In the 21st century, the practice of built heritage conservation introduces new approaches in the discipline.
The aim of this paper is to present a case of study that promotes an alternative approach regarding agro-industrial heritage conservation plans.
The first priority should be to protect the remaining physical resources, thus preventing any further deterioration.
Only then can we ask ourselves what to do with these buildings and begin to think about how to interpret them. Reuse is critical many times because the resources are too vast and cannot be preserved by public initiatives alone. As much as possible, reuse should be keyed to the ways in which the built resources can be used to tell the story of the place based on creative collaboration between the multiple actors involved in the management plan...
During the last 30 years the concept of architectural heritage has changed from considering it in an individual perspective to a more comprehensive notion of environment, that is to say, taking into consideration the close interaction between buildings and landscape. In addition the heritage itself becomes a cultural resource which can promote the improvement of the environment.
In the world context, the actions on cultural heritage have moved from studying an isolated heritage to a cultural landscape, from heritage conservation to management of cultural resources and from public actions to participative enterprises.
Objectives
- To enhance the practice of built heritage conservation.
- To involve citizens in the conservation programs.
- The primary objective of our conservation program is to preserve and communicate the identity of a community.
- The management program of the different buildings must focus its actions both on the correct conservation of buildings and sustainable development.
- The cultural values have to be recognized in a participative way and once their clarified they may re-value and become the statements of any future proposal.
The project
After researching the metropolitan area of Rosario for the last four years we could define a cultural landscape according to the productive activities of the region.
Because of this, a large number of landmarks -Wheat mills, railroads, storehouses and “estancias”- are still present in the flat land of the “pampa.”
We can conserve our built heritage by integrating the building's project conservation into regional development projects.
Based on recent actions, the inter-institutional coordination has been used in former rehabilitation and conservation projects with very satisfactory results that reinforce local identity.
The major benefit of these projects has been the raising of local citizens awareness on the preservation of historic buildings and how citizens can improve their living conditions by different local projects based on the heritage conservation.
Built Heritage conservation can be re-qualified and reached a new dimension in the context of opportunities and challenges of cultural diversity promotes and it appears as a resource to protect identity at the time to promote sustainable development.
