The worth of a painting is based on a many things including the materials, the subject and the overall effect it has on the person looking at it. And the value of a historic building should be assessed in a similar way argues TU Delft conservation and heritage researcher, Charlotte van Emstede.
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Recent developments in the Dutch approach to conservation of monuments have led to a demand for ‘a new understanding and process of valuation for built heritage.’ Currently an old building ripe for preservation or development is assessed in terms of art or cultural history, or building archaeology, but assessing the value of a historic monument using a technique that is “object-oriented and art historical in nature” isn’t necessarily helpful when planning a new use for an old building. “What’s also needed is an architectural analysis leading to a practical application of heritage value assessment,” said Van Emstede in her doctoral thesis ‘Value Assessment within the Dutch Heritage 1981-2009’.
As part of her research, Van Emstede asked the architects of various prestigious heritage projects in the Netherlands how current valuations help them plan the restoration or transformation of an old building. The response was usually along the lines of: how does an estimation of historical art value help us decide where to breakthrough a wall? “The value assessment by an architect is very different from that of an art historian, because the architect also focuses on the use of materials, for example, or the spatial aspects and architectural qualities of the building,” explained Van Emstede. “And these aspects are extremely important for the way in which both historical and future use of a monument should be balanced.”
Apart from the architectural considerations, Van Emstede also suggests that the “socio-cultural significance of the heritage” should be taken into account; a suggestion of “the intangible value of a historic building to users and other stakeholders.”
Redefining the way a monument is assessed could provide a better and more practical approach to translating abstract cultural and historical values into an intervention strategy, argued Van Emstede. “The value of heritage should be determined in the same way as in the art world. The art world has a beautiful broad view, and this should be taken as an example for heritage analysis and value proposition, bringing together the many different facets of a monument.”
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