The fossilised skull of a young Australopithecus africanus, known as the Taung Child, is among South Africa’s most famous fossils.
Image courtesy of PAST
Palaeontological finds offer a compelling and profound way to think about our place in nature.
“Mrs Ples” (who was actually very likely a “Mr”) forms part of the collection at South Africa’s Ditsong National Museum of Natural History.
Flickr/Flowcomms
Museums might look dull and old from the outside, but they house a wealth of knowledge that we cannot afford to lose.
Good Shepherd Chapel (c.1969, architect: A. Ian Ferrier) in Mitchelton, Brisbane, was demolished in 2004.
Ferrier Slide Collection, used with permission
Of the thousands of churches erected to serve the fast-growing communities of post-war Australia, very few are protected. Are we happy to lose buildings that are so much part of our modern heritage?
The Trump administration recently reduced the size of Bears Ears in Utah, opening millions of acres to mining and other uses. This threatens Indigenous heritage and can be seen as a form of violence.
Shandon, an inner-city neighbourhood in Cork, Ireland, dates back to the 1600s.
Image: Kieran Hoare, used with permission
A suburb in the Irish city of Cork sets the standard for involving the community in heritage building conservation. Public engagement is the key to managing the inevitable conflicts.
The old Pratt Street power plant in Baltimore in the US is now home to commercial uses. But the heritage preservation is compromised by advertising that is not sympathetic to the building style and design.
Wikimedia Commons
When talking about heritage, we need to be clear about our definitions and our objectives for each building. Then we can work on achieving the optimum balance of heritage and sustainability.
The Burrup Peninsula, or Murujuga, contains over a million individual works of rock art by the Yaburara people.
Shutterstock.com
Island philosophies can be used to decolonise university courses and teaching. They can also advance sustainable development models and, ultimately, achieve responsible tourism.
The Sirius building and the Heritage Act are both products of a significant part of Sydney’s history: the Green Bans movement.
Dean Lewins/AAP
Social housing can certainly have heritage significance. Over more than 100 years, it has been shaped by contemporary architectural and political ideas, sometimes in an exemplary way.
The Great Mosque’s famous leaning minaret in 2013.
Faisal Jeber/Wikimedia
The Great Mosque of Mosul - with its iconic leaning minaret - appeared on one of Iraq’s banknotes. Its destruction by the Islamic State is an act of great symbolic importance.
When the government decides to evict, public housing tenants’ lives are turned upside down.
Reuters
The last 24 public housing tenants holding out against eviction from Millers Point, Dawes Point and the Sirius Building still hope the government may show some compassion.
A view of Tehran, with its mix of traditional and modern design.
Jørn Eriksson/Flick
Adaptive reuse and recycling of heritage architecture may be all the rage, but are not new. Making new buildings from old has a long history in the ancient world.
Interior of the ‘Great Hall’ at the old Fyansford Paper Mills.
Photographer: Donna Squire
September is celebrated as heritage month in South Africa. How to get it right? A revisit to a national newspaper’s decade-old, ambitious project is a good yardstick to use.
Senior Lecturer in Architectural HIstory and Theory, UNSW & Honorary Research Fellow, Australian Centre for Architectural History, Urban and Cultural Heritage (ACAHUCH), UNSW Sydney