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This paper introduces a methodology to identify, analyse and represent heritage site attributes, emphasizing their impact on value, authenticity, integrity and management, with a case study on Ghadames, Libya. Inscribed in 1986 and moved to the In-Danger List in 2016 due to conflict, this work seeks to update the site's attributes and values for improved management.

This methodology, focusing on Ghadames, leverages recent heritage management advancements to monitor conflict-induced changes, aiming to enhance decision-making through a detailed analysis of the site's natural and cultural attributes.

Our findings highlight the need for systematic and holistic assessments of heritage site attributes and values, crucial for managing sites of both local and global significance. This approach is a key to understanding their identity, guiding interpretation, management and preserving cultural significance.

Developed for Ghadames, the methodology requires adaptation for other sites, underscoring the importance of identifying core tangible and intangible attributes that define a site's uniqueness.

Our developed methodology offers a replicable framework that can be modified by local heritage professionals to map attributes and assess the direct and indirect impact of conflict on heritage sites.

The detailed assessment provides a foundation for crafting informed policies and effective management strategies. It specifically targets minimizing the adverse effects of conflict on heritage sites' attributes. This effort is instrumental in preparing the necessary documentation to support the delisting of these sites from the UNESCO World Heritage Site In-Danger List, promoting their preservation and recovery.

The purpose of this article is to revisit the concepts of city singularity and identity, as well as the concept’s related topics (i.e. place identity, place attachment and place dependence). The aim is to investigate the impact of development projects on people's preferences for old and contemporary features in modern cities. The evidence for this can be seen mainly at historical sites such as Heliopolis in Cairo, Egypt.

The authors investigated how development projects affect place identity and city singularity through a three-step process. As a first step, an online questionnaire was administered to experts to assess the characteristics that shape the identity of local districts. In the second and third steps, interviews were conducted, followed by online surveys directed at Heliopolis residents and non-residents. The weight of people’s preferences was determined using multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM).

The results highlighted people's preferences to consider when developing projects at historical sites. Based on these preferences, the authors’ concluded remarks provide insight into some considerations for developing projects in historic places.

The added value here is surveying people’s preferences about development projects in historical places. The physical and social components interplay contributes to city identity and singularity. Based on these preferences, this investigation offers valuable insights into enhancing historical site development.

This project examines digital modeling strategies for existing buildings. In this context, it aims to question assumptions about the need for geometric accuracy and the efficacy of predefined ontologies. As a counterpoint to prevailing digital modeling strategies, this project proposes a digital modeling approach using a project-specific, emergent ontology.

Nishiki Market, in Kyoto, Japan, is studied as a test case. The emergent-ontology modeling process is introduced with an initial minimal set of operations including basic fold and trim operations applicable to surfaces. As the model develops iteratively, new situations are encountered for which existing rules are insufficient. In response, the model maker’s subjective judgment is invoked to introduce new operations, and ontological rules are allowed to expand.

The emergent-ontology approach, when executed on the Nishiki Market test case, enables representation of specific architectural qualities, highlighting semantic distinctions between digitally modeled elements of real-world features. The modeling approach generated project-specific knowledge, informing disciplinary understanding. Ontological emergence enabled semantic relationships to be disclosed and newly constructed.

The project proposes a novel methodology using an emergent ontology for digitally modeling existing buildings. Instead of remaining within the limitations a predefined ontology, the model maker’s subjective decisions shape the model’s ongoing development. This interpretive approach allows project-specific knowledge generation while challenging prevailing assumptions about accuracy and consistency in digital models of existing buildings.

Urban mobility has substantially evolved in several western countries, shifting from interest in road expansion strategies to cater motorized movement to the emphasis on sustainable mobility. This is, however, not the case in several developing countries that still try to accommodate vehicular flows in inner historic cities. This paper aims at providing an assessment framework that helps in evaluating the effect of streetscape development on the walking and cycling environment in historic contexts.

This research follows a two-phase methodology. Phase 1 is the investigation of the literature review including the streetscape design, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and indicators for the assessment of walking and cycling environment. This phase results in developing a set of indicators for the assessment. Phase 2 is the case study including, methods, steps and results of the assessment based on the output of Phase 1. This phase concludes with a discussion on the challenges and recommendations for the enhancement.

