Pulling the Threads Together

Author(s):  
Ken Nicolson

The concluding chapter stresses the need for Hong Kong to recognise the concept of cultural landscapes and apply it in conservation studies. Instead of the current ad hoc ‘fire-fighting’ approach to conservation, Hong Kong needs to get ahead of the curve by taking proper stock of its natural and built heritage resources and mapping cultural landscapes would be an effective way to integrate these data. In the absence of formal government guidelines, a simple 5-step process is set out to guide the layman and practitioner how to assess the heritage value of a cultural landscape. The importance of understanding the dynamic, evolving interrelationship between nature and mankind that has shaped and will continue to shape cultural landscapes is stressed with a final reminder that conservation is not preservation. Instead, conservation is concerned with the sensible management of change.

Author(s):  
Ken Nicolson

Hong Kong’s approach to heritage conservation has focused on saving an old building here and there with little or no regard to its surroundings. Recent public debates challenging proposals to demolish the former Central Government Offices on the historic site known as ‘Government Hill’ have highlighted this problem and, for the first time, acknowledged that the heritage value of the buildings is enhanced by their contribution to the broader ‘cultural landscape’. Not all of Hong Kong’s heritage cultural landscapes have been so fortunate. The title evokes an image of valuable items that have been lost or overlooked and, unless efforts are made to search for and retrieve them, may be thrown away altogether. To inspire a more effective approach to heritage conservation in Hong Kong, Landscapes Lost and Found traces the origins of the cultural landscape concept and, using a variety of urban and rural case studies, illustrates how it can be applied in interpreting and protecting the city’s rich and often undervalued natural and built heritage resources.


Author(s):  
Ken Nicolson

Case study 6: Dried Seafood Street is a popular commercial neighbourhood, specialising in selling a wide variety of dried seafood, tea, and herbal goods. Close to Hong Kong’s central business district and served by the iconic tramline, the cultural landscape comprises several blocks of colourful, bustling shops with distinctive sights, sounds, and smells. Historic urban districts in Hong Kong are vulnerable because land is scarce, property values are high, and the usual consequence of such economic forces is eventual loss of heritage sites to new development. However, for over a century the dried seafood businesses have survived several phases of urban renewal thanks to the Nam Pak Hong Association, a traders’ organisation, which has provided a degree of cohesion and stability that other commercial districts lack. The importance of conserving both the hardware and software of heritage sites is discussed. In the absence of conservation tools in Hong Kong to protect heritage urban cultural landscapes like Dried Seafood Street, land use zoning and financial incentives used elsewhere in Macau and Singapore are reviewed for comparison.


Author(s):  
Ken Nicolson

Case study 1: The origins and evolution of this designed cultural landscape are presented, including a review of the flamboyant owner and designer, Aw Boon Haw, founder of the successful Tiger Balm empire, His design was a bold concept based on a unique expression of Chinese garden principles using vibrantly coloured sculptures and structures to depict scenes from Chinese mythology, religion, and philosophy. The garden functioned as a valuable public open space, a reminder to Chinese immigrants of their cultural roots, a promotion of the Tiger Balm products, and, most profoundly, as an allegory to reflect on one’s journey through life. In its heyday, Tiger Balm Garden was a popular landmark and venue for local residents and visitors, How it came to be neglected and eventually demolished is a cautionary tale for other heritage cultural landscapes in Hong Kong. The lessons learned reveal how the planning and heritage conservation system is not equipped to deal with protecting cultural landscapes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-187
Author(s):  
Brych M ◽  

In Ukraine, there is no holistic perception of historical and cultural environments of monumental ensembles and complexes as an object of protection and use today. Their preservation will be effective only when the understanding of the object of protection is extended to the boundaries of the cultural landscape, including all its valuable elements. The best way to implement this concept is to include cultural landscapes in the open-air museum exhibition as its integral, active, and living element.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 37-44
Author(s):  
Elena Ladik ◽  
A. Makridina

The problems of planning the organization of territories and objects of ethnographic tourism, taking into account the landscape features of the regions of the Russian Federation, in particular the Belgorod region, are relevant. The study developed regional principles for planning ethno-tourist spaces on the example of the Belgorod region. The object of research is the territories favorable for the development of ethnographic tourism objects within the Belgorod region, the subject of research is the influence of regional historical and cultural features on the formation of ethnographic tourism territories. As a result of the study, based on the analysis of world and national experience in the design of ethnographic tourism objects, their typological and historical-cultural analysis, the principles of organizing ethnographic tourism objects were developed. These principles take into account such regional features of the cultural landscapes of the Belgorod region, as the principle of preservation of the cultural landscape, the principle of authenticity of the recreated environment, the principle of symbolic exposure, the principle of stylistic unity and the multi-level principle. The use of the developed principles will allow us to preserve the identity and originality of the environment, reduce anthropogenic pressures on valuable landscape areas, increase information content and determine the gradual immersion in the concept of a tourist site.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2593
Author(s):  
María Fe Schmitz ◽  
Cristina Herrero-Jáuregui

Cultural landscapes are the result of social–ecological processes that have co-evolved throughout history, shaping high-value sustainable systems [...]


