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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the underground levels of a city to explore how vernacular and historic underground urban facilities help traditional cities to be sustainable. Therefore, the authors look at how culture, climate and economy affect those facilities.

The paper focuses on vernacular and local underground urban facilities in historic cities to find more sustainable processes of urban development that integrate cultural, climatic and economical concerns into design planning. The paper is based on a case study of the underground infrastructure of Dezful, Iran.

There are several vernacular building styles around the world, especially in Iran, with different shapes, materials, arrangements and concepts. Building construction has significant impacts on the environment and natural resources. Dezful is a city in Iran with a lot of potential in terms of its architecture. Vernacular cities possess infrastructure that helped them thrive in harsh climates. For instance, Dezful takes advantage of a systematic infrastructure termed the “Underground City.”

The traditional architecture of Dezful plays an important role in creating underground spaces, especially urban and architectural elements with thermal isolation properties that can be used as housing and as food storage. In this century, building construction could adopt these environmental properties, which could lead to low energy consumption in urban environments. Considering traditional and contextual elements in urban planning and design could revive sustainable community practices in urban environments.

This article presents a case study on the Heritage Building Information Modeling (H-BIM) application in a historic village in Bursa, Turkey. The study addresses how tailor-made and highly structured H-BIM approaches can effectively be implemented in preservation applications for historic vernacular buildings in the rural architecture context.

Using inexpensive digital photogrammetry techniques tightly combined with an object-oriented BIM ontology, parametric meta-modeling and object/system propagation methods, the study employed a holistic H-BIM approach for capturing the materiality, building object behaviors and indigenous construction principles of a characteristic vernacular house that were synthesized in a parametric H-BIM model. The followed stages, steps and connected methods were systematized and articulated in a prototypical H-BIM implementation framework.

The study findings suggested that the developed parametric H-BIM approach can return effective results with the combined use of low-cost and practical digital photogrammetry with BIM methods. The flexibility and adaptability of the parametric H-BIM implementation framework facilitated the synthesis of a comprehensive H-BIM model and allowed an in-depth evaluation of local architectural heritage with its physical, spatial and environmental characteristics. The proposed H-BIM approach also provided significant documentation and system-specific assessment benefits for preserving the vernacular examples which are prone to extinction especially due to structural and systemic deterioration.

The study proposes a feasible, practical and replicable H-BIM implementation methodology for vernacular preservation applications. The knowledge-embedded H-BIM approach, flows and techniques presented in this study provide a holistic and systematic H-BIM framework – with the integrated use of digital photogrammetry and parametric meta-modeling methods – that has the potential for the democratization of H-BIM applications in education and practice.

Embedded in built environment discourse, this chapter examines the traditional knowledge and resilience of the Ngadjuri Nation Peoples through an Elder’s narrative of reconciliation as well as resistance in their subsisting colonial settlement. Removed from ‘Country’ in the 1840s, Ngadjuri Aboriginal community endured colonial industries of open-cut copper mining and large-scale pastoralism as irreparable destruction to their cultural landscapes. European processes in the resources sectors reshaped natural topographies, deconstructing Ngadjuri Songlines and Ancestral Dreaming stories. Burra’s colonial stone buildings of settlement, painstakingly cut and composed from materials of the surrounding ecological terrain, prompted new narratives from Ngadjuri as a way of alleviating scars. Broadly speaking, this chapter aims to show how cultural heritage of two communities is provocatively and conceptually unpacked through the vernacular buildings’ cross-cultural foundations. That is, an under-reported narrative was unwittingly bestowed on the colonial-built forms with hidden meanings that deserve further investigation. This chapter offers a counternarrative to colonial histories revealing Ngadjuri’s methods for reconnecting to Country and culture after generations of disempowerment. It explores how within the materiality of colonial structures, the Ngadjuri entwined their remediated storylines – revealing a data curation that had avoided popular discourse in the galleries, libraries, archives, and museums [GLAM] sector representation. This example implies there are bodies of knowledge in built cultural heritage hidden elsewhere on our Aboriginal Nations and the challenges it presents GLAM in their Indigenisation processes.

This article aims to raising awareness on the potential of the application of the Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) methodology – developed by ICOMOS in 2011 – with a focus on UNESCO World Heritage sites that are characterized by a widespread presence of vernacular architecture, one of the most vulnerable and fragile typologies of heritage.

