Elective IX: Sustainable Heritage Conservation

The aim of this course is to provide the students with a comprehensive understanding of different patterns of living heritage in order to be able to achieve a sustainable heritage conservation. It addresses the potentials and issues related to the historic areas such as the urban fabric, building morphology, land value, land distribution, system of activity settings, as well as the heritage lifestyle patterns, territorial domains, claims of public space, and the sustainability of commercial and productive heritage activities. It also emphasizes the importance of historic areas as an asset focusing on the value of this living heritage and the importance of redirecting the different perceptions towards these areas, discussing the transformations happening in the historic areas and the different ways to mitigate the negative aspects in order to save them from losing the heritage but rather turning them into potentials for economic development and social sustainability.