The streetscape development in Afrang was insufficient and negatively affected the walking and cycling environment. It was motorized-oriented, instead of enhancing green mobility. The interventions led to more crowds, safety risks and less pleasant experience. Moreover, the car users' experience was enhanced initially; however, the traffic situation did not persist. A sustainable urban mobility approach is necessary to be implemented with consideration to the global level and the relation to SDGs.

There is a gap in tackling the research problem both within the context of Port Said in particular and Egyptian context in general. Local authorities need a clear structured methodology to follow in the development of the streetscape. The assessment indicators gathered can be the basis for evaluating future plans.

The paper aims to describe the positive and negative effects of night lights in historical sites, as well as the most salient challenges faced by the visitors of these sites and determine ways to address them. The study aims to suggest several light-and-shadow approaches and designs to enhance the experience of visiting historical sites.

This study identifies problems of nightlife in historical sites with an online international questionnaire to determine the preferences and difficulties faced by visitors of historical sites during day and night. After that Egypt was determined as a sample case of a developing country; its archaeological sites need to be improved. The main problems of historical Egyptian sites were investigated and approaches in developing historical sites with interactive lighting design were presented after an online questionnaire to the Egyptian society.

The paper shows that archaeological sites need some development, especially in their technological and lighting aspects, to overcome visitors’ low night-time interest in archaeological sites. Research has found certain limitations in the effects of constructing artificial illumination. The study provides modern sustainable solution for some light challenges in historical sites with approaches and solutions to solve it.

The results of that research could be applied in developing countries, but with larger specific studies to the historical urban locations according to the politics of the country.

The paper includes sustainable approaches in developing historical sites with technological lighting design required to enhance historical sites at night-time and make visits more interactive and interesting.

This paper presents an identified need of historical sites visitors’ to study applying modern approaches in enhancing urban historical sites.

This study traced the architectural, urban and social characteristics of the Bugok Railway Official Residences (BRORs) in South Korea. It also explored the modern elements of Western (or Japanized Western) or traditional Korean characteristics embodied in the BRORs in the modernization process of Korea in the early 20th century.

Through literature reviews, field trips and archive investigation, this study uncovered new critical facts concerning the origin of the BRORs’ construction plan and architectural characteristics.

The BRORs’ value can be described as follows. First, the BRORs are the first modern housing complex in the Uiwang region. Second, they are meaningful as a housing area built during the Japanese colonial period, and many houses were concentrated in the center of a large city. Third, each official residence shows that various phenomena (mass production, standardization, efficiency and so on) are concentrated in buildings from premodern to modern period. Finally, the image of a group residential complex about to be demolished due to redevelopment is recorded in detail.

In the 1940s, the Railway Bureau of the Japanese Government-General of Korea planned a new small-scale town where mainly railway workers would live. The BRORs in Sam-dong, Uiwang were the first-phase plan. Specifically, 200 households in 100 buildings (two households per building) were built in 1943 during the end of the Japanese colonial period. After the liberation in 1945, these residences were made available to the general public and only 27 households remained through modification and renovation. The remaining residences will be demolished in 2023.

This research examined the meaning of the BRORs, which had not previously been researched in-depth, from diverse perspectives; accordingly, the basic research required for sustainable archiving can be performed after demolition using the study data.

The current adverse changes in climatic conditions have necessitated innovative nature-based solutions like blue-green roofs to ensure sustainable built environments. The use of blue-green roofs in combating climate change issues has continued to grow, and its benefits are showcased in many countries' studies. However, there is an absence of reports on the use of this approach in South Africa. Therefore, in ensuring a sustainable built environment through nature-based solutions, this study explored the built environment professional’s knowledge of blue-green roofs, the hindrances to their use and motivations for much wider use of blue-green roofs in the country.

Based on the nature of the study, a quantitative design was adopted and data were obtained from professionals within the built environment through a questionnaire. Data analyses were conducted using the Cronbach alpha test, Kruskal–Wallis H-Test, exploratory factor analysis and fuzzy synthetic evaluation.

The findings revealed a growing knowledge of blue-green roofs, albeit its slow adoption in the country. Also, five critical clusters of hindrances affecting the use of blue-green roofs were identified. These are understanding the blue-green roof concepts, technical, economic, regulation and client hindrances. Furthermore, the ability to manage stormwater properly, provide climate change adaptation and deliver sustainable buildings were the key motivating factors that could drive the use of this innovative solution.

This study offers actionable insights for built environment professionals and stakeholders to address the hindrances to using blue-green roofs in South Africa. Strategies such as improved education, financial incentives and policy development can help overcome some notable hindrances and promote the widespread adoption of blue-green roofs.