Starting from a theoretical introduction about the recognition of vernacular heritage into the international non-governmental panorama, and the dynamics that are mostly affecting it, the present contribution focuses on the case study of the Chora of Patmos (Greece), a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1999. The research has been carried out as follows: (1) comparative analysis of selected literature for the theoretical part; (2) field research; (3) interdisciplinary research for understanding the features of the site and assessing potential risks; (4) project design and assessments of the potential impacts.

The pivotal application of the HIA method on the case study of Patmos highlighted the importance of the methodology as an essential tool for facilitating management and safeguarding WH sites from possible threats due to development projects on vernacular architecture.

The originality of the research presented here lies in the connection between three different topics: vernacular architecture, Heritage Impact Assessment and Sustainable World Heritage Management. In fact, its goal is to bring cultural heritage management and sustainable development closer together, by emphasizing that HIA should not be used as a tool to hinder development, but as a practice for shaping and evaluating projects that might alter or compromise the integrity and authenticity of WH sites in a sustainable and balanced way.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the need to go beyond the “monumentalist” vision in restoration of built heritage and embrace principles of sustainability in this architectural practice.

Case studies as conceptual reference. Architectural typology.

The environmental crisis that is currently recognized as one of the most important problems that contemporary society must address urgently is a situation that still has not permeated enough in the practice of monumental restoration, which is still carried out using unlimited resources.

In that sense, the close relationship between the built and the natural environment as an essential ingredient of the vernacular is analysed.

Much of the sustainable principles, that have been put forward as an example to be followed, are elements that have hundreds of years in the constructive tradition.

In this context, vernacular architecture has much to contribute in the field of conservation by the enormous accumulated knowledge that its shapes, materials and social use represent.

This experience must be retrieved, but not as an aseptic laboratory experiment, but through its updated application and active implementation to improve the quality of life for inhabitants and contribute to the preservation of our cultural and natural environments.

This paper aims to elaborate on the characteristics of vernacular architecture, particularly the architecture of the Turkish eastern Black Sea region, through a case study in the area; and to attract the attention of architects and researchers on the unique characters of the region. Another aim of the paper is to examine the contribution of vernacular architecture to sustainability through its design methods and principles, which have been developed throughout centuries.

This paper presents a single case study on the architecture of the Turkish eastern Black Sea region through 14 unique samples from Senoz (Büyükdere) Valley. The case study is preceded by theoretical research on vernacular architecture, its characteristics and its contribution to sustainable architecture.

The case study carried out in the Senoz Valley revealed that the region's vernacular architecture is still living. However, it has lost its importance in the past. Outcomes of the case study indicate that the unique character of the architecture in the valley needs to be protected and sustained, so that future generations can also benefit from its special design features.

Senoz Valley is a settlement located near the city of Rize in the eastern Black Sea region of Turkey. Vernacular architecture reflects the characteristics of the region and contains unique features in construction and planning. According to these special features, the architecture of Senoz valley deserves a place in the literature of vernacular architecture.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the planned urban renewal and re-scripting of Riyadh’s downtown as part of the capital’s aim to become a globally recognized city. Specifically, this paper examines in how far internationally established values and narratives are leveraged in the creation of an urban mega-destination that seeks to attract a transnational class of knowledge workers and tourists. The question is explored, in how far and to what extent urban heritage sites and iconic architectural projects are used as strategic tools to promote a process of cultural and economic transformation and in how far the resulting symbolic capital is leveraged to create a status of singularization that appeals to a national and international audience. This study investigates several neighborhoods in the area, analyzing how these will be transformed by Riyadh’s plan to turn the downtown into a commercially viable mixed-use destination by means of designated heritage destinations and iconic architecture.

This paper examines the views and experiences of governmental agencies, architects, developers and residents who are directly or indirectly involved with the planned restructuring of Riyadh’s historical downtown. In total, 40 semi-structured interviews were drawn from this stakeholder group to investigate their current understanding of the downtown associated with the effort to convert Riyadh’s historical downtown into a profitable urban destination. Five of these interviews were conducted with involved planning offices, and 35 with current residents in the area. In addition, a detailed site survey was conducted through a series of maps to reveal existing land uses, building typologies, states of disrepair, activity levels, pedestrian and car circulation patterns, as well as landmarks, and public spaces in each of the areas.

