The End of the Eternal?

Geological heritage: identity, climate change and conservation

 

Camila Burgos Vargas 

Landscape scholarships – edition 2023/2024

subject area: Theories and policies for landscape

tutors: Simonetta Zanon, head of Landscape projects area; Luigi Latini, chairman of the Scientific Committee of Fondazione Benetton

The research sought to explore the concept of geological heritage (or geoheritage) and its conservation from the landscape point of view, where time and constant transformation are key elements of the discipline, aiming to find new possible ways of dealing with changes over time and contemporary stratifications in architectural heritage, while also taking into account the upheavals caused by climate change and their effects on the identity of the territory.

In addition to a general analysis of the tools for the valorisation and protection of geoheritage, an in-depth look was taken at the cases of the Dolomites and Etna, Italian cases included in the UNESCO World Heritage List for their geology.

In the course of the research, several contradictions emerged: regarding valorisation, there is a multiplicity of overlapping initiatives on geoheritage without clear coordination and with confused criteria, while as for conservation, there are cases where it can only be limited to monitoring changes that occur naturally, and cases where an active way is sought to avoid transformation of the landscape. As a result of the research, a contribution (paper and communication) was produced for the UNISCAPE International Conference, held in Santa Cruz de Tenerife between 8 and 12 July 2024.

 

Camila Burgos Vargas, architect, was awarded a doctorate cum laude from the PhD programme in Construcción y Tecnología Arquitectónicas of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in 2024, in joint supervision with the PhD programme in Architettura, Città e Design of the Università IUAV di Venezia, with a thesis entitled “Superimposed Heritage. The persistence of contemporary interventions on architectural heritage”. Burgos Vargas is a member of the emerging professionals group of ICOMOS España and of the international scientific committee ICOMOS TheoPhilos – Theory and Philosophy of Restoration.

The research developed in her PhD investigates the heritage values that a contemporary intervention can add or take away from the pre-existence on which it operates, considering these interventions as stratifications of an architectural heritage that is always subject to transformation. With this premise, the concept of geological heritage and its conservation was explored at the Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche.