part 1 - Iccrom

MEASURING HERITAGE CONSERVATION PERFORMANCE
6th International Seminar on Urban Conservation
on its nonmaterial cultural values, they are reviewed
separately.
4.1. Assessing the conservation of the fabric
The assessment and monitoring of conservation
processes and materials that aim to preserve the
fabric of cultural heritage have been long-standing
concerns for conservation practitioners. For this
reason, much data have been generated relating to
the appropriateness of conservation materials and
methods of intervention. It is without any doubt the
most developed area of assessment, though it lacks
standardized indicators due to the large variety of
materials, types of decay and conservation processes
to be recorded and monitored.
Some ranks and standards for the ‘ideal’ or ‘optimum’
conservation of heritage materials have been
defined over time (Alcántara, 2002), with numerous
publications indicating the results of very elaborate
research mainly focused on museum and archive
collections, but systematic approaches for the evaluation
and monitoring of processes and methods (and
their results) are still incipient (World Heritage Centre
/ ICCROM, 2002).
It is also worth mentioning that the relevance of
conserving the fabric varies across cultures, since
some cultures prioritize nonmaterial values over the
conservation of the fabric. Perhaps one of the most
disseminated examples is the rebuilding practices
of Shinto shrines in Japan. In these shrines what is
actually maintained is the tradition and construction
know-how rather than the material itself, since
buildings are demolished and reconstructed every
20 years (Brock-Nannestad, 2000, p. 30; Inaba, 2005)
according to the Shinto belief about the renewal of
nature. Examples from other parts of the world were
clearly shown in ICCROM’s Forum on living religious
heritage (Stovel et al., 2005).
Due to the degree of development of this area, as
well as the variety of materials and conservation
processes involved, this aspect is not analysed in
detail here. The reader is advised to consult relevant
work on remedial and preventive conservation, such
as Appelbaum (2007), Matteini and Moles (2003),
Roy and Smith (1994) and Adelstein (2004) as well as
on monitoring (World Heritage Centre – ICCROM,
2002).
The overall trend is to recommend the use of a combination
of identifiable and measurable elements,
and accurate documentation techniques, so that
evaluations can be repeated over time.
4.2. Assessing the conservation of
nonmaterial cultural values
Due to the scientific approach that has characterized
conservation practice in the last decades and
the consequent predominant emphasis on the material
fabric of heritage, assessing the conservation
and enhancement of nonmaterial cultural values has
often been overlooked. This has also been the result
of an approach focusing on monuments and art collections
that was developed in Western traditions. In
this sense, the Nara Document (Lemaire and Stovel,
1994), the Burra Charter (ICOMOS Australia, 1999)
and the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible
Cultural Heritage (UNESCO, 2003) constitute important
theoretical baseline knowledge in the formulation
of a wider understanding of cultural heritage
and for developing approaches that consider nonmaterial
cultural values (Wijesuriya et al., 2006).
The World Heritage Committee and various
national heritage institutions have carried out assessments
of cultural significance in order to decide
whether a particular building, site or landscape can
be inscribed on heritage lists, particularly the World
Heritage List. In the same way, a common practice
in conservation is to formulate a statement of significance
that incorporates the values surrounding
cultural heritage, and subsequently formulate
the conservation proposal based on that statement.
Unfortunately, however, conservation projects do
not usually carry out these types of assessments
after conservation activities take place, assuming
that interventions do not change cultural significance
and that only the assessment of the fabric is
worth documenting, assessing and monitoring after
conservation interventions.
Nonetheless, it is clear that conservation activities
modify the way we interpret and value objects, landscapes
and sites (Lemaire and Stovel, 1994, p. 2; Getty
Conservation Institute, 2000, p. 8), and therefore
conservation has an important impact on heritage’s
cultural significance. A clear example is the cleaning
of Michelangelo’s paintings of the Sistine Chapel at
the Vatican. In this case, regardless of whether the
cleaning processes did or did not remove original
materials, the conservation intervention generated
a huge controversy that had a tremendous impact
on how the public and art specialists perceive these
paintings (see Eliot, 1987; González Tirado, 2010),
which modifies the values and the cultural significance
attached to them.
The assessment of cultural significance is particularly
relevant for living heritage, due to the crucial
Alonso, V. I. & V. M. Meurs. 2012. Assessing the performance of conservation activities. In Zancheti, S. M. & K. Similä, eds. Measuring
heritage conservation performance, pp. 1-14. Rome, ICCROM.
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