Towards a New Towns Heritage Research Agenda

Transcription

1 Towards a New Towns Heritage Research Agenda Bob Colenutt Oxford Brookes University Sabine Coady Schäbitz Coventry University Noël James Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre

2 The AHRC New Towns Heritage Network Objectives: 1. To establish a New Towns Research Network that brings together university, governmental and community researchers across the UK and in mainland Europe 2. To stimulate collaboration and sharing of ideas between New Towns researchers at a number of network events 3. Initiate a programme of research through the Network on shared themes of Master Planning; Architecture, Heritage and the Historic Environment; Building Cultural Capital; Regeneration, Growth and Skills 4. Establish a European New Towns research portal with on-line public access to a New Towns archive 5. Disseminate research findings of the Network and the Seminars and the Conference through research papers and reports and through the On-Line Portal

3 Initial Research Questions How are the utopian social and economic visions which accompanied the New Town Movement embodied in the master planning, urban design and architecture of the New Towns? How can the New Town architectural and urban design heritage be evaluated? How can key stakeholders in New Towns create an identity and pride for their town, by building cultural capital through their heritage, including architecture, public art and cultural activities? How can future planning for these towns accommodate and build on this heritage in a meaningful way, and be integrated into regeneration and growth? Historic and Evidential Aesthetic Communal HERITAGE AS FUTURE

4 Emerging Research Agenda Context Analysis & Evaluation Conclusions - Initiatives Our Position New Towns are a key element of British post war history and therefore constitute an important Heritage asset which needs to be analysed and evaluated as part of the wider Heritage Discourse.

5 Emerging Research Agenda Context Analysis & Evaluation Conclusions - Initiatives Heritage Today Modernist Heritage both established and contested Change in Heritage Understanding, Diminishing Consensus - from the collective and cohesive to the ambivalent, contested, plural and/or partial and fragmentary Widening Participation Agenda Diminished Public Resources European Heritage Year 2018 Sharing Heritage

6 Emerging Research Agenda Context Analysis & Evaluation Conclusions - Initiatives The Network Listing of institutions, individuals representing institutions and individuals representing themselves: register of current stakeholders Listing and describing initiatives regarding the New Town Heritage: a register of conservation, protection and adaptation of NT heritage in practice through use of existing records/interviews Mapping of current stakeholders vs NT heritage initiatives per case study and overall Drawing in further stakeholders to constantly extend the network

7 Emerging Research Agenda Context Analysis & Evaluation Conclusions - Initiatives Methodologies Case study approach: Toolkit of Heritage documentation, evaluation and analysis: applied to the different dimensions of NT heritage (cultural landscapes, town/ master plans, town centres, neighbourhoods, public open spaces, ensembles, single buildings, public art) capturing the information for each case study to open up opportunities for protection, adaptation and reuse Toolkit of community engagement and stakeholder participation: building the Community into the recording, evaluation and analysis Mapping of stakeholders vs heritage assets

8 Emerging Research Agenda Context Analysis & Evaluation Conclusions - Initiatives Recommendations For: Acceptance or rejection of Heritage Status for individual case studies the meta narrative vs parallel narratives For: Further Discourse: Whose Heritage is it anyway? For: Protection - cultural landscapes, conservation areas, listed buildings, collections, museums, archives For: Community Engagement and Stakeholder Participation For: Heritage Management - Place and Space, Substance and Materiality, Time and Temporality, Identity

9 Insights so far Anniversary celebrations indicate that New Towns are aware and proud of their history. They have prompted a debate to establish whether the post-war heritage will be considered a necessary ingredient of NT city growth strategies Elements of the Post-War NT heritage are recognised and valued by expert groups or societies but often not more widely NTs have common roots but wide range of NT histories makes generalisation difficult NTs are under intense pressure to adapt to 21st century commerce, transport, social and cultural changes which can easily diminish NT Heritage elements of design, architecture and landscape. In this context valuation of heritage assets is at a very early stage.

10 Insights so far - cont Heritage Evaluation has to include wider societal considerations Philosophically Practically Economically In many ways NTs authorities are ill-equipped to do this because of the fragmentation of administrations, lack of design capacity, loss of income from NT assets, and lack of public funding for maintenance of the NT estate. NTs have strong emphatic urban forms/ distinctive physical places, but there is ambivalence about Modernist architecture and design Heritage value is connected to local identity: there have significant alterations to NT identity over time due to economic shifts and demographic changes

11 Digital Dissemination of Network Activities NTHN portal Website resource

12 Towards a New Towns Heritage Research Agenda We want to hear from you! Bob Colenutt Sabine Coady Schäbitz Noël James rcolenutt@brookes.ac.uk sabine.coadyschaebitz@coventry.ac.uk director@mkcdc.org.uk