HERITAGE-BASED DESIGN

This book addresses the question of how to design in a historical context. How to get a grip on a site? How can a designer incorporate actual qualities of the heritage in the design? In three chapters, it is described how the conservation of heritage
has increasingly become an issue of planning and intervention, with the specific cultural heritage qualities of a site as the starting point for transformation.

There are several different approaches to embed the design in the site: focussi
ng on the designed past, the designed presence and the non-designed presence. The better the essences of the meaning of the cultural heritage (substance, structure and narrative) are exposed, the better the design can focus on these. However accurate
ly the different process steps are adhered to - in the end the quality of the design will determine the degree of success: it''s a thin line between a disaster and a brilliant intervention. The design challenge is to give a site new vitality while at
the same time preserving its value.