What is cultural heritage?
- The possessions or properties inherited are heritage. Historical, musical or cultural may be it.
- Anything relating to culture is cultural. However, culture is the arts or any expression of mutual human intellectual accomplishment.
Giovanni Pannini’s Roman ruins with a priest, 1751. The Roman Empire’s artistic legacy served as a base for later Western culture, especially through the Renaissance and Neoclassicism (as exemplified here). Source: Wikipedia. Thus, the inheritance of cultural riches we have inherited from previous centuries is cultural heritage. Around the same time, the cultural asset word or definition was created in the second half of the 20th century. Therefore, a cultural heritage is a collection of artifacts that are a testament of human civilization or a cultural identification of artistic or historical significance. Unfortunately, partially due to devastating historical events such as conflicts, there has been a great depletion of cultural heritage. This was also, however, attributed to the conventional concept of history, which concentrated on the largest political, economic and scientific events. Fortunately, «new history» has meant a significant turning point, when it reflects on human real life. As a result, it has often concentrated on human-use devices or equipment. In this way, we are now more mindful of the value of intellectual property, which has had a very positive impact on cultural heritage.
Cultural assets are a relatively recent idea, as I described before. In fact, the Hague Convention was first used in 1954. Cultural assets include tangible assets such as temples, works of art, antiques, but also traditions, cuisine, economy, etc. The above are indications or witnesses of a society of considerable testimonial value.
Why should we preserve heritage?
In order not to neglect our ethnic roots, we must clearly protect our heritage. The product of human history is heritage, and it has a great deal of significance: geographical, artistic, cultural, economic and social importance, and the value of ancient authenticity. Cultural artifacts are collected in catalogs to promote restoration. From the point of view of architects, they have the duty to aid in protecting and not losing history. This implies that they must adjust to it and thoroughly value it in their practice.
As architects, any element of space must be respected: matter, methods of building, forms and proportions, colors, materials and textures, character and use, setting, and, of course, its sense. It is not only about the physical aspect, but also about the significance and ideals of that aspect.
On the one side, through legislative instruments, we can ensure preservation. Next, through legal proceedings, organizations can preserve or maintain properties to varying degrees. Secondly, the assets detected often need to be enumerated and listed. In this way, an inventory is created that promotes preservation. Thirdly, it is important to list properties. We may conserve properties implicitly and preventively, providing information and valuation of them while cataloging.
On the other side, through interventions, we can also conserve assets:
- Preservation: Asset actions to deter future loss or damage. Reducing the number of tourists to a monument, for example,
- Maintenance: maintenance of a commodity with prompt and non-radical repairs in order to preserve its good condition. In order to preserve it, the optimal protection of a landmark will be by temporal and minor improvements.
- Consolidation: reinforcement of a building structure, resulting in greater quality.
- Repairing: activity associated with the maintenance process. It means repairing something that’s broken.
- Restoration: immediate action on the house, which was weakened due to time, to enhance its legibility. Falsification of the substance of it does not transfer.
- Adaptation: consists of taking something back to its original functionality or performance state.
- Reconstruction: is the partial or complete reconstruction, usually after a catastrophic incident, of a structure.
- Anastilosis: the archaeological term used to rebuild a structure in ruins using the original components or pieces of architecture.
- Ripristinar: restoring a building to its former age. It is not a suggested technique since it erases changes in the various periods of history, modifications that still have cultural significance.
In conclusion, because they are part of our culture, of our identity, the organisation has the duty to conserve cultural products. But it’s not just institutions, it’s also the responsibility of architects.