The contribution of contemporary architecture to heritage co-creation

Purpose To demonstrate how the most valuable contribution contemporary architecture makes to heritage co-creation lies in its works and aims to build a new and alternative habitability. A statement that navigates between two fundamental aporias of modernity: the first involves heritage and architecture bringing significant vestiges of the past into the present while projecting scenarios that respond to new ways of life. And the second is related to the emergence of a planetary consciousness that would guide an alternative behaviour, placing heritage in the broader context of ecology and sustainability. Design/methodology/approach The characterisation of the contemporary cultural context enables the identification of five key concepts for approaching the discourse on contemporary architecture: memory/Holocaust, spectacle, identity, reterritorialization and object system. This is an interpretative exercise achieved through the hermeneutics. of five case studies: VICTIMS (Hejduk), Fondaco dei Tedeschi (OMA), Hamsun Centre (S. Holl), Can Tacó (T. Gironés) and Sala Beckett (Flores & Prats). On a second level, the selection of five complementary works help to strengthen the discursive approach: the Theatre of the World (A. Rossi), Cartuja Monastery (Sierra), Steilneset Memorial (P. Zumthor y L. Bourgeois), Bonaval (A. Siza/I. Aguirre) and Zig-Zag exhibition (Sierra). Findings The results provide a deeper understanding of the selected case studies, revealing alternative co-creation strategies applicable to heritage conservation. The findings offer new ways to highlight heritage interventions in the context of contemporary architecture: working with intangible materials as memory, opening the identification of values into the culture of spectacle, valuing identity, linking with the context through landscape and incorporating material culture through objects. This paper demonstrates that the study of contemporary architecture through a methodology based on hermeneutic dynamics is a line of research which opens up a long-term line of work. Originality/value This research shifts the focus in the search for heritage co-creation strategies. Going beyond the present, it is contemporary architectural projects that offer alternative keys to heritage preservation.