Evaluation of ‘Architectural and Aesthetic Value’ of Built Heritage: A Comparison of Weightage Methods

Abstract

Conserving all architectural heritages may not be feasible in future cities. Hence, for future cities, what to retain from the past is a big question to solve. Proclaiming architectural heritage needs some background study of the parameters which significantly influences the heritage in many ways. Therefore, this study acknowledges the relative values of parameters to validate the role of the architectural heritage for conservation. This study also focuses on the level of importance of the parameters while evaluating the architectural heritage. In the process of evaluation of architectural heritage, the identified literature is obtained from three sources - international organizations, government agencies, and architectural heritage scholars. More or less, all the studies have given their parameters for evaluating architectural heritage by the traditional, chronological, and geographical concepts which are relevant for a region. Commencing the literature review, ‘Architectural and Aesthetic Value’ is found to be a prime dimension while evaluating the architectural heritage. A methodology has been adopted to get its sub-dimensions and parameters which can help in assessing the architectural heritage in terms of its ‘Architectural and Aesthetic Value.’ To get the quality of parameters and their relative importance, a Delphi Technique has been adopted through conducting surveys of the experts of the architecture and other allied fields. Further, various statistical weightage techniques are compared for the better assessment of the built heritage. The results of the research show the relative importance of the parameters while selecting the architectural heritage, specifically its ‘Architectural and Aesthetic Value.’ The results would also help in evaluating other dimensions of architectural heritage and expand the scope for future research in prioritizing the architectural heritage for the benefit of society.