ABSTRACT
Over recent decades, heritage conservation has undergone a radical rethinking due to new understandings of the environmental and ecological limitations of existing theory, policy, and practice. This shift has, among other things, brought vernacular urbanisms to the forefront of the contemporary conservation discourse. Numerous pre-industrial and indigenous landscapes, many tracings back to historic times, are gaining attention as didactic precedents for, and aspects of, contemporary design. Many such places, particularly in less developed societies, are fragile natural ecologies, facing an uncertain future due to unpredictable political forces, and ambiguous management. They demand subtler readings and approaches to conservation practice, while also needing our urgent attention. This renewed focus on vernacular places, is therefore evidence of an increasing moral and ethical imperative of environmental protection. Prioritizing the ecological dimensions of a place and accompanying socio-cultural aspects over the conservation of a single built object or artefact, this imperative is seeking to identify deeper concerns as the driver for engaging with what we value as built heritage. The goal of this chapter is to examine the challenges underlying the conservation of vernacular urbanisms in the Asia-Pacific region, and to overview interrelated elements that form part of this larger discourse. The chapter focuses on three ‘water urbanisms’: (1) the hiti water system of Nepal; (2) the Banaue Rice Terraces in the Philippines; and (3) the Polders of Bangladesh. The presence and formal characteristics of these examples arise from the need to collect, harvest or distribute water, and has imbibed in each of them distinct intertwined social and economic dimensions. The choice of these three examples is deliberate on a number of grounds: They are from different nations in the Asia-Pacific region. This helps offer insights into the overlaps and differences between their historic trajectories as well as their current administrative and governance structures – aspects that are crucial to any discussion on the future of these places. Additionally, the three places are from different ecological conditions, and thereby help expand the environmental aspects of this discussion in a comparative manner.
