Cultural variety is an important part of our lives, influencing our views, attitudes, and behaviors. It describes the coexistence of several cultures, languages, and customs within a civilization. Cultural diversity is what distinguishes our civilization and enhances our lives in innumerable ways. It helps us learn from others with diverse backgrounds and viewpoints and embrace new ideas and ways of life. In this section, we’ll talk about the importance of cultural diversity in our lives and the benefits it provides through heritage conservation.
Cultural diversity promotes understanding and tolerance between people enriching the place. As with the cultural diversity people create bridging with their ideas, traditions, and customs, it sets a platform for exchanges of knowledge, ideas, and thoughts and there is learning. Additionally, cultural exploration enhances creativity and innovation. A culturally rich place is the amalgamation of all yet the conservation asks for all with the tangibles and intangibles.
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Cultural Significance
Cultural significance is a notion used to estimate the value of places. Places likely to be significant are those that contribute to a better understanding of the past or enrich the present and will be valuable to future generations. The meaning of these terms in the context of cultural significance includes aesthetic value, which includes aspects of sensory perception for which criteria such as form, scale, color, texture, design, and fabric material are important.
The value encompasses the actions of historic figures, historic events, phases, or activities. Significance in this category will be stronger where evidence of the association or event remains in situ or where the setting is substantially intact, as opposed to situations where the setting has altered or evidence has not survived. Scientific value represents a location’s research potential or the extent to which it can contribute to a better understanding of that location.
Heritage Significance
The concept of heritage significance encompasses all the cultural values and meaning that people of the place have with their past of the place and themselves with customs and traditions to pass on to the future generations. The heritage significance involves all the tangible and intangible of the place. Tangible and intangibles are integrals of any place to add to experiences and life.
The heritage significance is the embodiment of the place in itself with its association with the fabric, meanings, records, places, and objects. The Burra Chapter: The Australia ICOMOS Charter for Places of Cultural Significances sums up heritage significance as the addition of heritage values that a physicality offers representing the aesthetic, historic, social, or spiritual value of the past, present, and future of the generations.
Heritage Conservation
Heritage conservation refers to acts or processes that try to protect the defining characteristics of a cultural resource to preserve its heritage value and extend its physical life. Heritage conservation does not imply freezing a structure in time, establishing a museum, or tying property owners’ hands so they can do nothing with their buildings. Instead, it aims to preserve and thereby raise the value of buildings by retaining their original built form and architectural characteristics, prioritizing restoration over replacement or demolition, and, when restoration is not possible, respecting reproducing scale, period, and character.
Importance of Heritage Conservation
For both urban planners and people, the deliberate preservation of our historical and cultural riches is truly very vital. The city of Mississauga shares why it is important to conserve the heritage, following are the reasons,
- Heritage Conservation is the “Preservation of our Identity”
The cultural sites or heritage places are the center of the city’s attraction and identity. In addition to providing unique stories about how the city came to be, the lived-in architecture, key locations, and many uses of these buildings also provide predictions about where the city may go in the future. These characteristics give the city personality and beauty, encouraging a feeling of belonging and community while reminding everyone that the city’s past is a shared history. It is a shared responsibility to conserve the heritage to pass it to the future generation.
- Heritage is external wealth
The heritage conservation attracts tourists generating economy for the local as well as national economy.
- Source of Local Economy
Because restoring historic elements requires intricate work and specialized craftsmanship, maintaining older structures is frequently more expensive. Nonetheless, this unfavorable circumstance offers a chance to boost the local economy and generate new employment opportunities for contractors, architects, and craftspeople.
Studies conducted globally have also shown beneficial economic relationships between real estate values and cultural designations, including designated heritage districts. When a property is officially recognized, its value almost always increases when it is sold as opposed to non-designated homes with comparable values.
- Centre for Green Master Plan of the Cities
The protection of cultural heritage prevents the complete replacement of old, energy-consuming materials like steel and plastic with new, energy-efficient alternatives.
- It is a bid Game
Preserving cultural heritage is a component of a larger global movement. The direct outcome of these efforts is UNESCO. The preservation of cultural heritage unites individuals with diverse backgrounds and professions to support a very admirable goal.
FAQ
- What is UNESCO?
UNESCO stands for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. UNESCO was founded in 1945 after the devastation of World War II with the belief that education, science and culture could build peace between nations. There are 195 member states and 8 Associate Members. Its headquarters are in Paris, France. - What is cultural diversity?
Cultural diversity is the richness that comes from having a variety of cultures in a specific place or around the world. It’s like a vibrant tapestry woven from many different threads. - What does heritage conservation mean?
Heritage conservation refers to the practice of protecting and preserving places, objects, and traditions that hold cultural and historical significance. It’s about safeguarding these elements for future generations to learn from and appreciate.
