An archaeology of memory - Preserving vernacular heritage as a landscape of learning

This chapter outlines some caste studies from successful transformative sustainable initiatives I have been developing as a teacher in higher education in Japan, Europe and the UK. My teaching practice has been an attempt to blur the boundaries between art, architecture and heritage preservation exploring the social, environmental and economic aspects of sustainability.

Teaching architecture in the 21st century requires a paradigm shift to constantly redefine its classical pillars of durability, utility and beauty. Global environmental crisis shapes higher education in architecture toward educating active individuals, capable of initiating, participating and performing a process of resilient community building. Here social justice, learning by doing, team spirit and co-creation are the major ingredients of the transformation of the built environment and all participants are involved in blurring the boundaries between research, teaching, making and wellbeing.

Can sustainable heritage research become a consistent line of higher education inquiry in order to weave all these sustainable threads together, blurring boundaries between client, designer, user and creative fields toward a resilient community?
To answer this question, I will delve into some of my recent projects as examples of successful transformative sustainable initiatives where academia serves as a mediator to assist local administration, NGO’s, residents and businesses toward heritage focused urban and rural regeneration.

The first case study outlines a project in a depopulated village in Bulgaria where the restoration and adaptive reuse of a local stone mill building, converted into a rural regeneration business training centre, can illustrate the supporting role of universities’ research and teaching projects to enable a long-term interaction between administration, NGO and residents toward a heritage-focused revitalization. By repeatedly bringing young students for workshops in the village as a part of academic internships and university funded research projects, this 7 years-long initiative has resulted not only in a good architectural practice of adaptive reuse (as the students designed project has won several national awards for architectural design), but two of the former students have moved to the village and started a family and business there. They continue to involve other students’ groups in heritage-focused workshops and design&make fieldworks.

The second case study takes place in Ryde town at the Isle of Wight, where a small historic folly and a newly written merman legend are given as a brief for students to design and make an installation with recycled materials. The academia once again is an active mediator between local administration, residents, artists and businesses to trigger an artistic intervention as a way for sustainable town regeneration.

The third case study is a funded research project where the author has compiled a team of international conservation architects and an illustrator to document an endangered timber heritage at the West Balkan borderline region between Bulgaria and Serbia as one of the most economically deprived regions in the EU. Documenting vernacular houses and oral stories about housing spirits and building rituals, this project aims to help local administration and residents use maps, drawings and films to develop culturally sustainable tourism and empower local business and NGO’s connect with their cultural identity visual communication.

All the case studies show how neglected architectural heritage can be used for learning and help regions in a sustainable urban and rural development. Students of art, architecture and conservation are immersed in a type of ‘archaeology of memory’, unravelling a palimpsest of the history and cultural diffusion of places. Their creative mapping, drawings, paintings and models are presented to local administrations and NGO’s usually lacking the capacity and people to explore history and memory. These initiatives prove that education, focused on real local issues from very early on, could embrace a holistic learning and create a confidence of problem solvers, team players and communication skills to keep academic engagement both attractive and relevant to the present realities.