Seventeenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

This research revolves around the question of finding adequate ways to integrate the bottom-up knowledge within the planning processes by using methods grounded in the theories typical for spatial heritage studies (i.e. landscape biography). The project relies on eliciting memories and emotions in order to create a memory map (or mnemonic value catalog) that would serve as a point of reference, facilitating the dialogue between the professionals and local communities in the future planning processes. In the subsequent part of the project, the map will be amplified with a game-based component in order to assess the value of a gamified approach in reaching different audiences and yielding more variegated results. As the subject of my study, I chose to focus on modernist housing estates in Eastern Europe, more specifically in Poland. The reasons behind this selection are manifold. From a theoretical perspective, one can identify a growing urgency to readjust the academic discourses on the late modernist landscape and reject the overused conceptualizations developed in Western Europe and North America, in favor of establishing new narratives fitted to the post-socialist context. On a more practical level, the project aims to create a methodological framework that would generate local pride and a sense of collectiveness which in turn could inform heritage and planning professionals on the specificity of the cultural landscape at stake.