Cultural Parks and National Heritage Areas: Assembling Cultural Heritage, Development and Spatial Planning

By

Pablo Alonso Gonzlez

Cultural Parks and National Heritage Areas: Assembling Cultural Heritage, Development and Spatial Planning, by Pablo Alonso Gonzlez This book first published 2013 Cambridge Scholars Publishing 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright 2013 by Pablo Alonso Gonzlez All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-5246-5, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-5246-3

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Image 1. Camn de la Mesa Cultural Park (Asturias, Spain). Images 2 & 3. The textile colonies of the Llobregat River.

LIST OF TABLES AND SCHEMES

Table 1. Main definitions established by the European Landscape Convention. Adapted from European Landscape Convention (Council of Europe, 2000). Table 2. The table shows the formulation put forward by Joaqun Sabat and Dennis Fenchman of cultural landscapes as a socially constructed expression of a real place. This binary conceptualisation is problematic as it reinstates new dichotomies while trying to overcome the previous modern ones. Adapted from Sabat (2004b). Table 3. Table with the categories of cultural landscapes defined by UNESCO. Adapted from Fowler (2003). Table 4. Table with the categories of cultural landscapes defined by the National Park Service. Adapted from Birnbaum (1996). Table 5. The table compares N.P.S. and UNESCO frameworks on cultural landscapes. Adapted from Fowler (2003) and Birnbaum (1994). Table 6. Development of Heritage Areas and Cultural Parks. NHA: National Heritage Area NHC: National Heritage Corridor NHD: National Heritage District SHP: State Heritage Park OAM: Open Air Museums EC: Ecomuseum FP: Fluvial Park, WHS :World Heritage Site, AP: Agricultural Park, LP, landscape Park, CP: Cultural Park. Source: elaborated by the author from different sources. Table 7. A classic model of protected areas. Adapted from Phillips (2002). Table 8. The main elements of the novel paradigm for protected areas. Adapted from Phillips (2002). Table 9. Summary of the main arguments put forward by different authors to explain or contextualize the appearance of cultural parks. Source: elaborated by the author from different sources. Table 10. National Heritage Areas: year of designation and State. Source: http://www.N.P.S..gov/history/heritageareas/VST/index.htm Table 11. Management framework of Heritage Areas and Cultural Parks. Source: elaborated by the author from different sources. Table 12. Heritage practices according to communicative and formal potential. From Sabat (2004b). Table 13. Projects classified according to their topological shape. Source: elaborated by the author from different sources.

List of Tables and Schemes

Table 14. Classification according to the prevailing type of heritage resource. Source: elaborated by the author from different sources. Table 15. Classification according to the predominant stated objective of the project. However, in most cases all objectives are interrelated. Source: elaborated by the author from different sources. Table 16. Classification according to the territorial scope of the project. Source: elaborated by the author from different sources. Table 17. Summary of differences between park management frameworks. Adapted from Phillips (2003). Table 18. Evolution of management practices during the last decades. Adapted from Sally Jeanrenaud (2002). Scheme 1. Tentative classification of cultural Parks according to the negree of abstraction of the story. Source: author. Scheme 2. Scheme summarising Joaquin Sabats view of cultural parks according to his ideal cultural park formulation. Source: author from Sabat (2004b). Scheme 3. The scheme shows the different conceptions of the functioning of language according to Saussure and Hjemslev. Source: author. Scheme 4. Michel Foucaults disciplinary system assemblage. Adapted from Foucault (1975). Scheme 5. Karl Palmas modern corporation model of assemblage. Adapted from Palmas (2007). Scheme 6. The image shows an ideal formulation of a cultural park conceived as an assemblage following the ideas of Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze. Source: author. Scheme 7. The scheme shows an ideal formulation of the diagram in a cultural park. The diagram does not reinstate binary thinking but rather traces how the social actors create and put to work these dichotomies. Moreover, it does so according to degrees of intensity and not to clearcut categories. No real park ever entirely coincides with either category, only approaching the different categories as a limit: the park becomes more or less preservative or creative depending on the degree to which it approaches the connections laid out for it by a social group. The scheme shows the most common oppositions at work in cultural parks that play a key role in their constitution and functioning. Source: author. Scheme 8. Scheme showing the administrative framework of the Val di
Cornia Partnership Park. There is a clear division between nature and culture management and between issues of heritage and marketing. Source: adapted from (Casini & Zucconi, 2003).

