concept of heritage, including its complexity and environments, requires the updating of the associated cultural values that, in the case of many World Heritage declarations, should complete the stated outstanding universal values. This task, as the Faro Convention pointed out, must be carried out with communities, implementing participatory strategies. This makes it difficult to embrace sustainable conservation practices and, particularly, Heritage Impact Assessments (HIAs) in change management situations.
HIAs, which comply with the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention, should serve to identify development alternatives, as well as potentially positive and negative impacts, and to recommend mitigation measures against degradation. They are therefore appropriate in terms of improving change management processes by facilitating dialogue among all stakeholders.
This Special Issue aims to identify, from theoretical implementation frameworks, sustainable conservation policies based on the actualisation of sustainable values for heritage assets from a social perspective. Although this proposal is framed within the WHATS-UP research project (‘World Heritage: an Approach To Social sustainability while UPgrading cultural values’), we welcome contributions that address the abovementioned issues in cultural heritage properties of any other kind, such as industrial heritage, modern heritage, monumental heritage, archaeological heritage, or rural heritage, among other possibilities.
The discussions in this Special Issue will focus on (but are not limited to) the following thematic areas:
- The evolution of the heritage concept and the implementation of the international charters and texts of reference in the field
- From theory to practice: intervention criteria and project decisions to better understand and conserve heritage
- Documentary procedures to better manage heritage: archives, databases, information systems, BIM, SIG, etc.
- Sustainable heritage management based on values
- The identification of cultural values and attributes
- Heritage Impact Assessments in World Heritage
- Good practices in heritage conservation and management
- Monitoring and quality control of processes for heritage conservation
- Collaborative methodologies in identifying, managing, protecting, and conserving heritage assets
- The contribution of contemporary architecture to heritage co-creation
Prof. Dr. Marta García-Casasola
Prof. Dr. Blanca Del Espino Hidalgo
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- cultural values
- heritage impact assessments
- heritage intervention
- contemporary architecture
- good practices
- conservation
- heritage management
- cultural sustainability
- social sustainability
- sustainable management
- world heritage
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