The public release of ChatGPT, a generative artificial intelligence language model, caused wide-spread public interest in its abilities but also concern about the implications of the application on academia, depending on whether it was deemed benevolent (e.g., supporting analysis and simplification of tasks) or malevolent (e.g., assignment writing and academic misconduct). While ChatGPT has been shown to provide answers of sufficient quality to pass some university exams, its capacity to write essays that require an exploration of value concepts is unknown. This paper presents the results of a study where ChatGPT-4 (released May 2023) was tasked with writing a 1500-word essay to discuss the nature of values used in the assessment of cultural heritage significance. Based on an analysis of 36 iterations, ChatGPT wrote essays of limited length with about 50% of the stipulated word count being primarily descriptive and without any depth or complexity. The concepts, which are often flawed and suffer from inverted logic, are presented in an arbitrary sequence with limited coherence and without any defined line of argument. Given that it is a generative language model, ChatGPT often splits concepts and uses one or more words to develop tangential arguments. While ChatGPT provides references as tasked, many are fictitious, albeit with plausible authors and titles. At present, ChatGPT has the ability to critique its own work but seems unable to incorporate that critique in a meaningful way to improve a previous draft. Setting aside conceptual flaws such as inverted logic, several of the essays could possibly pass as a junior high school assignment but fall short of what would be expected in senior school, let alone at a college or university level.

Across the Western world, membership in the established organized churches is on the decline with a concomitant reduction in the need for churches and church halls. As redundant and unused churches are the focus of vandalism and decay, owners and heritage managers are looking for options to adaptively re-use such buildings. This article reviews the literature on the re-use of churches in the Netherlands, which has long history of innovatively addressing the problems. The options available range from re-use for religious purposes by other denominations or faiths, to community use (multi-purpose, sport, music etc.), and private use, which can be either commercial or residential. The attitudes of the community and the original property owners play a major part in successful adaptive re-use. Because of its long history, the Dutch experience in adaptive re-use of religious buildings has much to offer heritage managers in other countries faced with this emergent management issue.

The first half of 2023 was dominated by a public discussion of the nature and implications of generative artificial intelligence (genAI) models that are poised to become the most significant cross-cultural global disruptor since the invention of the World-Wide Web. It can be predicted that genAI will affect how cultural heritage is being managed and practiced, primarily by providing analysis and decision-making tools, but also by genAI generated texts and images, in particular reconstructions of objects and sites. The more speculative interpretations of contexts and alternative interpretations generated by genAI models may constitute manifestations of cultural heritage in their own right. But do these constitute human cultural heritage, or are they AI cultural heritage? This paper is a deliberation of the realities and future(s) of cultural heritage in a genAI and post-genAI world.

It is widely understood that the preservation of cultural heritage sites and objects is underpinned by values projected by the public onto essentially inanimate objects, that these values vary in strength, and that they are mutable qualities. Using hindsight, the contemporary values are projected on past creations that persist into the present. If deemed significant, these past creations will be listed on heritage lists and afforded various levels of protection. As time moves on, new places or objects will be deemed significant and added to the lists. Using a case study, this paper examines the concept of shifting baselines and how they impact on the identification and listing/protection of heritage places. It will demonstrate that generational biases play a significant role in the initial listing and exert a lasting legacy through the static nature of heritage listings.

Pigeons are considered to be urban pests, causing untold damage to buildings and potentially impacting the health of humans who come into contact with them or their faeces. Pigeon faecal matter has been implicated in both health impacts and building damage, with the acidity of the excreta playing an important role. Purpose of the Review. This paper is a wide-ranging review of the chemical processes of excreta in the pigeon to aid our understanding of the potential problems of pigeons to buildings and human amenity in the urban space. The natural pH of pigeons is shown to vary based on the bird’s and age as well as reproductive stage. Key findings of the review. The influences of the altered diet between the rock dove (the wild progenitor of the feral pigeon) and the feral pigeon are detailed, indicating that the human-based diet of urban pigeons most likely causes the feral pigeon excreta to be more acidic than the rock dove excreta. This higher acidity is due in part to diet, but also to potential increases in faecal and/or uric acid volumes due to the low quality of human-based diets. Again, this area of interest is highly data deficient due to the few number of studies and unspecified dietary intake before pH measurement. Implications of the review. Humans are increasingly concerned about pigeon populations (and presumably their accumulated faeces) in the urban space, and control comprises a large part of the interaction between humans and feral pigeons. This review provides a greater understanding of feral pigeons and the true effects of their excreta.

COVID-19 has highlighted the disruptive, cross-sectorial effects a sudden-onset pandemic has on a globally interconnected world. A particularly insidious component is the high percentage of asymptomatic cases allowing the virus to seed undetected. The design of residential architecture will need to adapt to the new reality that COVID-19 will not be the last coronavirus epidemic. This paper discusses the implications of COVID-19 for new residential construction. It argues for a containment space, separating the largely uncontrollable external environment from the internal threat-reduced residential space, for a separation of visitor entertainment areas and private sleeping areas, as well as the design of a spatially separated master bedroom that can double as a self-isolation space if the need arises. The implications of this new design on existing housing stock are also discussed. The advocated concepts are novel and advance the design considerations for future residential developments.