Preserving the modernist vernacular in the Middle East

This papers focuses on the fast disappearing urban heritage of the modernist neighbourhoods in the Middle Eastern. This often overlooked architectural legacy of the mid-twentieth century is significant for the role it played in the early transformation of many cities into their ‘modern’ image. Though often modest in scale these buildings collectively exemplify a critical period of modernisation and urbanisation in the region. Rarely recognized as ‘heritage’ the modernist vernacular is rapidly disappearing as it is subsumed by urban growth and renewal or adapted beyond recognition. There are, however, a number of examples where the value of this heritage and early modernist neighbourhoods is being recognized, though often in the context of new functions

Improving the adaptive capacity of historic urban neighbourhoods with, despite of or at the expense of tourists

Cultural heritage, not only makes places attractive to tourism, but is a significant contributor to urban identity and place attachment for residents. Older neighbourhoods, through their walkable scale, diversity of uses and tenures support better community relationships and contribute to urban resilience. Tourism, while an important economic contributor, places pressure not only on cultural heritage but also on urban and community infrastructure. Moreover, conditions of overtourism, threaten to disrupt established networks and engender conditions of temporality and fragmentation for the local population, thus reducing the capacity for resilience. Often emerging as small scale stressors, disruptions triggered by tourism can slowly shift conditions over thresholds that adversely impact local wellbeing and equitable access to resources. This paper argues that the tourism industry and its multiple players, cultural heritage management and urban resilience planning need to become better integrated, so as to safeguard heritage, support local communities and to improve the capacity of historic neighbourhoods to adapt to ongoing changes caused by or linked to climate change

Nara +20: a theory and practice perspective

The 1994 Nara Document played an important role in building bridges between tangible and intangible heritage and supporting a shift towards a broader values-based approach to the stewardship of the historic environment. Nara +20 marks a second stage in this process, and places the discussion in the context of the present day in the prevalent discourse of globalisation as well as the more nuanced concerns for sustainability and resilience. In identifying five prioritised action areas it calls for the development of new processes and methodologies that recognise heritage values as evolving more than ever before and that decision-making in the conservation field is a complex process dependent on effective negotiation at a time when threats to cultural heritage are also on the increase. Through an emphasis on stakeholder involvement through communities of interest Nara +20 implicitly signals the diminishing role being played by the State in the heritage field and by extension that of the expert and the scientific discourse from which modern conservation evolved

An Illustrated Glossary of Wooden Architecture: Endangered Wooden Architecture Programme

This glossary has been produced to support the documentation processes of the Endangered Wooden Architecture Programme. The Endangered Wooden Architecture Programme is a grant-giving programme that offers small and large grants for the documentation of endangered wooden architecture. The programme is hosted by Oxford Brookes University and delivered in collaboration with CyArk. EWAP was established in 2021 with funding from Arcadia, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin

The impact of world heritage site designation on local communities - A case study of Ogimachi, Shirakawa-mura, Japan

The paper examines economic, socio-cultural, physical and attitudinal changes in/around World Heritage Site (WHS) Ogimachi since WHS designation from the local communities' standpoint and explores the background of these changes and views. Both positive and negative changes for local communities in/around WHS Ogimachi after WHS listing are identified. There are three main factors behind these changes: the extensive and rapid tourism development after WHS inscription; the high level of appeal of a WHS status for domestic tourists; and local people's attitudes towards conservation of the cultural environment and WHS status. In addition to its conservation plan, WHS Ogimachi must have a comprehensive tourism management plan for its successful future as a place to live, as a WHS and a tourist destination

Effectiveness and safety of opicapone in Parkinson's disease patients with motor fluctuations: The OPTIPARK open-label study