ABSTRACT

The number of cultural parks has been steadily increasing in recent years throughout the world. But what is a cultural park? The aim of this dissertation is to provide an answer to this question or at least to set out the basis for an academic debate that moves beyond technical narratives that have prevailed to date. It is important to open up the topic to academic scrutiny given that cultural parks are becoming widespread devices being employed by different institutions and social groups to manage and enhance cultural and natural heritage assets and landscapes. The main problem to deal with is the predominant lack of theory-grounded, critical reflection in the literature about cultural parks. These remain largely conceived as technical instruments deployed by institutions in order to solve an array of problems they must deal with. Also, cultural parks are overall regarded as positive and constructive tools whose performance is associated with the preservation of heritage, the overcoming of the nature/culture divide, the reinforcing of identity and memory and the strengthening of social cohesion and economic development. This dissertation critically explores these issues through the analysis of the literature on cultural parks. Also, it provides a novel theoretical conceptualization of cultural parks that is connected and underpins a tentative methodology developed for their empirical analysis.

RESUMEN

El nmero de parques culturales ha aumentado de modo estable en los ltimos aos en todo el mundo. Pero, qu es un parque cultural? El objetivo de esta investigacin es dar una respuesta a esta cuestin o, al menos, sentar las bases para un anlisis del fenmeno que vaya ms all de las narrativas tcnicas sobre parques culturales que han prevalecido hasta el momento. Es importante abrir el tema al escrutinio acadmico ya que los parques culturales se han convertido en instrumentos cada vez ms comunes empleados por instituciones y grupos sociales para gestionar y poner en valor paisajes y elementos patrimoniales tanto naturales como culturales. El principal problema que debemos hacer frente es la falta de reflexiones crticas con planteamientos tericos fuertes en la literatura sobre parques culturales. Estos son generalmente concebidos como herramientas tcnicas puestas en marcha por ciertas instituciones de cara a resolver un conjunto de problemas que tienen que hacer frente. Adems, los parques culturales son generalmente vistos como entes constructivos y positivos, asociados con ideas de preservacin patrimonial, con la superacin de la dicotoma naturaleza cultura, el refuerzo de la identidad y la memoria local y el incremento de la cohesin social y econmica de cara al desarrollo. Esta investigacin explora crticamente estas cuestiones a travs del anlisis de la literatura sobre parques culturales. Igualmente, ofrece una conceptualizacin terica de los parques culturales que pretende conectarse y sentar las bases de una metodologa para su anlisis emprico sobre el terreno.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful to Caja Espaa for its financial support through the Caja Espaa Award 2010 programme. I would also like to express my appreciation to Peterhouse for the financial and academic support. Thanks to Joaqun Sabat Bel, from the Universidad Politcnica de Catalua, for the long discussions about cultural parks and for kindly letting me consult his documentation. Thanks, lastly, to Marie Louise Stig Srensen, Dacia Viejo-Rose, Alberto Mart and Margarita Fernndez Mier for their comments and support.

PREFACE FORTY YEARS OF PROPOSALS IN EUROPEAN CULTURAL LANDSCAPES JOAQUN SABATE BEL
CHAIR OF URBANISM, POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF CATALONIA FOUNDER OF THE INTERNATIONAL LABORATORY OF CULTURAL LANDSCAPES AND DIRECTOR OF IDENTIDADES: TERRITORIO, CULTURA, PATRIMONIO
One should receive with great interest this text by Pablo Alonso, from the University of Cambridge. One should do so because, may be due to the relative novelty of the topic he addresses, we still lack theoretical reflection. It is also interesting because Pablo Alonso provides us with a critical standpoint, ranging between the fields of archaeology and anthropology. Three years ago, I presented at the 5th Industrial Heritage Congress (TICCIH) a synthetic balance of the evolution during the last decades in Spain of what I called the landscapes of work, the framework in which they had operated and the most relevant interventions.1 I highlighted, first, the role of certain agents that created a climate of opinion that contributed to a growing interest on this kind of heritage (professionals, scholars and research centers). We studied the regulatory framework for these initiatives. We discovered how in just a few years, interventions grew in complexity and scale: form the first inventories, catalogues and documentation tasks; to isolated recovery and reutilization projects of singular buildings; to larger plans that integrated industrial
1

I refer not only to industrial heritage, but also to mining, agriculture, infrastructures (everything related with transforming the territory). So the expression work landscapes, similar to cultural landscapes, that I have used in different articles, following Carl Sauer, becomes even more useful that just industrial landscapes. See Benito and Sabat (2010).

