The role of industrial heritage meanings in adaptive reuse: case study Banjaluka

Abstract

The adaptive reuse of industrial heritage is considered a sustainable model of urban regeneration of post-industrial cities all over the world. Adaptive reuse implies the integration of heritage sites in the urban environment and their adaptation to new purposes in the new social and economic context. The problem of adaptive reuse lies within the contradiction between the industrial heritage sites as places intended for new urban functions in accordance with strategies of contemporary urban development and the industrial heritage sites as places with the inherited tangible and intangible values important to the community. Adaptation of industrial structures to new purposes almost always requires the implementation of spatial interventions, which in the end leads to the creation of new places where the old and the new intertwine. On the other hand, the preservation and promotion of the industrial heritage values is the basic principle of urban conservation planning. So, the main question is what values and defined by whom are to be preserved, and why. In order to answer this question the reinvestigation of the attitude of post-industrial society to the values of industrial heritage is needed. This paper deals with the industrial heritage meanings that people associate with industrial heritage and that are important for selecting the heritage values and elements for preservation. Industrial heritage meanings stem from the complex interaction of social groups and the heritage they belong and in relation to which they build collective identity based on industrial past. The problem of identifying industrial heritage meanings stems from the ambiguous notion of place meaning which is difficult to grasp, as well as form the lack of appropriate planning tools for identifying and analyzing heritage meanings. The research draws on the theoretical framework of disciplines such as: architecture and urbanism, environmental psychology, human geography and related fields. The aim of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework for identifying and investigating significant meanings of industrial heritage which contributes to decision making in the initial phase of planning process of adaptive reuse. The case study is conducted in Banjaluka at the area of former industrial site “Rudi Cajavec”. Identification of meanings and significance of this industrial heritage is investigated by a survey of citizens.