Reaching best practise in renovation: cultural heritage buildings in developing countries

Cultural heritage is part of social life, cultural identity and community pride. This counts also for cultural heritage buildings. Many historic buildings are located in developing countries which thus belong to their cultural heritage. Cultural heritage all over the world is threatened by uncontrolled tourism, pollution, poverty, war, natural disasters and neglect, stressing the need for preservation. Moreover, cultural heritage buildings comprise an important economic opportunity, an opportunity to develop the country emphasizing for instance the tourist value of the building. Rehabilitation can improve the social, economic, cultural-historic and or technological values of cultural heritage buildings. A rehabilitation project has in itself a multiform character, taking into account preservation and refunctionalization, stagnation and change, cultural historic and socio-economic values. This puts an emphasis on the need for a multidisciplinary approach and well-based considerations on choices made during rehabilitation. This paper discusses the design of an assessment methodology for the determination of the best rehabilitation options for cultural heritage buildings.