BACKGROUND: The efficacy and safety of opicapone, a once-daily catechol-O-methyltransferase inhibitor, have been established in two large randomized, placebo-controlled, multinational pivotal trials. Still, clinical evidence from routine practice is needed to complement the data from the pivotal trials. METHODS: OPTIPARK (NCT02847442) was a prospective, open-label, single-arm trial conducted in Germany and the UK under clinical practice conditions. Patients with Parkinson’s disease and motor fluctuations were treated with opicapone 50 mg for 3 (Germany) or 6 (UK) months in addition to their current levodopa and other antiparkinsonian treatments. The primary endpoint was the Clinician’s Global Impression of Change (CGI-C) after 3 months. Secondary assessments included Patient Global Impressions of Change (PGI-C), the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-8), and the Non-Motor Symptoms Scale (NMSS). Safety assessments included evaluation of treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) and serious adverse events (SAEs). RESULTS: Of the 506 patients enrolled, 495 (97.8%) took at least one dose of opicapone. Of these, 393 (79.4%) patients completed 3 months of treatment. Overall, 71.3 and 76.9% of patients experienced any improvement on CGI-C and PGI-C after 3 months, respectively (full analysis set). At 6 months, for UK subgroup only (n = 95), 85.3% of patients were judged by investigators as improved since commencing treatment. UPDRS scores at 3 months showed statistically significant improvements in activities of daily living during OFF (mean ± SD change from baseline: − 3.0 ± 4.6, p < 0.0001) and motor scores during ON (− 4.6 ± 8.1, p < 0.0001). The mean ± SD improvements of − 3.4 ± 12.8 points for PDQ-8 and -6.8 ± 19.7 points for NMSS were statistically significant versus baseline (both p < 0.0001). Most of TEAEs (94.8% of events) were of mild or moderate intensity. TEAEs considered to be at least possibly related to opicapone were reported for 45.1% of patients, with dyskinesia (11.5%) and dry mouth (6.5%) being the most frequently reported. Serious TEAEs considered at least possibly related to opicapone were reported for 1.4% of patients. CONCLUSIONS: Opicapone 50 mg was effective and generally well-tolerated in PD patients with motor fluctuations treated in clinical practice. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Registered in July 2016 at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT02847442)

Impacts of cultural dynamics on conservation of Suakin, Sudan

This article was published in the journal Proceedings of the ICE- Engineering Sustainability [http://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/content/serial/ensu]. Permission is granted by ICE Publishing to print one copy for personal use. Any other use of these PDF files is subject to reprint fees.The aim of this work was to explore the impact of local cultural dynamics on the conservation of the built heritage of Suakin, an abandoned historic port on the Red Sea coast of Sudan, through a collaborative stakeholder approach. Key representatives of local stakeholder groups attended a two-day workshop and took part in a series of collaborative activities. These encompassed the production of a rank-ordered list of the key local cultural dynamics impacting on the port's conservation, agreement to a number of actions to address obstacles to conservation, identification of local cultural values collectively determined by stakeholder and confirmation of the value of an integrated conservation approach. The workshop enabled a shared understanding and responsibility between stakeholders and established a commitment to further action to address the key local cultural dynamics impacting on the conservation. This collaborative stakeholder participation represented a new step in the port's conservation and invited the development of more formal protocols to enable the equal representation and participation of stakeholders in future conservation activities and initiatives

What Design Research Does ... : 62 Cards Highlighting the Power and Impact of UK-based Design Research in Addressing a Range of Complex Social, Economic, Cultural and Environmental Issues

Design research makes a significant contribution to the UK economy and society as a whole. Ever since the establishment of the Government Schools of Design in the nineteenth century, the UK has been widely acknowledged as an international leader in design research. Following this lead, the What Design Research Does… cards highlight the wide range of social, economic, cultural and environmental impacts that design research, funded and based in the UK, makes all over the world. The 62 cards illustrate unambiguously the positive changes that contemporary UK-based design researchers are making in many complex issues. Each What Design Research Does… card lists the challenges and issues faced by the design researchers, who they collaborated with, the research methods and approaches taken, the outcomes of the design research, what the main results and findings have been, and what impact the design research has had. In short, the What Design Research Does… cards clearly articulate the breadth of social, economic, cultural and environmental impacts that UK-based design researchers are achieving today

Historic towns : tourism, conservation, development with particular reference to Turkish towns.

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:DX180653 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo