Joint ICOMOS – TICCIH - Principles for
the Conservation of Industrial
Heritage Sites, Structures, Areas and
Landscapes
Adopted by the 17th ICOMOS General Assembly on
28 November 2011
Preamble
Around the World, a great diversity of sites,
structures, complexes, cities and settlements, areas,
landscapes and routes bear witness to human
activities of industrial extraction and production. In
many places, this heritage is still in use and
industrialisation is still an active process with a sense
of historical continuity, while in other places it offers
archaeological evidence of past activities and
technologies. Besides the tangible heritage associated
with industrial technology and processes,
engineering, architecture and town‐planning, it
includes many intangible dimensions embodied in the
skills, memories and social life of workers and their
communities.
The global process of industrialisation observed over
the past two centuries constitutes a major stage of
human history, making its heritage particularly
important and critical to the Modern World.
Precursors and beginnings of industrialisation can be
recognized in many parts of the world well back into
ancient times through active or archaeological sites,
and our attention extends to any examples of such
process and its heritage. However, for our purposes,
these joint principles’ primary interests coincide with
the common notions of the Modern Era Industrial
Revolution, marked by distinctive and dedicated
production, transportation and power‐generating or
harnessing processes and technologies, trade and
commercial interactions, and new social and cultural
patterns.
The industrial heritage is highly vulnerable and often
at risk, often lost for lack of awareness,
documentation, recognition or protection but also
because of changing economic trends, negative
perceptions, environmental issues or its sheer size
and complexity. Yet, by extending the life‐cycle of
existing structures and their embodied energy,
conservation of the built industrial heritage, can
contribute to achieving the goals of sustainable
development at the local, national and international
levels. It touches the social as well as the physical and
environmental aspects of development and should be
acknowledged as such.
Over the past decades, growing research,
international and interdisciplinary cooperation as well
as community initiatives have greatly contributed to a
better appreciation of the industrial heritage and
increased collaboration between stewards,
stakeholders and professionals. This progress has
benefitted from the development of a corpus of
international references and guidelines by ICOMOS –
the International Council on Monuments and Sites,
and the implementation of international
recommendations and instruments such as the World
Heritage Convention adopted by UNESCO in 1972. In
2003, The International Committee for the
Conservation of Industrial Heritage (TICCIH) adopted
its Nizhny Tagil Charter for the Industrial Heritage, a
first international reference text of such recognition
to guide protection and conservation in the field.
Acknowledging the particular nature of the industrial
heritage and the issues and threats affecting it as a
result of its relation to the contemporary economic,
legal, cultural and environmental contexts, ICOMOS
and TICCIH wish to expand their cooperation by
adopting and promoting the dissemination and use of
the following Principles to assist in the
documentation, protection, conservation and
appreciation of industrial heritage as part of the
heritage of human societies around the World.
1 Definition: The industrial heritage consists of
sites, structures, complexes, areas and
landscapes as well as the related machinery,
objects or documents that provide evidence of
past or ongoing industrial processes of
production, the extraction of raw materials,
their transformation into goods, and the related
energy and transport infrastructures. Industrial
heritage reflects the profound connection
between the cultural and natural environment,
as industrial processes – whether ancient or modern – depend on natural sources of raw
materials, energy and transportation networks
to produce and distribute products to broader
markets. It includes both material assets –
immovable and movable –, and intangible
dimensions such as technical know‐how, the
organisation of work and workers, and the
complex social and cultural legacy that shaped
the life of communities and brought major
organizational changes to entire societies and
the world in general.
2 Industrial heritage sites are very diversified in
terms of their purpose, design and evolution
over time. Many are representative of
processes, technologies as well as regional or
historical conditions while others constitute
outstanding achievements of global influence.
Others are complexes and multiple site
operations or systems whose many components
are interdependent, with different technologies
and historical periods frequently present. The
significance and value of industrial heritage is
intrinsic to the structures or sites themselves,
their material fabric, components, machinery
and setting, expressed in the industrial
landscape, in written documentation, and also
in the intangible records contained in memories,
arts and customs.
I ‐ Document and understand industrial heritage
structures, sites, areas and landscapes and their
values
3 Researching and documenting industrial
structures, sites, landscapes and the related
machinery, equipment, records or intangible
aspects is essential to their identification,
conservation, and the appreciation of their
heritage significance and value. Human skills
and knowledge involved in old industrial
processes are a critically important resource in
conservation and must be considered in the
heritage evaluation process.
4 Researching and documenting industrial
heritage sites and structures must address their
historical, technological and socio‐economical
dimensions to provide an integrated base for
conservation and management. It requires an
interdisciplinary approach supported by
interdisciplinary research and educational
programmes to identify the significance of industrial heritage sites or structures. It should
benefit from a diversity of sources of expertise
and information including site surveys and
recording, historical and archaeological
investigation, material and landscape analysis,
oral history and/or research in public, corporate
or private archives. Research and preservation
of documentary records, company archives,
building plans, and specimens of industrial
products should be encouraged. The evaluation
and assessment of documents should be
undertaken by an appropriate specialist in the
industry to which they relate to determine their
heritage significance. The participation of
communities and other stakeholders is also an
integral part of this exercise.
