Rethink Heritage

Territorial & economical (D) challenges identified as part of the strategy are as follows:

Challenges aiming well-being and prosperity of the society:

D1. Building a more inclusive and cohesive society
D2. Developing Europe’s prosperity by drawing on its heritage resources
D3. Ensuring that Europeans enjoy a high quality of life, in harmony with their cultural and natural environment

Challenges aiming a sustainable, ecological and productive use of heritage:

D4. Implementing the principle of integrated conservation
D5. Ensuring that heritage is taken into account in sustainable spatial development strategies and programmes
D6. Developing the ability of public services to address sustainable spatial development issues by means of better use of heritage
D7. Preserving and developing the ability of public services to address heritage issues
D8. Increasing the use and reuse of heritage

Recommendation D1: Promote cultural heritage as a resource and facilitate financial investment

Recommendation D1 depicts cultural heritage as an irreplaceable and long-term asset which with its social, cultural, environmental and economic effects is something that is really worth investing in. Supporting heritage means a direct or indirect support for the development of the economy. Suggested courses of actions are: incentives for preservation of heritage and heritage education, support of projects which treat heritage in the required manner, demonstrating the positive impacts of heritage and the return on investment and finally the direct support of investments in cultural heritage.

R-D1 answers the following territorial and economic challenges: D2, D3, D4, D5, D6, D7 and interfaces with the following social challenges: S2.

Recommendation D2: Support and promote the heritage sector as a means of creating jobs and business opportunities

Recommendation D2 suggests that investing in heritage means a great contribution to the desired numbers of employment as in the EU and in different sectors we can associate 300,000 direct and 7 million indirect jobs with heritage. These people work in different areas and on different levels from conservation, restoration through administration and management to tourism and education. Suggested actions include: re-integration of heritage related trades to vocational education, supporting relations between the heritage sector and job centres, introducing intersectoral policies to help heritage have an effect on its own sectors and investing in research and know-how to support cultural heritage with work and services.

R-D2 answers the following territorial and economic challenges: D1, D2, D3, D5, D6, D7 and interfaces with the following social as well as the following knowledge and educational challenges: S8 and K2, K5.

Recommendation D3: Promote heritage skills and professionals

Heritage professionals need to know both traditional and modern technologies to be successful in their field. Their knowledge and skills can be highly attractive for those who are about to choose lifetime occupations for themselves with great responsibility and both social and cultural impacts. Recommendation D3 suggests to promote these heritage skills through organised campaigns and the opening of excavation and restoration sites, quarries, workshops, laboratories and archives to the public so that people can meet the heritage professionals and the masters of traditional building trades during their actual works.

R-D3 answers the following territorial and economic challenges: D1, D3, D5, D6 and interfaces with the following social as well as the following knowledge and educational challenges: S4 and K1, K2, K4, K5, K8.

Recommendation D4: Produce heritage impact studies for rehabilitation, construction, planning and infrastructure projects

Heritage should be viewed as a resource and not a constraint as part of the projects of other sectors like spatial planning or territorial development and handling them in this manner can solely lead to the best achievable quality. Suggested actions of Recommendation D4 are: introducing heritage impact studies on a wider scale, supporting of renovation and rehabilitation projects on existing heritage assets, encouraging the analysis of keeping and restoring original structures rather than erecting new constructions. 

R-D4 answers the following territorial and economic challenges: D2, D3, D4, D5, D6 and interfaces with the following knowledge and educational challenge: K5.

Recommendation D5: Encourage the reuse of heritage and use of traditional knowledge and practice

Reusing old buildings is a more complex task than developing completely new structures, it is usually more expensive too, but definitely more sustainable and eco-friendly regarding the energy balance of the investments. Proper reusing programmes can positively affect the demographic processes of both rural and urban areas. Suggested courses of actions are the following: promoting integrated conservation as a priority in heritage policy, introducing incentives for the maintenance of monuments, strengthening legislation to avoid the demolishment of heritage assets and encouraging the reuse and alternative use of heritage.

R-D5 answers the following territorial and economical challenges: D1, D2, D3, D4, D5, D6, D7 and interfaces with the following social as well as the following knowledge and educational challenges: S8 and K3.