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heritage in more ambitious development processes; to regional projects where cultural heritage became the backbone of the intervention and the engine for economic development. We concluded arguing that cultural heritage should play an equivalent role in every regional plan, as natural resources have achieved, that both culture and nature become fundamental underpinnings in all our territorial interventions. And therefore this text defends the need of a comprehensive approach.

1. An Assessment of Interventions in Cultural Landscapes

When Pablo Alonso asked me to draft this introduction, I thought that carrying out a comparative analysis of fifty European experiences of cultural landscapes and cultural parks could be a complement to his exposition. Although I analyze proposals in other parts of the world, I will focus in Europe, considering the similitudes in terms of scale, context and characteristics of the resources being enhanced in each case.2 Forty years ago the first recovery projects in New Lanark, Ironbridge Gorge and Le Creusot started, followed by many other experiences with more or less similar patterns. As in previous works (Sabat and Schuster, 2001), I focused in four major fields: context, structure of the proposal, goals and management model. From that first study on American and European cultural landscapes, we concluded with a Decalogue of lessons
We considered among others following cases: Union Canal, New Lanark and Dunaskin Open Air Museum (Scotland); Rhondda Heritage Park (Gales); bridge Gorge, Cornwall, Lacashire HCL, Countryside Stewardship Wigmore, Peak District NP, Severn Vyrnwy Shropshire, Avebury-Silbury Valley, Beamish Open Air Museums and West Devon Mines (England); Canal du Midi, Saline Royale, Le Creusot, Causses and Cvennes, Valle del Loira and Sant Emilion (France); Dresden Elbe Valley, Dessau-Wrlitz, Muskauer Park, Emscher Park, Siebenbrgen, Kalkriese, Nordstern Landscape Park y Lausitz Lake (Germany); Waterlinie; Leidsche Rijn, Middag-Humsterland, Noordwest-Overijssel, Willemsoord Naval Dockyards, Church footpaths in the Achterhoek regin, Des Beemsters, Groenblauwe Slinger and Limes (Holland); Cinque Terre, Pastorale Tuscany, Cilento, Rhaetian Railway, Val dOrcia, Parques Ciaculli, Fluvial Po and Milano Sud (Italy), Tokaj Wine Region and Hortobgy Puszta (Hungary), Sintra, Alto Douro and Paisagens du Xisto (Portugal), Salt Pans of Seccovlje (Istria), Rosia Montana (Transylvania), Neusiedler See, Wachau and Hallstatt-Dachstein (Austria); Southern land, Grnsland, Knlingn, Brugsbygd, Kristiansand, Canal Strmsholm and Bergsladen (Sweden); Lavaux (Suiza); Lednice-Valtice (Chequia); Stari Grad (Croacia) Paisajes Culturales de Aragn, Aranjuez Parque Agrario del Baix Llobregat, Alba-Ter; Serra de Tramuntana, Ter and Llobregat Colonies (Spain).
2

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or good practices. Now I would like to reconsider and complement some of those conclusions. However, I would like first to introduce briefly some of the analyzed cases. In all of them, we paid attention to their history, to the area where they are implemented, to their form and size, to their heritage resources, to the intervention scale and topology, and to the social agents that drive the process, their goals and management.

2. A Brief Overview of Some Cases

New Lanark
New Lanark is one of the few case studies whose scope is relatively small, being limited to the area occupied by the textile colony raised by David Dale in the late eighteenth century on the banks of the River Clyde, between Glasgow and Edinburgh. However, Robert Owen gave a clear boost to the development of the colony between 1800 and 1824. In particular, to the activities organization, building schools, kindergartens, cooperatives and the unique Institute for the formation of the character. His visionary character, halfway between utopian socialism and paternalism, moves him later to the founding of New Harmony (U.S.), based on the suppression of private property. Several entrepreneurs preserve Owens legacy in New Lanark, but successive cotton crisis led to the closure of the last spinning mills in 1968. In a narrow river valley a few buildings remain that have hosted looms and services (cooperatives, school, Institute), plus a half dozen rows of four floors and other paired smaller residential buildings. Still in 1950s, they housed more than five hundred people, but only fifty people twenty years later. The increasing decline of the area triggered the first recovery efforts, working on the original typological basis. We may classify the project as a local scale one with a nodal topology, despite the linearity that the river valley confers to it. I would like to emphasize three aspects of the recovery proposal. First, its understanding of heritage that goes beyond the architectonical object and highlights the whole urban structure. Second, the new uses of the buildings as visitor centers, museums, accommodation facilities or convention rooms. Third, a narrative focused on the everyday experience of a girl in the golden age of the colony, the legacy of Owen and the process of cotton production. In recent years, the brand of New Lanark Organic Wool has been promoted in a way that renews the textile tradition.

