Built heritage as imagines agentes

Abstract

In this paper we seek to investigate the concept of built heritage as Imagines Agentes whereby built heritage functions as a generating force in the process of appropriation towards belonging. Heritage places as meaningful locations can form a bridge linking the past to the future in a sensitive way. Accessing a local community's connections to their surrounding environment and recognising and acknowledging the role that built heritage plays here is critical because people's relationships with places of which built heritage is an integrated part are key to the contemporary policy issues surrounding (social) sustainability. Decision making in projects of restoration and redevelopment of heritage places, particularly in the collective sphere, must consider local populations with their narratives and experiences if the project is to be sustainable and socially better accepted. In the paper, built heritage as Imagines Agentes has been explored through the three-step methodology of Interactive Walking. This novel practice-based method combines methodological approaches in cultural anthropology, such as historical and phenomenological approaches, with the skills of an architect, which comprise observational drawing and modelmaking together with historical heritage studies. We explore the concept of built heritage as Imagines Agentes from two viewpoints, whereby the method and subject start to merge within the object of inquiry: as part of a graphical mnemonic technique for heritage practitioners or planners exploring a heritage site and as part of the environmental appropriation process of local community members.