Hoi An Protocols for Best Conservation Practice in Asia: Professional Guidelines for Assuring and Preserving the Authenticity of Heritage Sites in the Context of the Cultures of Asia (2005)

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The Hoi An Protocols For Best Conservation Practice in Asia (2005) are professional guidelines for assuring and preserving the authenticity of heritage sites in the context of the cultures of Asia.

Preface: The Hoi An Protocols for Best Conservation Practice in Asia: Professional Guidelines for Assuring and Preserving the Authenticity of Heritage Sites in the Context of the Cultures of Asia (2005) was adopted by the Asia-Oceania Region at the ICOMOS General Assembly in Xi’an, China in 2005.

The cultural significance of heritage sites has been defined by the Burra Charter as the “aesthetic, historic, scientific, social or spiritual value for past, present or future generations” which is “embodied in the place itself, its setting, use, associations, meanings, records, related places and related objects.“ The goal of conservation is to preserve this significance by ensuring that all interventions and actions meet the test of authenticity in all respects.

Understanding the relative degree of significance of heritage resources is essential if we are to rationally determine which elements must be preserved under any circumstance, which should be preserved under some circumstances and which, under exceptional circumstances, will be sacrificed. Degree of significance can be assessed on the basis of the representativeness, rarity, condition, completeness and integrity and interpretive potential of a resource.

Assessment of the significance of a place, site or monument should be carried out as a necessary preliminary to any conservation action. Significance assessment is the process of studying and understanding the meanings and values of places, objects and collections. It involves three main steps; firstly, analyzing the object or resource; secondly, understanding its history and context and thirdly, identifying its value for the communities which created and/or care for it.

The key to the process is the concept of authenticity which has become the universal concern of the conservation profession since the adoption of the 1972 UNESCO World Heritage Convention, which defines authenticity as the primary and essential condition of the heritage. The 1994 Nara Document on Authenticity reaffirms this by stating that authenticity “appears as the essential qualifying factor concerning values.”

Authenticity is usually understood in terms of a matrix of dimensions of authenticity: of location and setting; form; materials and design; use and function; and “immaterial” or essential qualities. Together these form the composite authenticity from which significance derives. The retention of authenticity is the aim of good conservation practice.

Category
Guideline
Date

2005

Promulgation

The Asia-Oceania Region at the ICOMOS General Assembly, Xi’an, China, 2005.

Descriptions

  •  The Protocols were developed following the UNESCO Regional Workshop “Conserving the Past – An Asian Perspective of Authenticity in the Consolidation, Restoration and Reconstruction of Historic Monuments and Sites” organized in Hoi An, Viet Nam from 15 February to 3 March 2001.
  •  The Protocols were developed as a response to an increasing number of threats within the region linked to population growth, environmental degradation, rural-to-urban migration, urban redevelopment, industrialization and globalization forces.
  • The professional guidelines for assuring and preserving the authenticity of heritage sites in the context of the cultures of Asia, which serve as an essential and practical resource for a large audience both public and private, from practitioners, governmental bodies, custodians to NGOs.

Source

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001826/182617e.pdf

Download

http://orcp.hustoj.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Hoi-An-Protocols2005.pdf

References

Intellectual Property

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