Exploring Underground Built Heritage

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue on Exploring Underground Built Heritage seeks to shed light on built activities below the earth’s surface, the use of which (past and contemporary) can be a powerful asset for local development. Underground built heritage (UBH), as defined by the COST Action underground4value, is a manmade artefact and/or an infrastructure that has purpose, architectural or engineering qualities, (traditional) construction methods and materials, and associated social practices, providing insights into human history, and can bring cultural, social, environmental, and economic benefits. However, for different reasons, such heritage assets are often abandoned, have fallen into oblivion and become forgotten by the surrounding community. A non-exhaustive list of UBH examples includes underground spaces for food preservation, housing, tunnels, mines, ovens and kilns, bunkers, and drainage systems, among others. Transforming unexploited, barely documented and underexploited UBH objects into cultural, economic and socio-territorial assets is a challenge.

This Special Issue on Exploring Underground Built Heritage welcomes contributions that address relevant issues, such as historical context, the use of materials, construction methods, etc., and highlight the cultural, social, historical, architectural, and engineering significance of an UBH asset. We invite articles with a focus on (re)discovering the values of UBH, on sharing knowledge and experiences on the conservation, valorisation, management and promotion of UBH assets and cases that reflect the functional, social and cultural factors, and legislative and regulatory frameworks, as well as associated risks of UBH. Experiences of community interactions and engagement and how these can support new practices in design, management and decision-making around reusing UBH assets are also interesting areas for exploration.

Dr. Carlos Smaniotto Costa
Dr. Marluci Menezes
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Heritage is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• values of an UBH asset in terms of aesthetic, historical, scientific, cultural, social, economic, spiritual importance, etc.
• methodologies for conservation and rehabilitation of the UBH
• approaches, methods, and techniques for valuing UBH
• exploring hidden, unknown UBH
• experiences in making UBH accessible, including risk issues
• community-based approaches and community engagement in UBH valorisation UBH as an asset for local, cultural, social, environmental, and economic development
• tangible and intangible aspects and their contribution to a sense of place and identity building
• quantifying and/or qualifying the multiple benefits provided by UBH assets
• raising awareness for UBH assets