5 Thorough knowledge of the industrial and socio‐
economic history of an area or country or their
links to other parts of the world is necessary to
understand the significance of industrial
heritage sites or structures. Single industry
context, typological or regional studies, with a
comparative component, aimed at key industrial
sectors or technologies are very useful in
recognizing the heritage values inherent in
individual structures, sites, areas or landscapes.
They should be accessible and searchable by the
public, scholars as well as managers.
II ‐ Ensure effective protection and
conservation of the industrial heritage
structures, sites, areas and landscapes
6 Appropriate policies, legal and administrative
measures need to be adopted and adequately
implemented to protect and ensure the
conservation of industrial heritage sites and
structures, including their machinery and
records. These measures have to address the
close relation between the industrial heritage,
industrial production and the economy, in
particular with respect to rules for corporations
and investments, trades or intellectual property
such as patents, and standards applicable to
active industrial operations.
7 Integrated inventories and lists of structures,
sites, areas, landscapes their setting and
associated objects, documents, drawings and
archives or intangible heritage should be
developed and used as part of these effective management and conservation policies and
protection measures. These should benefit from
a legal recognition, adequate conservation and
management to ensure that their significance,
integrity and authenticity are maintained. In the
case of industrial heritage identified through
fortuitous discovery, temporary protection
should be granted to allow time necessary for
proper heritage documentation and research.
8 In the case of active industrial structures or sites
of heritage significance, it must be recognized
that their continued use and function might
carry some of their heritage significance and
provide adequate conditions for their physical
and economic sustainability as a living
production or extraction facilities. Their specific
technical characteristics and features need to be
respected while implementing contemporary
regulations such as building codes,
environmental requirements or risk reduction
strategies to address hazards of natural or
human origin.
9 Protection measures should apply to buildings
and their contents since completeness or
functional integrity is especially important to the
significance of industrial heritage structures and
sites. Their heritage value may be greatly
jeopardized or reduced if machinery or other
significant components are removed, or if
subsidiary elements which form part of a whole
site are destroyed. Legal and administrative
frameworks should be developed to enable
authorities to respond quickly to the closure of
operating industrial heritage sites and
complexes to prevent removal or destruction of
significant elements such as machinery,
industrial objects or related records.
III ‐ Conserve and maintain the industrial
heritage structures, sites, areas and landscapes
10 Appropriate original or alternative and adaptive
use is the most frequent way and often the most
sustainable way of ensuring the conservation of
industrial heritage sites or structures. New uses
should respect significant material, components
and patterns of circulation and activity.
Specialist skills are necessary to ensure that the
heritage significance is taken into account and
respected in managing the sustainable use of
these industrial heritage sites and structures.
Building codes, risk mitigation requirements,
environmental or industrial regulations, and
other standards should be implemented in an
adapted way to take heritage dimensions into
account when they are enforced through
physical interventions.
11 Wherever possible, physical interventions
should be reversible, and respect the age value
and significant traces or marks. Changes should
be documented. Reverting to a previous known
state may be acceptable under exceptional
circumstances for educational purposes, and
must be based on thorough research and
documentation. Dismantling and relocating are
only acceptable in extraordinary cases when the
destruction of the site is required by objectively
proved overwhelming economic or social needs.
12 In case of prospective redundancy,
decommissioning, and / or adaptation of
industrial heritage sites or structures, the
processes should be recorded including, for
example, where components have to be
demolished and machinery has to be removed.
Their material form as well as their functioning
and location as part of the industrial processes
should be exhaustively documented. Oral and /
or written stories of people connected with
work processes should also be collected.
IV ‐ Present and communicate the heritage
dimensions and values of industrial structures,
sites, areas and landscapes to raise public and
corporate awareness, and support training and
research
13 The industrial heritage is a source of learning
which needs to be communicated in its multiple
dimensions. It illustrates important aspects of
local, national and international history and
interactions over times and cultures. It
demonstrates the inventive talents related to
scientific and technological developments, as
well as social and artistic movements. Public and
corporate awareness and understanding for the
industrial heritage are important means for its
successful conservation.
14 Programmes and facilities such as visits of active
industrial heritage sites and the presentation of
their operations as well as the stories and
intangible heritage associated with their history,
machinery and industrial processes, industrial or
city museums and interpretation centres,
exhibitions, publications, websites, regional or
trans‐boundary itineraries should be developed
and sustained as means to raise awareness and
appreciation for the industrial heritage in the
full richness of its meaning for contemporary
societies. These should ideally be located at the
heritage sites itself where the process of
industrialisation has taken place and can be best
communicated. Wherever possible, national and
international institutions in the field of research
and conservation of heritage should be
empowered to use them as educational facilities
for the general public and the professional
communities.
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