The health crisis caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic created an unprecedented social situation. In the most critical moments, tourism activities were cancelled or reduced to their minimum operation, creating an extreme situation of separation of a country’s heritage from residents and tourists. The objective of this work is to propose new options and strategies to reconnect the public with heritage under any circumstance and, at the same time, offer tourism services in healthy, secure conditions. Thus, live-streaming experiences of online interpretative tourist guidance were developed in heritage spaces; those visits were led by real guide-interpreters in a real environment and transmitted for remote visitors. We have called this visiting model the “Avatar Tourist Visit”. It is based on tools associated with Heritage Interpretation, Interpersonal Communication, Filmmaking and Audio-Visual Language, and Information and Communication Technologies. The methodological development of this tool was based on Design Sciences Research as the creation of a new procedure was pursued. The result is a sustainable, immersive, interactive, inclusive, unique, and resilient tourism product designed not only for times of crisis but also to connect the public with heritage at all times and ensure universal access to it. In addition, this activity constitutes a marketable experience as a specialized and customizable tourist product.

Las bóvedas en los estilos arquitectónicos del Puuc 2.2.3.2. Las bóvedas en los estudios de la arquitectura del Norte de Yucatán 2.2.3.3. Las bóvedas en los estudios de los estilos Río Bec y Chenes 2.2.3.4. El estudio de las bóvedas de la arquitectura de Petén 2.3. Reflexión final.

Fieldwork (or field-based learning), design by research, and in situ data collection are essential in researching and working with built heritage. They are a fundamental part of the academic program of the Preservation of Architectural Heritage postgraduate studies at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV). Due to the health emergency caused by the coronavirus Covid-19 in March 2020, oncampus teaching-learning had to switch to online mode urgently and unexpectedly. This entailed particular challenges for the Heritage Management Studio course because its practical performance is based on visiting locations and heritage assets that in themselves are objects of study.The use of the UPV teaching-learning institutional platform (PoliformaT) combined with the Microsoft Teams video conferencing application proved to be effective to address the online regular theoretical lessons; however, hands-on practical experiences were more difficult to organize. Thus, it was necessary to adapt the learning method to the context, design new alternative tasks and identify available virtual tools and means in order to organize the practical teaching and, at the same time, fit in with the quality requirements of the Master's program. Live streaming activities such as collaborative international engaging webinars, invited lectures and online interviews with heritage managers were conducted as a part of the instructional offer. Videos, documentaries, and virtual tours were also used as extra resources to get to know the analysed heritage sites.In addition, the teaching staff adopted several measures to alleviate the effects caused by the social distancing, by encouraging collaboration and relationships among the students through the development of teamwork, and by ensuring social virtual interaction between teachers and students to assist students in their commitments and to provide them with emotional and motivational support. This paper describes how the course was adapted and analyses the challenges and opportunities that online teaching-learning presents for the future in the specific field of Built Heritage Management. It highlights the existing shortcomings in the availability of digitized information on this topic, which made it difficult for students to conduct their research and management projects. It also discusses the opportunity provided by the situation to address new issues in Heritage Management, such as visitor safety and health in cultural tours, virtual access to heritage or strategies to reconnect heritage with the public, from which very innovative student projects emerged.

Over more than ten centuries, Maya vaults had great technical developments that allowed to achieve constructive and structural advanced systems and increasingly improved forms. One of the key factors to consider when studying its temporal evolution and the different regional variants is the stone vaults shape. This work is based on data collected during fieldwork and comparative analysis of a wide sample of vaults from different geographical zones and chronological periods, and as a result proposes a classification of the Maya stone vaults. The study of the influence of stereotomy on its form and the analysis of the use of different types of stone vaults by zones offer new data to understand the technological evolution of vaulted Maya architecture and the transfers of building knowledge.

La Universidad, como entidad transmisora de conocimiento y transformadora de la sociedad, tiene el reto de alinear el programa curricular de todas las titulaciones con la Agenda 2030 e introducir competencias relacionadas con un desarrollo sostenible e inclusivo. En la presente comunicación se propone la introducción de los ODS en la asignatura Desarrollo Sostenible y Patrimonio del Máster Universitario en Conservación del Patrimonio Arquitectónico, que se centra en el diseño y formulación de proyectos de gestión vinculados al patrimonio arquitectónico. Para ello, se adapta la metodología SDG Compass, orientada especialmente a empresa, para incorporar los ODS en las diferentes fases proyectuales. De esta forma, se pretende dar a conocer, sensibilizar y comprometer al alumnado con la Agenda 2030 para el Desarrollo Sostenible, a la vez que capacitarle para articular y dar seguimiento a la propia Agenda.