INHAVIT: Sustainability-led approaches for the rehabilitation and revitalization of the cultural built heritage of Montesinho Natural Park

The INHAVIT book is a 240 pages summary of the works carried out during the project. It includes 15 chapters describing the activities carried out, the main objectives of the project and the results obtained. The main objective of INHAVIT has been the study and identification of the physical, social and environmental vulnerabilities that may be contributing to the current state of progressive abandonment of several rural villages in the Montesinho Natural Park (MNP), in the northeastern Portugal, which is the case study of the research project. Once the vulnerabilities are well defined and better understood, the results aim to contribute to safeguarding the vernacular heritage by creating awareness and promoting its continuous occupation by improving its living conditions and its resilience to multiple hazards. The book also includes perspectives on the conservation of the vernacular heritage from recognized researchers in different geographies. The outcomes of the project are expected to help stakeholders and local communities to make decisions on how to intervene in the vernacular built-up environment to transform it into sustainable, resource-efficient settlements.

The complex problem and research objective has been tackled from different perspectives and research areas, involving theory of heritage conservation practice, conservation management, surveying and documentation, construction technology, digital models and virtual reality, thermal comfort, building energy consumption, nondestructive testing, long-term monitoring, social vulnerability, multihazard vulnerability, climate-related hazards, etc. This integrated multidisciplinary approach is considered a step forward in the topic of rural heritage conservation.

Both a reduced and high quality pdf version of the book are free to download.

ISBN: 978-989-35653-6-0