part 1 - Iccrom

¿Conservar uma feira livre? Or, preserving dynamic, complex heritage by
accenting societal character and socio-spatial conceptualization
Klaus Hartwig Brendle 1
Abstract
Contributing to the challenge of imparting complex heritage, this conference is concerned with the step
after their preservation. Therefore it is (only) possible to deal with that which has been selected before and
has been evaluated as worthy of nomination as heritage. In this perspective, questions begin in the prephase
of a protected object. In particular, those submitted under Conservação Urbana as ‘complex assets’ like
sites, cultural territories and entire landscapes — favoured by UNESCO in recent years — require ‘complex’
instruments indicating their state as composite places. Preventing later problems with monitoring is helpful
in order to look precisely on a place’s living identity and dynamic qualities; otherwise, later on, it may come
under a precarious pressure.
Besides heritage of an intangible nature, the Brazilian Inventário Nacional de Referências Culturais (INRC)
includes the categories ’places’ and ‘buildings’ focusing on ‘complex and dynamic cultural processes’.
Through the heterogeneous mixture of (social) processes, (urban) space and (architectural) objects – namely
by the large traditional market of Laranjeiras/Sergipe – this approach presents an example of a process, some
different methods and a theoretical framework for how to observe, describe and indicate local socio-spatial
phenomena. Extracting the events and process rules and their spatial consequences force considerations to
concentrate on the merged features of ‘usage and shape’. Aiming at the ‘significance’ of the feira and not only
the most-demanded visual ‘worthy-of-protecting’ market scenes, the focus here is on the framework for the
disposition of societal and design rules and their (historical, behavioural and material) resources. Fostering
the dynamic background of this heritage, this approach works out the inherent crucial substance and the
socio-spatial constitution of built and landscaping qualities. The potencies and the rules of their visual and
livable essentials allow deduction of an adequate monitoring system in order to accomplish the conservation
and performance of those sites.
Keywords: complex heritage and assets, dynamic place and cultural landscape, monitoring, urban and
architectural analysis
1
Laranjeiras/Sergipe – Inventário Nacional de Referências Culturais (INRC – Laranjeiras) Identificação [National Registry of the
Intangible Heritage – Identification and Documentation]. Work carried out by: Brasilis Consultoria & Empreendimentos (Execução),
Recife/Pernambuco; Dr. Betânia Brendle (General Coordinator), Klaus Brendle (Technical Coordinator), INRC-Laranjeiras Equipe
(Laranjeiras/Sergipe). Client: Instituto do Patrimônia Histórico e Artístico Nacional (IPHAN), Ministry of Culture; Superintendência de
Sergipe. Relatórios 1 – 5. Laranjeiras/Sergipe, Brazil. Work in progress.
Introduction
The description of ‘what is going on in the feira’
requires two different approaches: ‘how it is’ (Samuel
Beckett, 1963) 1 , and the history of its life cycle. If
one includes the monitoring phase, it would be necessary
to add consideration of the estimated future
development of the protected heritage. In the case
of the feira livre in Laranjeiras Sergipe (Northeastern
Brazil) we would have to consider a long history
of ‘how it was’, with undoubtedly several changes
occurring up to the present day; the Saturday market
was first mentioned in 1799 (Grupo de Restauração,
1975). Unfortunately within this project (Laranjeiras
INRC, 2010) there was no opportunity to
v v v
gain a deeper understanding of the past, though of
course this would be interesting and quite complicated
because of the mixture of research disciplines.
Moreover, the market is part of the economic and
cultural history of Sergipe and would require an
adequate analysis of its regional functions, features
and interchanges.
1. The place
Therefore, keeping in mind that the missing history
would indeed enhance the following approach,
let us look on the present feira in Laranjeiras. The
area where the market takes place is localized at the
northern edge of the former cidade (see Figure 1).
Brendle, K. H. 2012. ¿Conservar uma feira livre? Or, preserving dynamic, complex heritage by accenting societal character and sociospatial
conceptualization. In Zancheti, S. M. & K. Similä, eds. Measuring heritage conservation performance, pp. 42-52. Rome, ICCROM.
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