The values embodied in

cultural heritage Cultural heritage is the heritage of tangible and intangible heritage assets of a group or society that is inherited from past generations. Not all heritages of past generations are "heritage"; rather, heritage is a product of selection by soci ...

are identified in order to assess significance, prioritize resources, and inform

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and managem ...

decision-making. It is recognised that values may compete and change over time, and that heritage may have different meanings for different stakeholders.

Origins

Alois Riegl Alois Riegl (14 January 1858, Linz – 17 June 1905, Vienna) was an Austrian art historian, and is considered a member of the Vienna School of Art History. He was one of the major figures in the establishment of art history as a self-sufficient ac ...

is credited with developing Ruskin's concept of 'voicefulness' into a systematic categorization of the different values of a

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, his ...

. In his 1908 essay ''Der moderne Denkmalkultus'' (The modern cult of monuments) he describes historical value, artistic value, age value, commemorative value, use value, and newness value. Riegl demonstrates that some of these values conflict and argues that they may be culturally

contingent Contingency or Contingent may refer to: * Contingency (philosophy), in philosophy and logic * Contingency plan, in planning * Contingency table, in statistics * Contingency theory, in organizational theory * Contingency theory (biology) in evoluti ...

Charters and Conventions

The

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Heritage Convention The World Heritage Convention, formally the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, is an international treaty signed on 23 November 1972, which created the World Heritage Sites, with the primary goals of ...

addresses cultural sites of outstanding universal value, from a

historical History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

aesthetic Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed th ...

scientific Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

ethnological Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). ...

anthropological Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

perspective, and highlights the need for

authenticity Authenticity or authentic may refer to: * Authentication, the act of confirming the truth of an attribute Arts and entertainment * Authenticity in art, ways in which a work of art or an artistic performance may be considered authentic Music * A ...

. Discussed in the 1964

Venice Charter ''The Venice Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites'' is a set of guidelines, drawn up in 1964 by a group of conservation professionals in Venice, that provides an international framework for the conservation and resto ...

, values and the question 'why conserve?' are the focus of the 1979

Burra Charter The Burra Charter is a document published by the Australian ICOMOS which defines the basic principles and procedures to be followed in the conservation of Australian heritage places. The Charter was first endorsed in 1979 as an Australian adaptati ...

(last revised 1999). Cultural significance is said to be 'embodied' in the fabric, setting, use, associations, and meanings of a place, and includes aesthetic, historic, scientific, social and spiritual values for past, present and

future generations Future generations are cohorts of hypothetical people not yet born. Future generations are contrasted with current and past generations, and evoked in order to encourage thinking about intergenerational equity. The moral patienthood of future ge ...

. In order to preserve such values a 'cautious approach' of minimum intervention is advocated.

Practice

Significance assessment Significance is a synonym for importance. It can also refer to: * ''Significance'' (magazine), a magazine published by the Royal Statistical Society and the American Statistical Association * Significance (policy debate), a stock issue in polic ...

typically includes consideration of the rarity, representativeness, and communicative power of assets and their values. These are then managed in order to sustain and valorize that significance. Engagement with the economic value of heritage may help promote its preservation. Development of new representation technologies such as Digital Twin has potential to help the community perceive the Values and also help the community engage in the curation and dissemination of the architectural heritage with an increased level of accessibility.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Assessing the Values of Cultural Heritage
( GCI research report)
Values and Heritage Conservation
( GCI research report; annotated bibliography at pages 73–96) Cultural heritage Museology Cultural studies Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage

Origins

Charters and Conventions

Practice

See also

References

External links