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As in most cases, recovery efforts stem from local actors, in this case from local residents and the company with the ownership over the buildings. Soon some politicians, the city council and the Scottish government were interested, but at all times the representatives of the residents through the housing association played a fundamental role. The first objective of the project is to improve the living conditions of the residents, and to recover immediately most of the built heritage finding new uses that assure their maintenance and the stabilization of the population in the long term. Another key strategy is to exploit the image of Robert Owen, due to the appeal of his legacy. In 1963, The New Lanark Association was constituted in Glasgow, acquiring the housing facilities and developing a pilot rehabilitation plan. However, they cannot stop the deterioration and impairment of the facilities. A timely article denouncing the serious threat on the site triggered a major reaction from the Scottish Civic Trust and to the constitution of a working meeting involving public and private actors to carry out a long and successful restoration process. To do so, strategies of employment promotion and management betterment were set up, finding collaboration among residents, local businesses and different levels of the government. Dodging the potential threats that the nomination as World Heritage Site (2001) normally entails, New Lanark started to increase the sentiment of pride of the residents, and the number of tourists increased vastly. Today, it has become one of the most visited sites in the country.

Le Creusot
The area of Le Creusot-Montceau-Les Mines covers about 390 km2 in seven municipalities, which now house some 100,000 inhabitants. Between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, driven largely by the saga of the Schneider, it becomes an important production center of ceramic, glass and steel, favored by the local availability of coal. This resulted in an impressive industrial heritage, spectacular ovens, workers villas, houses and palaces, churches, a mining railway and the impressive Canal du Centre, part of the system that crosses France from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. However, as in many other productive areas, the successive crisis throughout the XX century gradually led to the closure of factories and villages, along with the destruction of heritage and therefore the first rehabilitation proposals with three basic axes. First, a topology that recognizes the diversity of cultural resources and their multi-modal disposition, connecting them by train, canal, car or pedestrian circuits,

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with diverse museums (glassmaking, mining, school system, forging, pottery, the canal, etc.) and interpretation centers scattered throughout the area. In addition, the application of the innovative concept of the Ecomuseum, introduced in 1971 by Hughes de Varine and Georges-Henri Rivire, developed henceforth in Le Creusot. It represents the history of the region and its inhabitants, considering the entire community as a living museum. The Eco-Museum Association exists since 1973. It was developed by scholars from the University of Burgundy in collaboration with local agents. However, the consolidation of the research center, the seminal conferences on industrial heritage and a sustained project of outreach did not prevent the destruction of numerous industrial buildings. More than a quarter century of grassroots efforts to put forward the rehabilitation project were necessary to gain recognition from the DATAR (Delegation for spatial planning and regional actions) as a heritage economic area. Thereafter, the Eco-museum association received a decisive boost through a contract among different administrations and entities with the basic objective of supporting the productive activity and the enhancement of industrial heritage as a distinctive mark to attract investments and tourism.

Ironbridge Gorge
A watercolor by Elijah Martin, dated around 1774, is the first witness of the building process of one of the milestones in the history of engineering: Ironbridge, designed to cross the river Severn. It was the first in its kind to be cast in iron, and it stands out for its beauty and the bold design of Pritchard, although it is quite oversized. Abraham Darby III, blacksmith master and grandson of the first person to melt iron with coke, risked his business assuming any excess over the estimated budget, and bankrupted because of the doubling of expected costs and materials. This bridge connects two of the great centers of the nascent British Industrial Revolution (Coalbrokdale and Brooseley). Known today as Ironbridge, an area of only twenty acres around the River Severn of small perpendicular axes comes to house furnaces and foundries, the mansions of the owners and master smiths, workers' settlements, along with pottery and porcelain factories. The limited scope of the site drives to a multimodal structure of reinterpretation, linking ten museums, a library, an information center, two hotels, archaeological sites, historic forests, houses, chapels, and former Quaker cemeteries, with a dozen crossing routes. Ironbridge also assumes the concept of the Eco-museum, as it adds

