From restoration to circular care: maintenance, repair and material continuity in sustainable heritage management

Purpose This article develops the Circular Care Framework for sustainable heritage management. It connects maintenance, repair, material continuity, embodied carbon preservation and social-managerial care to show how heritage sustainability can be understood as a continuous practice of care and resource responsibility alongside restoration, adaptive reuse and energy upgrading. Design/methodology/approach The article adopts a targeted structured conceptual review and framework development approach. It synthesizes literature across sustainable heritage management, circular economy and the built environment, maintenance, repair and preventive conservation and embodied carbon, material continuity and building life-cycle thinking. Findings The conceptual synthesis identifies eight interrelated decision domains: retention, repair, maintenance, reversibility, adaptability, material continuity, embodied carbon preservation and social-managerial care. The framework positions circular care as a life-cycle-oriented decision logic that connects conservation ethics with resource and carbon responsibility. Research limitations/implications As a conceptual framework, the Circular Care Framework requires future empirical testing to validate its practical applicability in heritage buildings, historic urban areas, adaptive reuse projects and maintenance management processes. Originality/value The article contributes an integrative conceptual framework that positions maintenance, repair and material continuity as core sustainability practices in heritage management rather than as secondary technical operations.