The slow adoption of blue-green roofs and the scant nature of research within the built environment required adequate attention to which this current research contributes. Theoretically, being one of the foremost studies in South Africa to explore blue-green roofs, the findings offer a foundation for future studies seeking to explore this roofing system in the country further.

The purpose of this paper is to address the challenging issue of developing a quantitative approach for the representation of cultural significance data in heritage information systems (HIS). The authors propose to provide experts in the field with a dedicated framework to structure and integrate targeted data about historical objects' significance in such environments.

This research seeks the identification of key indicators which allow to better inform decision-makers about cultural significance. Identified concepts are formalized in a data structure through conceptual data modeling, taking advantage on unified modeling language (HIS). The design science research (DSR) method is implemented to facilitate the development of the data model.

This paper proposes a practical solution for the formalization of data related to the significance of objects in HIS. The authors end up with a data model which enables multiple knowledge representations through data analysis and information retrieval.

The framework proposed in this article supports a more sustainable vision of heritage preservation as the framework enhances the involvement of all stakeholders in the conservation and management of historical sites. The data model supports explicit communications of the significance of historical objects and strengthens the synergy between the stakeholders involved in different phases of the conservation process.

Integrating and advancing social sustainability is foundational to achieving the urban sustainable development goals. Given the rapid transformation of cities in the Mediterranean region, this study sought to assess residents' evaluation of social sustainability in two socio-spatially diverse neighbourhoods of metropolitan Istanbul.

A questionnaire survey, adapted from an empirically well-tested and robust social sustainability framework, was used to collect data from 197 residents from Balat and Rasimpasa neighbourhoods in Metropolitan Istanbul. The study then employed quantitative analytical techniques such as independent sample t-tests and Pearson correlation to analyse the sample data.

In both neighbourhoods, accessibility and participation were ranked the highest and lowest dimensions of social sustainability, respectively. However, the t-test analysis revealed a statistically significant difference between the two neighbourhoods regarding social networking and interaction, safety and security and participation. The differences align with emerging studies on urban social sustainability in the Mediterranean and European cities that when considered from urban spatial contexts, significant differences emerge from a social network and safety perspective.

Our study invites urban planners and policy makers attention to and emphasise on lowly evaluated social sustainability dimensions such as participation in their efforts to promote sustainable urban development at the neighbourhood level. We reason that opening the decision-making process to include diverse voices and experiences of residents through participatory workshops might offer opportunities for context-specific, citizen-led urban planning and design strategies that are socially sustainable.

Previous studies have not fully accounted for how various socio-spatial contexts at the neighbourhood level shape differential evaluation of social sustainability. This paper extends the emerging work on urban social sustainability by situating residents’ evaluation of social sustainability indicators across two unique neighbourhoods with gridded and organic spatial characteristics in Istanbul. This paper is an important addition to ongoing work on how spatial organisation of neighbourhoods can influence experiences of social sustainability from an urban planning and design perspective.

This study aims to explore the impact of architecture on digital communication mediums, focusing on how social media shapes the public perception and discussion of architectural spaces. It specifically examines the case of the Basilica Cistern/Istanbul, analysing social media interactions post-restoration.

Using newspaper archive scanning and survey technique, this study observed public content on Instagram focusing on the post-restoration period of the Basilica Cistern. 406 (283 valid) people who visited the Cistern and shared their experiences on Instagram between August 2022 and January 2023 participated in a survey. The analysis utilized Python for advanced correlation studies, enabling an in-depth exploration of the interplay between architectural features and social media sharing behaviours.

The analysis revealed that historical significance, lighting elements, role as a photographic backdrop significantly influenced sharing behaviours. Correlations were found between specific spatial features of the cistern and various sharing motivations, such as communication with people, personal gain, and popularity. The study highlights a diverse spectrum of motivations among users, emphasizing the relationship between these motivations and spatial features.

This study underscores the necessity for further inquiry into the intricate dynamics among digital communication, architectural spaces, and user motivations. Limitations include potential challenges in gathering data from social media due to concerns of cyber fraud and the misuse of hashtags.

This research offers novel insights into the interplay between digital communication and architecture. It underscores the potential of digital platforms as valuable data sources for architectural theorizing and practice, particularly in understanding how restorations and architectural changes are perceived and discussed in the digital space.