HKU Moodle

This course throws light on the conventional wisdom and long-standing issues of conservation anew. Students will obtain critical and visionary perspectives on the following field-defining questions: Would the 19^th-20^th century frameworks of conservation be endangered in the new dynamics of digital technology and climate change? how to enrich our appreciation of historical built environment while following the agendas of sustainability? what roles could conservation play? The course uses a teaching-learning-research combined pedagogy. Students will develop intellectual capacity and research skills to interconnect value assessment and material vulnerability. They will learn to participate in the said dynamics and agendas from a heritage perspective and with its essence and wisdom. They will also learn to evaluate sources and tools critically.

This course provides an introduction to the practice and underlying theories of built heritage conservation and management in the global and Asian contexts. It starts with an overview of the evolution of the conservation movement and the shift to values-based heritage management approaches that span people-nature-culture. Students learn how to identify and articulate values as the basis for managing heritage. Attention is paid to comparisons of different types and scales of heritage and their associated range of values, including historic buildings, living districts and landscapes. Case studies from Hong Kong, Asia and beyond are used to illustrate the processes of understanding, protecting and leveraging inter-related values of heritage places. The course will also encourage critical reflection on the ways heritage values are constructed and instrumentalized. At the end, students will be required to prepare a Statement of Significance (SoS) which can be used as starting point for developing conservation management plans and various development activities.