IN-PERSON Barcelona. Section A

Abstract

The Barbican (Barbican Centre and Barbican Estate), a post-war 20th-century brutalist architectural building complex, received a Grade II listed status in the heart of the City of London, has been examined concerning its social sustainability, resilience and well-being towards the research question ‘How heritage participation influences peoples’ subjective well-being?’. This research presents a first, exploratory review of well-being benefits and limitations related to exposure to or engagement with historic places, attempting new possibilities of the Built Heritage Participation for therapeutic effects, social prescribing and heritage resilience. To continue with the exploration of the relationship between heritage and wellbeing, this research aimed to investigate heritage resilience and social impact and utilise in-depth socio-psychometric and environment-psychological approaches to discover local perceptions of their experience in the built heritage, related well-being and values attributed to focused groups. This methodology offers new possibilities for the interpretation of capturing people’s emotional feelings and mental well-being while visiting historical environments. Thus, by concluding the multidimensional results and findings from this research, the goal is to integrate a new solution for sustainable heritage engagement and to inform a more human-centred conservation approach in the heritage management process, building a connection with people’s cultural recognition, sense of belonging, emotional attachment, spirituality and subjective well-being, as a return to enhance the cultural significance, sustainable development and the social cohesion for the continues inherent of the cultural heritage by future generations.