Author(s):  
Дмитрий Николаевич Замятин

Геокультурное пространство любого региона формируется в результате взаимодействия двух слабо отделимых друг от друга элементов – геокультур, развивающихся на данной территории, и культурных ландшафтов. Полноценное развитие геокультурного пространства предполагает формирование уникальной онтологии воображения, создающей когнитивный «фундамент» для построения соответствующих моделей. Онтологические модели воображения характеризуют возможности расширенной репрезентации и интерпретации культурных ландшафтов какого-либо региона. Визуальность культурного ландшафта представляет собой сложное образование, в котором зрительные реакции и рефлексии оказываются результатом множественного воображения – одновременно и личностного, и группового. Геокультурное пространство Арктики в его визуально-дискурсивном измерении является сложным, поскольку традиция «колониального взгляда» вкупе с тенденцией к анализу постколониальных практик и к деколонизации различных арктических дискурсов создаёт амбивалентное дискурсивное поле актуальных визуальных практик и политик. Экзистенциальная ситуация постэкзотизма, типологически характерная для арктических регионов, является полем онтологизации множественных визуальных практик, закрепляющих ризоматические процедуры геокультурных различений. В результате полевого исследования прибрежных территорий Северо-Восточной Чукотки были выделены наиболее визуально интенсивные ключевые ландшафтные ассамбляжи: 1) морской охоты; 2) традиционных праздников морских охотников; 3) «первозданной» природы. Ландшафтные ассамбляжи репрезентируются теми или иными визуальными диспозитивами. Под визуальными диспозитивами понимаются устойчиво воспроизводящиеся и феноменологически фиксируемые визуальные ландшафтные (геокультурные) образы, характеризующие специфику определённых ландшафтных ассамбляжей. В результате проведённого исследования выделено пять ключевых визуальных диспозитивов, обусловливающих специфические формы воспроизводства и развития как самих геокультур, так и соответствующих культурных ландшафтов данных территорий: 1) диспозитив морских охотников, наиболее пограничный и фрактальный; 2) диспозитив праздников традиционной культуры морских охотников; 3) диспозитив разрушения и руинирования, связанный как с экстремальными природными условиями региона, так и с эпохой советского и постсоветского развития; 4) диспозитив «природного», «первозданного» пространства, связанный с низкой освоенностью территории; и 5) диспозитив мультинатурализма, проявляющийся в особенностях визуальных сред чукотских поселений (сел, поселков городского типа, небольшого города). Эти диспозитивы, переплетаясь и взаимодействуя между собой, создают множественные, постоянно трансформирующиеся ландшафтные ассамбляжи. В рамках представленных визуальных диспозитивов формируются феномены арктического постэкзотизма и внутреннего экзотизма, фиксирующие невозможность возвращения к доколониальной «ландшафтной оптике». The geocultural space of any region is formed as a result of the interaction of two weakly separable elements – geocultures developing in the given territory and cultural landscapes. The full development of a geocultural space involves the formation of a unique ontology of imagination, which creates a cognitive “foundation” for the construction of appropriate models. Ontological models of imagination characterize the possibilities of an expanded representation and interpretation of the cultural landscapes of a region. The visuality of a cultural landscape is a complex formation in which visual reactions and reflections are the result of multiple imaginations – both personal and group. The geocultural space of the Arctic, in its visual-discursive dimension, is complex, since the tradition of the “colonial view”, coupled with the tendencies to analyze postcolonial practices and to decolonize various Arctic discourses, creates an ambivalent discursive field of relevant visual practices and policies. The existential situation of post-exoticism, typologically characteristic of the Arctic regions, is a field of ontologization of multiple visual practices that consolidate rhizomatic procedures of geocultural distinctions. As a result of a field study of the coastal territories of North-Eastern Chukotka, the most visually intensive key landscape assemblages have been identified: 1) sea hunting, 2) traditional holidays of sea hunters, 3) “pristine” nature. Landscape assemblages are represented by various visual dispositives. Visual dispositives are understood as consistently reproducing and phenomenologically fixed visual landscape (geocultural) images that characterize the specifics of certain landscape assemblages. As a result of the study, five key visual dispositives have been identified that determine the specific forms of the reproduction and development of both geo-cultures themselves and the corresponding cultural landscapes of these territories: 1) the dispositive of sea hunters, the most borderline and fractal; 2) the dispositive of holidays of the traditional culture of sea hunters; 3) the dispositive of destruction and ruin associated with both the extreme natural conditions of the region and the era of the Soviet and post-Soviet development; 4) the dispositive of the “natural”, “pristine” space associated with the low development of the territory, and 5) the dispositive of multi-naturalism, manifested in the features of the visual environments of Chukchi settlements (villages, urban-type settlements, small towns). These dispositives, intertwining and interacting, create multiple, constantly transforming landscape assemblages. Within the framework of the presented visual dispositives, the phenomena of Arctic post-exoticism and internal exoticism are formed, which fix the impossibility of returning to the pre-colonial “landscape optics”.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-121
Author(s):  
Balaji Venkatachary ◽  
Vishakha Kawathekar