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value to a territory where the memory of work is manifested in each structure. As in many other occasions, the early promoters of the project are historians and grassroots militants of industrial archeology, which strenuously work on the recovery of factories and machinery and the dissemination of industrial techniques. After a first stage, the objectives focused on the development of culture and tourism management, with emphasis on museology and cultural economy in order to promote local development. Ironbridge Gorge Museum is now the largest private exhibition center in the U.K. as the foundation that manages it receives no regular funding from the administration. Its operating expenses are covered with tickets and commercial activities and development through grants and donations. A group formed by public and private bodies, including local authorities and landowners, manages the entire heritage site. In addition, the nomination as World Heritage Site caused a positive effect, increasing the number of visits to more than 300,000 annual arrivals. Nevertheless, perhaps the most striking aspect is the accurate portrayal of an epic that changed the future of industrial development.

Emscher Park
The Emscher Park stretches along some 80 km of the basin of the Emscher River in the Ruhr district. With an average width of 18 km, includes 17 settlements and a combined population of over two million people. It is therefore one of the most extensive work landscapes among those studied. The availability of coal allows an extraordinary industrial development and leads to such important companies as Krupp, Thyssen, Ruhrkole or Bayer, to name a few. Here the legacy of mines and steel industry of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries meets one of the most famous monuments of industrial architecture. However, the obsolescence of many activities in the late eighties and the closure of factories led to the decadence of the territory between Duisburg and Dortmund, a dense area of buildings full of wounds of industrial and mining development, highly degraded and defiled. In this context was born the IBA Emscher Park in 1988 with a dual purpose. First, to impulse proposals for the renewal of the basin. Second, to promote an international debate on territories with similar characteristics. Successive projects recognize the multimodal structure of populations and industrial areas, the backbone role played by the Emscher River, and the existence of a set of open spaces that have been maintained thanks in large

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part to the quality of the urban and territorial plans of Robert Schmidt, before and after the First World War. The IBA Emscher Park proposes six lines of action: landscape reconstruction, ecological water requalification, economic restructuring, industrial heritage preservation, housing renovation and restoration of social cohesion. To do so the first step is finding a viable strategy for ecological, economic, and social renewal of degraded industrial areas. It is based primarily on a coordinated action (renewal of housing units and open spaces and industrial heritage preservation); in linear operations (defining a set of pedestrian and bike paths, Emscher river regeneration and adaptation as a leisure space of the Rhein-Herne canal); in nodal proposals (railway stations, service areas and new forms of production), and in developing and reusing old industrial facilities). Many of these projects were commissioned to renowned architects and became icons of the reinterpretation of industrial remains. The state government of North Rhine-Westphalia is the promoter of a ten-year program (1989-1999), although a planning institution implements the tasks. Municipalities, businesses and citizen groups develop projects and seek funding sources, although in the larger scheme the spatial planning office is involved as well as state and local authorities. Nonetheless, one of the most widespread criticisms of the IBA Emscher Park lies in the disproportionate investment that has received from the state. In any case, this has resulted in one of the most spectacular recovery processes of a working landscape.

Waterlinie
Holland is famous for its secular struggle against water, but sometimes it has used it as an ally. To avoid being invaded by foreign armies in the eighteenth century a secret weapon was designed: an area of 3-5 miles wide that crosses the whole country and could be flooded. Generally, it is no more than 40-80 centimeters deep, but in some places more, enough to make it impassable. It is controlled by a complex system of dams, locks and canals reinforced by fortifications, bunkers and shelters. When the Dutch feared the arrival of enemy the flooding process began. It took two or three days, and in several occasion this Waterlinie has had the opportunity to demonstrate its effectiveness. Today this defense system no longer needs to fulfill its original function. In addition to a rich diversity of infrastructure, it has left behind five beautiful fortified cities and a rich landscape, heavily influenced by the constraints to build around each fort. Therefore, this heritage is revaluated as an identity mark, considering that the Waterlinie contributes

