Sustainability of Historical and Artistic Heritage Buildings

Abstract

The increasing size of Aguascalientes City in Mexico has augmented its traffic flows and also the amount of parking lots during the last two decades. The challenge of this paper is to analyse the social deterioration factors of historical heritage buildings and artistic heritage buildings. Hence, in order to evaluate such facts, a multivariate statistical method was applied; thus, a cluster exploration with specific variables-including a drawing indicating a "limited part of the city" with historic (and artistic) buildings, data of building sizes, parking lots, loss of architecture, areas of orchards, vacant lots, city parks, houses, industry, services and commercial shops. The results show similar sizes of commercial shops in several street blocks. Also, it demonstrates space adjustments and alterations in historic buildings; indeed, the commercial shops have modified historic buildings and in multiple cases they have torn them down. The conclusions mention that loss of historic architecture was more common in the oldest street blocks of the city; consequently, in the historic site there's a lack of architecture built during the 16th and 17th centuries. Therefore, the most significant change is the increasing commercial shops in the "limited part of the city", substituting residential land use. As a consequence, more parking lots were built to support the increasing mobility in the city. Since cultural sustainability is at risk in Aguascalientes City, the study of changes in architectural heritage sites becomes an important part of the urban research agenda of current city planners. For these reasons, the paper can contribute to the development of social and cultural balances. Moreover, the final task is to help improve the capacity of city planning and the sustainability of historical heritage buildings and artistic heritage buildings.