Recommendation D6: Ensure that heritage is taken into account in development, spatial planning, environmental and energy policies

Similarly to the recommendations of R-D3, R-D6 also suggests that heritage has to be taken into consideration as an integral part of the investments of other sectors such as spatial planning, environmental, energy and agricultural policies. Suggested courses of action are: systemic consideration to heritage in spatial planning and environmental management, facilitating the integrated approach to heritage and experimental activities of energy performance in old buildings.

R-D6 answers the following territorial and economic challenges: D1, D2, D3, D4, D5, D6, D7 and interfaces with the following social as well as the following knowledge and educational challenges: S7 and K4, K6.

Recommendation D7: Give consideration to heritage in sustainable tourism development policies

Heritage is one of the most important factors of modern-day tourism, which has three types of satisfactory measures: the expectations of the visitors, the preservation of heritage and the local habitants' quality of life. Recommendation of D7 promotes the slow movement which offers the diversification of tourist routes, easing the pressure on the most highlighted areas and promoting less-known attractions of cities with heritage importance. Furthermore, it tries to strengthen local identity while providing a more authentic cultural experience for the tourists with locals being rooted strongly in the region. Courses of action may be: culture-heritage-tourism agreements on national level, setting up tourist activities which build on heritage and local trade skills, organising consultations with local people about sustainable and reasonable ways of tourism, raising awareness of workers in tourism sector on both the potential and vulnerability of cultural heritage, development of materials for tourists on diversified target locations and finally considering the proper regulation of tourism if needed. 

R-D7 answers the following territorial and economic challenges: D1, D2, D3, D4, D5, D6 and interfaces with the following social as well as the following knowledge and educational challenges: S4, S6, S8 and K3, K7, K8.

Recommendation D8: Protect, restore and enhance heritage, making greater use of new technologies

Recommendation D8 suggests the rational use of new technologies, keeping up with the newer and newer developments as a result of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research. Courses of actions may be the following ones: informing heritage professionals about new developments of technology, carrying out pre-restoration work studies using new technology such as augmented reality, digitisation, 3D scanners, drones etc., using non-invasive exploration techniques in inaccessible and fragile areas, developing new representations of heritage using 3D modelling and 3D printing.

R-D8 answers the following territorial and economic challenges: D2, D4, D6, D8 and interfaces with the following knowledge and educational challenges: K5, K6, K7.

Recommendation D9: Use innovative techniques to present cultural heritage to the public, while preserving its integrity

Similarly to R-D8, Recommendation D9 suggests the use of new technology, but this is equally important in the presentation of heritage towards the public too. Suggested actions involve virtual or actual reconstruction of artefacts or objects in a vulnerable or sensitive area and involve local stakeholders in the establishment of innovative facilities.

R-D9 answers the following territorial and economic challenges: D3, D4, D5.

Recommendation D10: Use the cultural heritage as a means of giving the region a distinctive character and making it more attractive and better known

Tangible and intangible heritage are able to define a region's own image, giving a distinctive character to the land and to the built environment, also forming the way people think about them. Recommendations of R-D10 include the identification of the heritage assets in their full diversity and building a territorial strategy and management character on these by retaining or relocating traditional trades, giving priority to local resources and supply and the use of ethical branding.

R-D10 answers the following territorial and economic challenges: D1, D2, D3, D4, D5, D6 and interfaces with the following knowledge and educational challenges: K2, K3, K6.

Recommendation D11: Develop new management models to ensure that heritage benefits from the economic spinoffs that it generates

Recommendation D11 suggests that cultural heritage with all its assets should directly benefit from the economic profit that heritage also supports and generates, contributing hugely to the incomes of tourism and other sectors. Suggested courses of actions are raising awareness amongst the stakeholders of the local economy so that they invest into heritage, setting up heritage funds and revenues dedicated to cultural heritage.

R-D11 answers the following territorial and economic challenges: D1, D2, D3, D4, D6 and interfaces with the following social as well as the following knowledge and educational challenges: S6, S8 and K7.