Beyond good intentions: Building passport for sustainable conservation of built heritage

Sustainable Conservation are the processes of change through which the components of the
inherited ecosystem from the past retain their value for present and future generations. As such, the
value assessment is critical to recognise the values of heritage, not only by its aesthetical and historical
values, but also by its contribution to a more sustainable future.
Recent norms, policies, and standards highlight the role of heritage for sustainability and encourage
urban conservation, however, sustainable conservation is not yet the most common practice. The
behavioural dimension is intrinsic to the decision-making process, however, the literature review
shows that no studies were conducted to analyse designers’ decision behaviours regarding sustainable
conservation of built heritage.
This research aims to grow understanding on the gap in the implementation of best practices of
sustainable conservation of built heritage, and to achieve solutions for behavioural change. It applies
an innovative approach drawn from methods common in psychology to analyse designers’ decisions
behaviours, by eliciting common beliefs, challenges, and opportunities in the implementation of
conservation intentions towards heritage buildings.
The results demonstrate that design decisions result from conscious and unconscious processes,
some of them socially driven, while others result of individual attitudes. Contrary to practitioners, that tend
to attribute the responsibility of the lack of implementation to other stakeholders in the process, design
students often assume an internal locus of control, attributing the gap in implementation to autonomous
decisions, derived from personal beliefs and design concepts. Moreover, sustainability is often believed
as opposite or incompatible to heritage conservation. Targeting this primary belief, a building passport
for sustainable conservation was developed aiming at raising awareness of the value of built heritage to
sustainability. This building passport was used in several case studies of heritage buildings, to verify its
contribution to support designers achieving consensual sustainability assessments and inform redesign
decisions.
The results of this research can support the redesign of heritage buildings, and the development
of sustainable conservation policies, and that of future research focusing on the behavioural change in
sustainable conservation.