Architecture and Heritage

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A thorough look at heritage sites

In 1964, Rio Grande do Sul launched a policy to preserve its cultural heritage, structured with the creation of the Institute of the State Historical and Artistic Heritage (IPHAE). To identify the variables involved and social importance behind the listed sites published, Professor Maria Beatriz Medeiros Kother coordinates the Project entitled: “Assigning Values in the Process of Legitimation of Cultural Heritage Preservation”. This project is the major activity of the Research Group on Architecture and Heritage.

Based on the analysis of the heritage site listing processes and IPHAE record books available of the period from 1964 to 2010, this group’s researchers intend to investigate the construction, defense, and protection of RS cultural heritage. The main goal of this study is to establish whether the processes of heritage appropriation are anchored in legitimate values regarding the corresponding communities.

The overall goals of the project are: to increase the knowledge on sites declared as heritage by the IPHAE by investigating the motivations behind such decisions; to evaluate how the process of heritage site listings occurred, namely, whether it was compulsory or not; to investigate if the records on the heritage site listing books were performed directly or underwent previous bureaucratic procedures; and to widen the scope of the studies on the history of architecture at RS, particularly considering the preservation of its cultural heritage.

To accomplish this task the methodology chosen was searching for information of heritage sites and select architectural samples in literature, data base and official records, archives and historical material. For specific results, the group expects to improve the knowledge about the reasons and procedures applied to the preservation of cultural heritage in Rio Grande do Sul.