Clarke, N J; Kuipers, M C and Roos, J (2020) Cultural resilience and the smart and sustainable city: Exploring changing concepts on built heritage and urban redevelopment. Smart and Sustainable Built Environment, 9(2), pp. 144-155. ISSN 2046-6099
Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the conceptualisation of the Smart Sustainable City (SSC) with new concepts of resilience thinking in relation to urgent societal challenges facing the built environment. The paper aims to identify novel methodologies for smart reuse of heritage sites with a pluralist past as integral to inclusive urban development. Design/methodology/approach: SSC concepts in the global literature are studied to define a new reference framework for integrated urban planning strategies in which cultural resilience and co-creation matter. This framework, augmented by UNESCO’s holistic recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL), was tested in two investigative projects: the historic centre of South Africa’s capital Tshwane and the proximate former Westfort leprosy colony. Findings: The research confirms that SSC concepts need enlargement to become more inclusive in acknowledging “cultural diversity” of communities and engaging “chrono-diversity” of extant fabric. A paradigm shift in the discourse on integrated urban (re)development and adaptive reuse of built heritage is identified, influenced by resilience and sustainability thinking. Both projects show that different architectural intervention strategies are required to modulate built fabric and its emergent qualities and to unlock embedded cultural energy. Originality/value: Together with a critical review of SSC concepts and the HUL in relation to urban (re)development, this paper provides innovative methodologies on creative adaptation of urban heritage, reconciling “hard” and “soft” issues, tested in the highly resilient systems of Tshwane.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | adaptive reuse; cultural resilience; embodied cultural energy; inclusive urban development; sustainability; Tshwane; Pretoria |
| Index terms: | adaptation, sustainable city, adaptive reuse, built heritage, UNESCO, co-creation, built environment, urban development, paradigm, intervention strategy, strategy, urban redevelopment, South Africa, urban planning, methodology |
| Subjects: | user focus, urban planning, institutional frameworks, research methods, post-disaster and reconstruction, management, education and knowledge transfer, financial risk, urban design, design process, sustainable design, Geography, heritage and conservation, infrastructure and transport systems |
| Topics: | Design Practice, Urban Studies, Sustainability, Governance, Research Practice, Geographical Context, Cost Management, Business Strategy |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here