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Sensing the Place:
How does the historic environment
make us feel?
www.thersa.org/heritage
Jonathan Schifferes
Associate Director
Public Services and Communities
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a
• Alex Proimos, via WikiCommons, licensed through CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/uk/
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• Uploaded by vchoen, accessed via WikiCommons and licensed through CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en
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Magic qualities?
• Experiments show golfers play better if they are using clubs they think were used by golf legends.
– https://hbr.org/2012/07/youll-golf-better-if-you-think-tiger-has-used-your-clubs
• Evidence shows that the most productive and innovative industries favour old buildings.
– https://www.hlf.org.uk/new-ideas-need-old-buildings
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Sensory navigation
The imagination required to engage with the old yet familiar, in the present day, stimulates creativity in our brains (…a valuable commodity!)
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Sensory navigation
…and yet navigating historic environments can feel intuitive…
– ‘read’ the visual landscape (church spires in town centre)
– engage latent sensing capabilities (Bridge Street more likely down a hill than up one)
– activate dormant sustainability instincts? (warmest room in house; coolest side of street; flood risks etc.)
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• Stephencdickson, via WikiCommons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
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Giving spatial expression to
heritage in the built environment
• We need to better harness technologies and approaches that help us understand, interpret and contribute to the heritage of our localities.
• Mapping heritage data is one stimulus; we also need to create the tools for citizens to take active roles.
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The Heritage Index
RSA data shows that it is heritage activities – as opposed to heritage assets – which are correlated with well-being in the UK (at local authority level).
The benefit of heritage comes from living it, rather than living amongst it.
The best heritage projects create a ‘sense and feel’, building on the ‘magic’ of the tangible.
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• John Goldsmith, via Geograph, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
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Empowering people to create their
own heritage stories…
of their homes, their families, their profession – helps us appreciate how the built environment has enabled and constrained the opportunities of previous generations.
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DIY blue
plaques,
Cambridge
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We need to feel ownership
…not just over the decisions to restore, recycle or raze buildings, but in the very presentation of place history – the telling of the history of our place to others – if we are to feel a link between our personal identity and the identity of our cities and neighbourhoods.
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Emscher
Landscape
Park
wayfinding
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‘The city was built like this for
these reasons’
We need to build visual literacy and design literacy among the public, in ways which recognise that long-term sustainability is systematic adaptation: the ability to respond to an ever-changing context throughout time.
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Heritage, identity and place
A sustainable future city is built on citizens curating, creating and conserving links from local heritage to local identity…
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…and nationally?
• Ministère Français de la Culture et de la Communication — http://www.familiscope.fr/datas/Logo%20Monuments%20Nationaux-quadrichromie-positif_Taille5cm1(1).jpg, marque déposée, https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6459778