The subsequent data show that despite many positive outcomes in terms of commercial redevelopment, the adaptive reuse of the existing urban fabric is not considered, nor the preservation of underutilized or abandoned buildings along with its resident diverse communities, activities and milieus, many of which carry on evolving traditions.

This is significant because this paper presents a massive case study that ties into a larger debate on cultural globalization where similar practices around the world entail a spatial reorientation of urban districts to attract a transnational cosmopolitan middle class along with a simultaneous displacement of diverse and migrant communities, albeit on a much larger scale. While highlighting the rationale and effectiveness of this approach to create a well-packaged commodity, this paper also underscores the ambiguous consequences of this strategy, which entails the loss of a layered urban fabric that documents the city’s evolution through different economic periods, along with the dispersal of migrant communities and their vernacular practices.

Within this context, the current cultural value of the downtown as a heterogeneous, dynamic and multilayered fabric is debated, which documents the socio-economic conditions of the times in which these layers were formed. Departing from the UNESCO’s 2011 Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape and globally accepted sustainability standards, this study contrasts the proposed top-down tabula rasa approach proposed by the local authorities with an inclusive bottom-up approach, which would focus on the adaptive reuse of existing structures by taking into consideration the social meanings of belonging that heritage has for contemporary communities while fostering a more inclusive understanding of heritage as an ongoing cultural process.

The implications of the planned conversion of Riyadh’s historical downtown into an urban destination have not been previously explored and as a result, there is a conflict of interest between the creation of a marketable image, the preservation of heritage values, sustainable urban practices, social inclusion and Riyadh’s aim to become a globally recognized city.

This paper explores the employment of urban renewal and city branding within the context of Riyadh’s aim to become a world city. Within this framework, the paper examines the capital’s plan to convert the historic downtown into a mega-destination for the country’s middle class and national and international tourists.

Societal needs produce infrastructural demands that often, require innovative industrial solutions to optimally satisfy them. One such need is fresh clean water and this has been met in part, by a global infrastructure of dams and reservoirs. Dams have borne witness to their innovative construction design, technology and management (CDTM) over the years and the purpose of this paper is to examine an example of this, relating to Claerwen dam in Great Britain.

The study used historical case study method based on Busha and Harter's (1980) model, to accommodate synthesis of extant, historical and archive data. Subsequent archival data analysis is founded predominately on document synthesis and embraces a longitudinal character.

Benefiting incontrovertibly from industrial innovations, Claerwen was constructed in markedly different ways from its “sister” phase 1 Elan Valley dams built 50 years earlier, to uniquely combine vernacular aesthetic with contemporary CDTM of the time and create a reservoir with capacity almost equal to that of the entire phase 1 dams combined.

Findings offset a dearth of historical construction research more generally; and that relating to dam infrastructure, more specifically.

Minimal literature exists regarding innovations in British dam building so the study is especially original in that respect.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the historical, cultural, and social significance and the role in landscapes of Lithuanian villages with churches and to formulate the hypothetical framework for their revitalization and consequent sustainable development of country's rural landscape.

The methodology of the research encompassed the desktop study (analysis of literature, archival data, maps, and statistical data) and the analyses on site (observation, measurements, and recording in photographs of buildings and urban structures).

The findings of the research include the analysis of the historical development of country's rural settlements with the religious function, formulation of the notion of the contemporary village with church, identification of the contemporary network of country's villages with churches and analysis of their current socioeconomic and sociocultural situation and the role in rural landscape. The results of the analyses were used formulating the hypothetical framework for the revitalization of the villages with churches and the sustainable development of the rural landscape.

The analysis of literature demonstrated that Lithuanian villages with churches and their significance for the sustainable development of country's rural landscape are paradoxically neglected subjects. Meanwhile, the foreign experience has demonstrated that historic rural settlements, including the settlements with the religious function, are important not only as separate cultural assets but also can play an important role in the identity, viability, and the sustainable development of rural landscapes. Thus the findings of the research demonstrating the peculiarities and potential of Lithuanian villages with churches can be used in the fields of heritage preservation, landscape management, and rural development.