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WHAT IS THE HERITAGE?

CULTURAL ASSET:

The cultural identity is the set of intangigbles features that belong to and define a collective. To identify a culture solely by the set of its monuments (only the great events count) is a mistake. An attitude that ended in the 19th century. In the second half s.XX is formulated the concept of cultural asset (broader) that will integrate objects with historical or artistic value, and also any expression, manifestation or significant testimony of human culture with documentary capacity.

The first use of the term «cultural asset» in an official document was in the 1954 Hague Convention, convened under the patronage of Unesco to agree on the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict. It contemplated movable and immovable property with great importance for the culture of the people. In 1972 UNESCO proposed a new classification of cultural property

MONUMENTS: 

Architecture, sculpture, painting, archeology, caverns, inscriptions, elements of universal value from the point of view history, art or science.

SETS:

Groups of constructions, whose architecture and integration with the landscape give them exceptional value from the historical, art of science point of view.

PLACES

Works of man and nature with universal value from the historical, aesthetic, ethnological or anthropological point of view.The law of Patrimonio Hidtórico Español introduces the maximum protection figure: BIC

WHY PRESERVE HERITAGE?

Preservation is a method of not losing the values of cultural identity. In order to preserve before you know what the cultural assets of people are: catalog. All goods contained in catalogues must be protected and preserved. But not only these ones, before any action we make as architects, we must think about the value of the good on which we will intervene before deciding the type of intervention.

HOW DO WE PRESERVE EFFECTIVELY?

LEGISLATIVE INSTRUMENTS

TO PROTECT 

Legal actions, administrative rules outside the intervention of the monument itself. It is exercised through standards or through the development of cataloguing tools. These rules are intended to enshrine the right of the community over the private interest. Different degrees of protection are often differentiated. The conservancy and safeguard are synonymous of protection.

INVENTORY

 Is the result of list, to locate and describe a set of properties. It’s an important instrument for preventive conservation. The LPHE (Spanish Historical Heritage Act) pays great attention to inventories of catalogs.

TO LIST

The action of cataloguing involves the ennumeration, description and location of a property, but also it provides a historical study and economic valuation of a Heritage Resource. The list is an important instrument of indirect and preventive coservation, as a means of knowledge and valuation of assets.

INTERVENTIONS:

PRESERVATIONOperations to be performed on the good to ensure surival against hazardsor possible damages.
P.e: decreasing the amount of tourists that enter the monument.
MAINTENANCEContinuous maintenace through small repairs. Used to prolong as long as possible the materials used. Most recommended to avoid radiacel changes in an historical building.
CONSOLIDATIONWay of preserving, posssible to a general strengthening. The action provides higher consistency and solidity.
REPARINGLeave in good condition an object that was broken or deteriorated.
RESTORATIONTo restitute or improve in a building what was lost with the passage of time, without incurring alterations or falsifications of its documentary nature.
ADAPTATIONEnable or return something to its old stateof efficiency and functionality. “Rehabilitación”.
RECONSTRUCTIONA procedure of integral or partial reconstruction, with the introduction of a new material because the previous one lead to a traumatic event.
ANASTILOSISArchaelogical term for a technique whereby a ruined building or monument is rebuilt using original architectural elements. Set of operations to put in place building elements (generally fallen and scattered).
RIPRISTINARRetourning a building to a known earlier state by removing accretions or by reassembling existing elements. This action is usually rejected because it takes away part of the history of the building.

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