UTILISATION AND SUSTAINABILITY OF MONUMENT BUILDINGS BY THE EXAMPLE OF THE TOWN OF KŐSZEG

Abstract

This paper was preceded by a primary research including experimental fieldwork. In 2016, in the framework of the KRAFT project (integrated urban development based on heritage) the renovation of seven monument buildings was started in Kőszeg, and the survey focused on the functional analysis and the way the buildings were used in urban development. The author, who is an economist, with eight years of practice in heritage management in the city of Pécs and almost two decades of experience as a professional, was assisted in her research by Eszter Sarkadi art historian, one of the founders of the European AVEC (Alliance de Villes Européennes de Culture/ Alliance of Euro-Mediterranean Cultural Cities). We hope that the findings will also serve as utilisable methodology and an adaptable pattern for how the development of monument buildings can be integrated in urban development programmes, the definition of the aspects used during the functional examination and also for the formulation of the tasks or heritage management at city level, specified as a recommendation. The study argues that urban development is not a project but a programme in whose focus we find planning concentrated on the carriers of values. A monument is not only a house but a structure, an urban fabric, a cultural landscape, a historical document, a common story. Space and landscape make one organic unit, if this is broken, we do not understand the function of the space. Built environment serves the future – we invent future together, based on our traditions –, a prerequisite for which is to use it, make it sustainable from social, economic, environmental and of course also technical aspect. And finally: to re-use heritage also means to give a meaning to buildings, so that people think the same and use the same functions – they understand space.