Critical Built Heritage Practice and Conservation

Evolving Perspectives

Johnathan Djabarouti author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd

Published:23rd Jan '24

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Critical Built Heritage Practice and Conservation cover

Critical Built Heritage Practice and Conservation - Evolving Perspectives supports an alternative point of departure for engaging with the historic built environment, by critically questioning the legitimacy of dominant conservation concepts and methods that are often taken for granted within building conservation, architecture, and adaptive reuse.

The meaning of heritage is changing. From pastness to presentness, from preservation to participation, and from tangible to intangible, heritage is increasingly understood as a dynamic, social, and intangible process across many disciplines. Consequently, the role and remit of the built heritage practitioner – and in particular the architectural conservationist – is becoming progressively complex and in need of a critical gaze. Is restoration really a falsehood from beginning to end? Should the condition of existing materials determine the conservation method? Is authenticity really an inherent quality within old buildings? By engaging with a critical interpretation of heritage, this book makes space for practitioners to consider the evolution of their own role within a rapidly changing context of built heritage practice. Reinforced by a shift in emphasis from materials to meanings, a ‘socio-material outlook’ is proposed which champions an enhanced focus on intangible heritage within the built heritage sector, whilst still acknowledging the physical condition of old buildings is a priority for many stakeholders.

This book has been written with practitioners, students, and educators of architectural conservation in mind – although will also be of relevance to the broader built heritage industry; as well as academics, researchers, and heritage students with a passion for contemporary dialogues in heritage studies.

The understanding of heritage has evolved to encompass a complexity of interwoven tangible and intangible aspects. This erudite, accessible book unpacks the subject to create an authoritative and compelling guide to one of the most important issues of the 21st century.
Sally Stone, Reader in Adaptive Reuse, Manchester School Architecture

Djabarouti successfully brings Critical Heritage Theory into meaningful dialogue with conservation practice. The result is a major contribution to integrating these key (but all too often disparate) approaches. This important book is a future classic in the making.
Dr Nigel Walter, Conservation Architect, author of Narrative Theory in Conservation

ISBN: 9781032286075

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 453g

272 pages