Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the conceptualisation of the Smart Sustainable City (SSC) with new concepts of resilience thinking in relation to urgent societal challenges facing the built environment. The paper aims to identify novel methodologies for smart reuse of heritage sites with a pluralist past as integral to inclusive urban development. Design/methodology/approach SSC concepts in the global literature are studied to define a new reference framework for integrated urban planning strategies in which cultural resilience and co-creation matter. This framework, augmented by UNESCO’s holistic recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL), was tested in two investigative projects: the historic centre of South Africa’s capital Tshwane and the proximate former Westfort leprosy colony. Findings The research confirms that SSC concepts need enlargement to become more inclusive in acknowledging “cultural diversity” of communities and engaging “chrono-diversity” of extant fabric. A paradigm shift in the discourse on integrated urban (re)development and adaptive reuse of built heritage is identified, influenced by resilience and sustainability thinking. Both projects show that different architectural intervention strategies are required to modulate built fabric and its emergent qualities and to unlock embedded cultural energy. Originality/value Together with a critical review of SSC concepts and the HUL in relation to urban (re)development, this paper provides innovative methodologies on creative adaptation of urban heritage, reconciling “hard” and “soft” issues, tested in the highly resilient systems of Tshwane.

Continuity and change have become crucial themes for the built environment and heritage buildings; also in the education and practice of architects. Embedding built heritage values into studio-based design education is a daunting new challenge that demands new didactic perspectives and tools. To address the dilemmas that come with design assignments for adaptive reuse, an experiment with new didactic analytical tools has been conducted in the Heritage & Architecture (H&A) architectural design studios at the Delft University of Technology. The analysis attempts to connect matter-physical structures-and meaning in a structured graphical process through predefined mapping exercises. Our aim is to introduce a step-by-step method for exploration that can form the foundation of valuesbased design from built heritage. Central to our multifaceted approach is a specially developed matrix that is meant to support design-oriented analysis of heritage buildings. This paper situates the H&A perspective on the adaptive reuse of valorised buildings within the heritage discourse and architectural design education in general and further gives insight into the didactics, the tools, their uses and initial results. After a critical reflection on our points of departure, based in an evaluation of results, peer discussion and student evaluation, we conclude that the applied methodology is instructive to the educational goals but also merits further development. One of the lessons learnt for future teaching includes allowing students freedom to discover values themselves. An important conclusion is that an earlier and broader foundation that engages the continuation of tangible and intangible heritage values in the ever-changing built environment is required in architectural educational practice.

<p>The prevention of marine flooding is one of the most important functions of foredunes along developed coasts. Consequently, many foredunes have been managed into densely vegetated, uniform and stable ridges of sand. While such foredunes reduce the risk of coastal flooding under present-day conditions, it is increasingly feared that they are less resilient to persistent erosion under climate change (e.g., rising sea levels). The dense vegetation blocks the sand exchange between the beach and the backdunes and accordingly, prevents the backdunes from growing with sea-level rise. In various countries around the world, dune management is therefore now adopting a more dynamic approach. The excavation of gaps through the foredune, termed notches, is an increasingly adopted management measure (e.g., United Kingdom, France, New Zealand, the Netherlands) to restore the natural sand pathway from the beach into the backdunes without simultaneously increasing the risk of flooding. In addition, it is hoped that the renewed sand influx improves the natural values of the backdunes by creating more diverse habitats, including bare sand areas for flora and fauna depending on open conditions. The geomorphic dynamics of notches is, however, not well understood, especially on the time scale of years. This also prevents understanding what factors contribute to success (long-term mobility) or failure (rapid stabilization) of dynamic dune management.</p><p>Here we analyse the geomorphic evolution of five notches in the foredune of the Dutch National Park Zuid-Kennemerland since their excavation in the 2012/2013 winter (up to October 2021; 8.5 years) using 24 digital elevation models (DEMs) derived from airborne lidar and drone surveys. DEMs of Difference illustrate that the notches have persistently eroded since their excavation, mostly through alongshore widening and steepening of the lateral walls, at an approximately constant volumetric rate of about 17,500 m<sup>3</sup>/y. Landward of the notches, depositional lobes have formed that in October 2021 extended up to 280 m into the backdunes and were locally up to 10 m thick. The total deposition volume increased approximately linearly with time by about 33,350 m<sup>3</sup>/y, thus surpassing the annual erosion volume by almost a factor of 2. This reflects substantial aeolian transport of beach sand through the notches. Under the assumption that the excess deposited sand all originates from the 850-m alongshore section of beach fronting the five notches, the annual input of beach sand equals approximately 19 m<sup>3</sup>/m/y. These results highlight that the notches facilitated highly efficient onshore sand pathways during the entire 8.5-y study period and showed no sign of rapid stabilization. In more detail, the data also suggest that the notches oriented with the dominant wind direction are more efficient in facilitating this onshore transport than notches with other orientations. Future work will focus on the fusion of the elevation data with high-resolution satellite imagery to better understand the impact of sand deposition on vegetation dynamics and on the role of vegetation in determining the future evolution of the depositional lobes.</p>

Addressing the complex legacies of the past in architectural education and built constructions, calls for a reconsidering of the principles of architectural design and conservation. The current challenges of housing, sustainable development and heritage adaptation present huge dilemmas for architects. Yet today architects are only by exception trained to detect heritage values prior to drafting their interventions for adaptive reuse or upgrading. To this day, Western architectural thinking is influenced by the Vitruvian triad Firmitas, Utilitas and Venustas, and the truncated maxim ‘Form Follows Function’ as disseminated by the protagonists of the Modern Movement. These established a divide between the design for new-build and the care of already existing buildings. This divide is marked by the two Charters of Athens: the 1931 Carta del Restauro adopted at the First International Congress of Architects and Technicians of Historic Monuments, and La Chartre d’Athènes presented by Le Corbusier as a result of the 4th CIAM Congress on the Functional City (1933). This paper attempts to bridge the identified divide by adding the idea of ‘Dignitas’ (dignity) as an equal virtue to the Vitruvian triad. Though not new for itself, this concept may aid to raise awareness of architectural dignity in extant buildings. Keywords: architectural theory, architectural education, conservation theory, Renovation Challenge, Dignitas

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