The widely recognized definition of ‘Cultural Landscape’ in current practice is borrowed from UNESCO as Combined works of Nature and of Man.1 They are complex entities consisting of multiple layering of built-unbuilt components including intangible cultural aspects. These components are interrelated and interdependent. The landscape evolves together through combined natural and cultural processes. In current discourse and practice of heritage management, value-based assessment is a widely accepted approach. Evaluation of cultural landscapes for its Significance and Value is a complex process that requires an understanding of interwoven layers of components and attributes.2 Systematic understanding of such relationships between components and attributes is still in its infancy. Amongst various such identified intangible agencies, this study chooses to explore music. A study of secondary sources was undertaken. Cultural landscapes nominated as World Heritage Sites and identified Indian sites were systematically examined to understand various components and attributes. Using the indicators from this study and the theoretical framework of sociomusicology, a research design was prepared. Recognizing the historical association of music with the sites on the Kaveri river basin in peninsular India, a reconnaissance study was undertaken for onsite validation. Musical associations were spatially mapped for analysis and the findings are presented. Systematic understanding of the relationships between components of a cultural landscape and intangible cultural traditions is still in its infancy. The undertaken study is an exploratory work that focuses on understanding the relationship between components of a cultural landscape and ‘intangible attributes’, especially music. A study of secondary sources was undertaken in two parts. In the first part, concept of cultural landscape has been explored. Cultural landscapes nominated as World Heritage Sites were systematically examined to understand various components and attributes. The knowledge helped in formation of indicators for evaluation of cultural landscapes. In the second part of the study, selected case studies of Indian cultural landscapes were studies with the developed indicators. Musical traditions existing in these sites were theoretically reduced to basic components and mapped for analysis.


2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 90-97
Author(s):  
Ehsan Daneshyar

This article illustrates the significance of pathways in cultural landscapes. It does so via an in-depth analysis at the paths in the historic community of Masulih, located in the Iranian province of Gilān. The town of Masulih, including its surrounding landscape, has an inter-connected systems of pathways that serve to tie the area together as coherent whole, making it an excellent site to explore the significance of path systems. On a functional level the neighbourhoods and homes, bazaar, teahouses, mosques, and Imāmzādih, in addition to the grazing lands and paths connect shrines outside the community. However, the paths of Masulih are significant beyond their mere utilitarian function as travel routes. This paper finds that various attributes of the paths are interrelated: the relation of path to topography; the cyclical and seasonal usage of paths; the path's function as connector of the bazaar and tea houses where individuals meet and socialize; paths serve as an stage during the lunar rituals that allows for further socializing; lands near and far are connected by the network of paths. Finally, this paper documents the dynamic connections between paths, landscape, built environment, and individuals in Masulih.


Author(s):  
Melissa F. Baird

This chapter presents research on the UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscape Uluru-Kata Tjuta in Australia. Drawing from ethnographic interviews of heritage experts and archival research, the chapter examines the politics embedded within managing and interpreting cultural landscapes in World Heritage contexts. It asks: how do heritage designations affect claims to traditional homelands, resources, and subsistence and resource management practices? The data show how largely apolitical and ahistorical narratives reconfigured the historical and social conditions of the park and redefined Traditional Owners' relationship to Country. It argues that state and national laws and World Heritage and national park policies work in ways that force Traditional Owners to make claims within systems that are largely incompatible with their custodial responsibilities, knowledge practices, and customary laws.


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