Governance, and specifically local management and institutional systems, is among the key factors affecting the management of World Heritage (WH) properties in urban contexts. The adoption of the 2011 UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL approach) promotes a governance reform towards more inclusive and integrated management. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the HUL approach may help to solve the key governance challenges affecting WH in urban contexts. The governance of WH in three European cities is compared. Edinburgh, Porto, and Florence were chosen for their familiarity with the HUL approach and willingness to provide guidance and review policies and review their policies as management plans. The methodology includes a policy analysis of the management plans followed by a comparative analysis based on the six key governance challenges addressed in the recent literature. The results show that the HUL approach is supporting the governance of WH in urban contexts, and that more inclusive and integrated management has helped address the challenges affecting heritage management.

Purpose: In the present-day context of a sharp decrease in economic and ecological resources, planned conservation and community empowerment are key strategies for sustainable heritage management, because of their cost effectiveness, increased preservation of authenticity and socially development. However, there are still very few practical implementations, so the purpose of this paper is to present applied research to real case studies, as well as to demonstrate that preventive-planned conservation is increasingly successful when linked with the empowerment of local communities and users. Design/methodology/approach: This paper proposes a methodology that focuses on two complementary aspects: planned conservation (material component) – undertaken directly on buildings, through inspection, monitoring, maintenance and repair activities; community empowerment (intangible component) – afforded indirectly to users, through participatory strategies and training in prevention, maintenance and use. Findings: Based on an estimation of costs, this paper suggests that preventive-planned conservation strategies (pre-damage) can be one-third cheaper than the reactive and interventionist approach (post-damage). Moreover, this study also develops innovative ICT tools for the planned conservation of the built heritage, namely a specifically designed computer software/App (“MPlan”) that can be used to compile maintenance plans. Originality/value: The case studies are among the first applications of preventive-planned conservation strategies to the built heritage in Portugal. Different types of case studies are provided to better illustrate the methodological approach adopted and the results obtained. Special attention is given to the Romanesque Route, a cultural itinerary with 58 monuments (monasteries, churches, bridges, towers and a castle). illustrated manuals contribute to the empowerment of local communities and users.

Currently, no systematic policy for the preventive conservation of built cultural heritage exists in South-West Europe. Existing approaches for inspection, diagnosis, monitoring and curative conservation are normally intermittent, unplanned, overpriced and lacking in methodical strategy. The available financial resources are scarce and they are mostly addressed to listed buildings. Besides, owners often conceal an inborn reluctance to invest in preventive conservation and maintenance programs. In the light of these considerations, the HeritageCARE project has recently been launched with the purpose of unfolding an integrated and sustainable strategy for the preventive conservation of built cultural heritage within South-West Europe. This project involves 3 Countries (Portugal, Spain and France), 8 beneficiary partners and 11 associated partners. The main aim of the paper is to present the key aspects of the project, its objectives and challenges, and to outline the multilevel methodology that will be implemented and validated through 60 case-study structures.

The growing complexity of managing the sustainable development of cities stresses the need for interdisciplinary approaches, with a stronger articulation between different fields. The integration between heritage conservation and spatial planning has already been addressed in recent literature, ranging from a traditional sectorial perspective towards more cooperative and coordinated initiatives, occasionally resulting in integrated policies. Nevertheless, the lack of institutional and policy articulation remains among the most frequent critical governance issues unsolved. This paper unveils the integration degrees between heritage conservation and spatial planning policies in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) and Ballarat (Australia), acknowledged for local and upper governmental initiatives, such as the Belvedere Memorandum and the Imagine Ballarat project, placing both at the forefront of the roadmap to this policy integration. In-depth semi-structured interviews with municipal officials in both cities reveal that, while policy integration is aimed at, implementation remains challenging. Both cities’ heritage conservation and spatial planning fields keep operating in parallel, often in conflict, and with different perspectives on the cultural heritage commonly managed. By identifying local technicians’ challenges, this research demonstrates that policy integration between heritage conservation and spatial planning is an ongoing process that demands more effective articulation towards more sustainable and resilient cities.

Strategies for the adaptive reuse of vernacular architecture are of utmost importance in the current context of social, economic, and environmental vulnerability. This article examines the design strategies of adaptive reuse in three cases of renowned architects of the so-called School of Porto developed across the second half of the 20th century, specifically between 1956 and 1991. The paper aims to introduce a new and deeper knowledge of the selected practices by critically documenting the whole process of the intervention (before, during, after) and not only the final result, as is common practice in specialized publications. The research methodology combines the bibliographical and archival research and interpretation of diverse graphic, photographic, and textual documentation with the production of analytical drawings. The demolitions/additions color code (black/yellow/red) is applied to plans, sections, and elevations as an essential tool for understanding and communicating the transformations undertaken. The selected case studies are Além House (1956–1967) by Fernando Távora, Alcino Cardoso House (1971–1973; 1988–1991) by Álvaro Siza, and the House in Gerês (1980–1982) by Eduardo Souto de Moura. These projects show different strategies of intervention in built heritage, providing lessons on the reactivation of obsolete or abandoned rural constructions with new functions that are compatible with the preservation of their values (historical, landscape, constructive, social, and aesthetic) and guidelines for sustainable reuse.

Introduction: Values-based approaches are among the best practices for management and conservation planning. However, cultural significance assessments (of the attributes and values of cultural heritage) have generally been performed by experts (top-down) instead of including expert and nonexpert communities (top-down and bottom-up). Objectives: This paper presents a multitechnique approach in which different strategies are applied to assess the perceptions of cultural significance held by several actors (users, managers, staff, experts, children, students, virtual community) within the framework of the Keeping It Modern Grant awarded by the Getty Foundation (2020–2023) for the Ocean Swimming Pool (1960–1966) designed by Álvaro Siza in Matosinhos, Portugal. Method: Interviews, surveys, social media analysis, and workshops with children, students, and experts were adopted for the method, and, whenever possible, the ‘Imagine Ballarat’ Love, Change and Imagine questions were utilised as a resourceful instrument for assessing the significance attributed by multiple stakeholders. Results: Based on the results, stakeholders’ opinions and values regarding the heritage site could be compared, which revealed the relationship between the values and the groups of actors, thereby deepening the complexity of heritage sites as National Monuments. Conclusion: By using this integrated perspective, we could define the cultural significance of a modern heritage site through an inclusive methodology while also establishing the grounds for conservation policies within a more broadly participative management of change.