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significantly to the recovery of collective memory, while constituting a useful tool for facing one of the biggest challenges of the country: the management of water. The recovery process of this amazing heritage is carried out through a National Plan (Nota Belvedere). The topology of the proposal is significantly defined by the "invisible" defensive line and by isolated and sequential arrangement of defensive constructions (multimodal). The recovery project is based on a detailed recognition of the Waterlinie in its role as an ecological corridor and as a reference landscape. Moreover, it is grounded on three overlapping types of interventions: new water storage systems and tools for the control of periodic flooding; seven major parks, nature conservation and agricultural areas, growth regulations of the coastal villages, tourist nodes associated with the reinforcement of the significance of the Waterlinie crossings with highways and trains. In each of the forts, museums, residential, recreational and ecological areas are proposed. In recent years, many of these buildings have been recovered, with different outcomes and diverse uses. It has had to do with the determined and enthusiastic participation of many different administrations. This would be the most remarkable feature about the management, which is implemented by the State through a territorial plan that combines the efforts of five ministries, five provinces and twenty-five municipalities. Today, the Waterlinie constitutes a successful project with museums, information centers, wineries and country hotels, with guided tours and festivals that attract the attention of many visitors. It is part of a network of trails. However, it is more relevant that it recovers the testimony of the titanic struggle of the Dutch with water, in this case taking advantage of it.

Heritage axes of the rivers Ter and Llobregat

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Catalonia witnessed a concentration of textile colonies along the river axes. In two of them (the Berga-Navas stretch of the Llobregat river and the upper reaches of TerFreser) a singular spatial planning figure has been approved recently: the industrial heritage urban master plan (PDU). Revaluation initiatives spring from much earlier. In the case of the Llobregat, they concentrate mainly in a stretch of just thirty kilometers, which boasts an extraordinary heritage comprising fourteen industrial colonies. In the upper reaches of Ter, twenty small colonies were identified, in addition to thirty factories and numerous river small hydroelectric factories. However, over time the market changes left no

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room for these particular forms of dispersed industrialization. Electricity enabled the settlement of factories anywhere and thus the old colonies and many farming areas around them decayed and stopped functioning. Work disappeared and with them many habitants of these villages that appeared exploiting water energy. Between 2005 and 2007 the first master plan for the Llobregat was developed and two years later the second one for the Ter-Freser river. Those projects are geared towards the preservation, enhancement and structuring of the industrial heritage along the basins. The planning figure was halfway between the urban and the territorial scales, working with a geographic unit that allowed a comprehensive understanding of the fluvial landscape and the detailed regulation of each colony at the same time. In both cases, a project was put forward which combines the linear topology with the multimodal character of the valleys. The main objective of the proposed interventions can be summarized with the statement "a lively colony requires a factory alive." Thus emerged the idea of promoting valued-added uses to foster economic, touristic and residential dynamics that allowed small entrepreneurial initiatives and changes from industrial to tertiary and residential uses. This implied the conversion of the colonies into modern neighborhoods with good equipments that could attract people, along with public services, public transport, etc. The project had to face the limited demographic and economic resources, heritage deterioration and the shortages of all kinds of resources, and therefore point at a model halfway between transformation and conservation that could attract both public and private interests. Urban improvement of the economic colonies is linked to their economic promotion, to sectors that can generate wealth and reinvest. In addition, this leads to define precise growth rules, compositional criteria based on rigorous analysis. Moreover, it favors the reactivation of economy through design processes grounded on cultural tourism that attract new economic activities to the old factories. As on many other occasions, and particularly in the Llobregat River, the enthusiasm of local agents and grassroots in defense of industrial heritage is at the basis of all initiatives. Their efforts coalesced in the consolidation in 2003 of a consortium of the Llobregat River Park, formed by the Catalan Government, the Barcelona Provincial Council, the Regional Council and various organizations representing local society, which has continued carrying out further interventions. This consortium is responsible for the economic promotion, the preservation and dissemination of natural and cultural heritage and for the management coordination of the overall structure of the park.

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3. Some Thoughts on the Sample

