1st Edition

Sustainable Heritage Merging Environmental Conservation and Historic Preservation

By Amalia Leifeste, Barry L. Stiefel Copyright 2018
    242 Pages
    by Routledge

    242 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book brings together ecological-conservation theory and heritage-preservation theory and shows how these two realms have common purpose. Through theoretical discussion and illustrative examples, Sustainable Heritage reframes the history of multiple movements within preservation and sustainable-design strategies into cross-disciplinary themes. Through topics such as Cultural Relationships with Nature, Ecology, Biodiversity, Energy, and Resource Systems; Integrating Biodiversity into the Built Environment Rehabilitation Practice; Fixing the Shortcomings Within Community Design, Planning, and Policy; Strategies for Adapting Buildings and Structures for Rising Sea Levels; and Vehicles as a Microcosm of Approaching Built Environment Rehabilitation, the book explores contemporary ecological and heritage ethics as a strategy for improving the livability of the built environment.

    The authors provide a holistic critique of the challenges we face in light of climate and cultural changes occurring from the local to the global level. It synthesizes the best practices offered by separate disciplines as one cohesive way forward toward sustainable design. The authors consider strategies for increasing the physical and cultural longevity of the built environment, why these two are so closely paired, and the potential their overlap offers for sustained and meaningful inhabitation. Sustainable Heritage unites students and professionals in a wide range of disciplines with one common language and more closely aligned sets of objectives for preservation and sustainable design.

    Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Cultural Relationships with Nature, Ecology, Biodiversity, Energy, and Resource Systems Chapter 3: History and Theory of Heritage Preservation Chapter 4: History and Theory of Sustainable Design Chapter 5: Architecture and Building Design Chapter 6: Integrating Biodiversity into the Built Environment Rehabilitation Practice Chapter 7: Fixing the shortcomings within community design, planning and policy Chapter 8: Going with the Flow: Strategies for Adapting Buildings and Structures For Rising Sea Levels Chapter 9: Vehicles as a Microcosm of Approaching Built Environment Rehabilitation Chapter 10: Conclusions on Lessons from the Past for the Future

    Biography

    Amalia Leifeste is an Assistant Professor for the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation co-sponsored by Clemson University, USA, and the College of Charleston, USA. Leifeste sees preservation practice as essential to ‘cultural sustainability.’ She is interested in how we educate practitioners and how place fosters group identity, and, as an architect, in defining how much and what kind of change can keep buildings useful for current needs without erasing essential touchstones of meaning.

    Barry L. Stiefel is an Associate Professor in the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation co-sponsored by the College of Charleston, USA, and Clemson University, USA. He is interested in how the sum of local preservation efforts affects regional, national, and multinational policies within the fields of cultural and natural heritage conservation, as well as the relationship of these studies to environmental sustainability. Dr. Stiefel has published numerous books and articles, including the book Community-Built: Art, Construction, Preservation, and Place, which he co-edited.

    "Delving deeply into preservation and environmental theory— two movements critical to our global future— Sustainable Heritage helps forge a new consensus that emphasizes all the ways saving places enhances sustainable design. We often say that 'the greenest building is the one that’s already built.' Stiefel and Leifeste bring this truism to life." -Stephanie K. Meeks, President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and former Chief Operating Officer of The Nature Conservancy, USA

    "Stiefel and Leifeste have made an important new contribution to the growing literature on the relationship between heritage conservation and sustainable development. They recognize that sustainable development is not only about environmental responsibility, but also social and economic responsibility. They have taken another important step forward in addressing that intangible heritage is also necessary for a sustainable culture upon which all the other components of sustainability ultimately rely." -Donovan Rypkema, President of Heritage Strategies International, USA