Territory, resources and topology of the project
The analyzed areas reveal a clear disparity in terms of shape and size, but generally, we can distinguish their remarkable extension. This is due to the significant size of farming or mining areas and to the large size of nineteenth-century industrial complexes. Also, to the synergistic combination of different activities (coal and iron in Ironbridge Gorge or Emscher Park, coal, glass and foundry at Le Creusot), or to the extended organization in low river valley flat lands of factories or colonies that build waterfalls to move their machinery. We found regional heritage corridors (Llobregat, Emscher Park), and others of a practically national scope (Canal du Midi, Waterlinie), or even international (Camino de Santiago). Thus, large industrial, mining or agricultural areas predominate, along with historic routes evolving in parallel to fluvial lines. If we look at the kind of resources that have been employed, we can mostly recognize industrial landscapes, but also mining and agricultural although to a much lesser extent. We also found some cultural heritage projects that were based on more traditional resources (archaeological, religious, military, or in general, architectural). Other projects develop heritage routes with different motivation (in a range that runs from religious to commercial) or essentially linked to axes of major transport (canals, railways) or defensive structures. Finally, we find a small number of projects at a local, smaller-scale, usually confined to an historical event or figure, or to an activity of a reduced scope. Therefore, we propose a tentative classification: landscapes of work (industrial, mining, agricultural), archaeological or architectural parks, heritage routes, infrastructure landscapes, and heritage scenarios. The proposals try to recognize the shape of each territory and therefore linear and multimodal topologies tend to predominate, despite the nodal becomes more common at the local scale. However, most projects tend to adopt a mixed topology articulating a comprehensive set of benchmarks on a remarkable extend, but recognizing the lineal and unifying dimension a river, or a road, canal or railroad.

Structure of the proposal

We should first establish a clear distinction between functional and interpretive structures. Most heritage parks emphasize the need to tell a story: that of the epic that involves the construction of a landscape, the

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explanation of human efforts and technical advances that gave sense to it, the intentioned presentation of a period and its ways of life (usually in very hard conditions). The narrative is therefore fundamental, and it is usually rigorous and well documented. Most projects usually go for a very specific interpretation, one that allows making the best out of the available resources. Those narratives can include the contribution of women or of foreign communities in the industrial development of a region, the daily life in the textile colonies, the organization a rural community, the importance of a channel as transport and supply system, the rich traditional technique of exploitation of the salt or the solemnity of the first cast iron. This interpretation is essential to correlate spatially distant resources, to reinforce them and to position the tourist, the visitor or the researcher in relation to a general script. The analysis of functional structures allows us to confirm the existence of certain recurrent components, which in turn equate to the five elements of the syntax proposed by Kevin Lynch in his book The image of the city (1960): a) The global scope and the sub-areas of the park - Areas (regions) b) Their heritage resources and services - Milestones (landmarks) c) Doors and accesses, interpretation centers and museums - Nodes (nodes) d) The roads linking all of the above - Routes (paths) e) The visual and administrative boundaries of the intervention Borders (edges) With the analysis of so many cases, we can go further in the conclusions of previous research: a) We can recognize how the growing experience allows refining the results; how from the initial collections of objects we evolve to more and more sophisticate and interactive museums; how the concept of Ecomuseum appears and develops. b) Restoration and conservation efforts are leaving behind the objectifying and fossilizing tendencies, recognizing the impossibility of reconstructing the old when addressing the restoration of facilities of colossal size. This has been so thanks to the incorporation of the lessons learned in previous decades, especially from those debates regarding the preservation of historic centers and the possibility of building a new heritage, and with the extension of the principle of preservation through transformation.

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c) We also discovered the relevance of an adequate rhythm in the projects, understood as the precise one to recognize and appreciate a landscape. We checked the principle we proposed years ago, that the route requires the same speed, and, if possible, the same transport means of the period when the resources were created. Accordingly, the story can be conveyed in different ways: through promenades and tracks, in a horse carriage, in a bicycle or a steam train. We can clearly appreciate the lesson of Lowell: that the understanding of territories and resources requires visiting them at the speed with which they were conceived. Similarly, there is good use of tracks in the Manresa Canal trail and the Boston Freedom trail, and an intelligent use of wagons in New Lanark or bicycle paths along the Waterlinie or Canal du Midi, or in so many rehabilitations of railways, horse cars, barges or trams tracks. d) The ability to create satellite structures to the main narrative of the heritage parks has extended. We call satellites the resources that, despite their importance and remarkable artistic or historical value, are far from the main routes or not directly related to the chosen narrative (a Romanesque chapel in a valley that aims to explain the textile industrial development). Instead of giving up enhancing those resources, projects try to link them to the main narrative through secondary routes e) There are growing capacities to apply the lessons of Kevin Lynch, including his design criteria, trying to make the best of projects in terms of perception and visual impact, enhancing its functional and narrative structure.

Agents, objectives and management

In diverse projects on cultural landscapes, we can recognize well different targets. In occasions, preservation of the cultural resources prevails, while in other contexts the enhancement or economic recoveries, the education of the population or leisure aspects are emphasized. However, the dissemination of proposals and studies shows that the most relevant projects tend to combine these four lines. In the U.S., most the proposals are promoted by local agents and managed by foundations or non-profit entities, with the exception of those promoted by the National Park Service. In Europe predominates the confidence in public administration (national, regional or local), or even the conviction of its sole responsibility to take over heritage preservation. Anyway, if you consider the geographic location of the various examples and their cultural differences, or the tendencies that show recent proposals, the previous statement should be nuanced.

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a) For instance the British initiatives are more similar to the American ones. In contrast, in France, Holland and Germany, we find a less active role of civil society. Therefore, different institutions participate at different scales in large investments in partnerships with private agents. However, in the south, Portugal, Spain or Italy, the reliance in the state role is practically absolute. b) In addition to cultural differences, we must take into account other factors such as the smaller size of the remains and therefore of their symbolic (and economic) added value, as well as differences in terms of legislation, taxation, spatial planning regulations and the role of non-profit organizations in each territory. c) As we verified years ago the role of local actors is crucial in all cases. The best initiatives grow always bottom-up. It is very difficult to ensure the success of a heritage park where local human resources are not willing to play a role in its development. Residents are essential resources, both for their knowledge, memories and history, and for their enthusiasm, once they recognize the value of their cultural heritage. They are the main reason to develop an initiative; the key players in enhancing their assets. As soon as the self-confidence of local people is reinforced, they do not feel anymore as part of a region in crisis and they start building their future upon those heritage resources. The best initiatives acknowledge this, and include residents in its design and promotion; they are highly participatory. At the start of any project, it is essential to strengthen the self-esteem of residents. No doubt, visitors, museums and investments will come later. d) Together with local agents, the role of scholars, universities and research centers, is also quite relevant. The rigor of their knowledge gives precise sense to the enthusiasm and volunteerism of those who claim to care about their heritage. Almost all the analyzed proposals involve from the beginning professionals and scholars (historians, archaeologists, geographers, architects). They contribute with reports and projects, following quite common guidelines. e) In many cases, the efforts of local agents or of scholars are prolonged in time until they find fertile ground. In several cases, we discovered a considerable disparity between the enthusiasm and invested effort and the achieved results, due to the non-professional character of the promoters as some of them recognize (Le Creusot, Llobregat Colonies). f) On the basis of the analyzed cases, we may say that the initiatives consolidate when they reach a threefold support: the commendable work of local agents, lovers of a territory in which they intend to revalue their heritage, the reflection from scholars and the purview of any authority or

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Preface

institution particularly sensitive to issues of cultural heritage. In many cases, local people end up forming an institution and seeking alliances with other public or private actors. When these three groups (local agents, scholars and sensitive entities) tend to converge and join forces, the best results are achieved. g) And here is another lesson we have learned. Usually the more established and stable proposals are not those who have achieved the greatest resources to be implemented, nor those managed exclusively by a public institution, but neither those which are underpinned by the voluntarism of local agents, scholars and institutions sensitive to cultural heritage. Successful initiatives are instead those that, in many cases starting from that voluntarism, have been able to create the appropriate complicity between civil society and the public administration, as in the paradigmatic example of Ironbridge. There are those of complex organization that set out collaborative strategies between civil society and administration and between public entities and private institutions. These alliances involve different social actors that enable them to face challenges that are ever more varied. Those are faced and assumed by the final recipients of all the efforts that are in my view not only the heritage resources - built or intangible - but the residents of a specific territory (VV.AA. 2004). I believe this is a basic commitment in the process of revaluation of heritage resources. Most of the studied projects show the growing relevance of cultural parks in local sustainable development. They help to achieve the objective of building more diversified territories whose identities are, at the same time, reinforced in terms of peoples self-esteem and heritage preservation awareness. Most relevant proposals do not understand cultural landscapes as finished sceneries, as the result of an old culture, but rather as a continuously evolving reality. Even though the recovery of our cultural legacy is fundamental, we must not forget our main concerns as urban and regional planners. By revaluating the cultural resources at the service of local development, our duty as professionals committed to the welfare of the people and the territories where they live, is improving education and the quality of life of the inhabitants of a given territory. Ultimately, our primary commitment should be to help create places where people can live with greater dignity. And this book should help to reflect how to face this relevant goal.