Cultural heritage in urban redevelopment projects: a framework to analyse collaborative strategies

Due to technological, economic and spatial developments, various inner-city industrial areas have lost their former use and their original economic value. Many of these areas have elements of cultural-historical value. Preserving this cultural heritage means managing it for the benefit of current and future generations, and –by doing so- contributing to a sustainable development. Governments, private parties, citizens and interest groups are often convinced of the desirability of preserving the cultural heritage. However, the presence of cultural heritage entails extra complexity. Hence, public and private parties are searching for new methods, processes and instruments to embed cultural heritage in urban redevelopment projects. In this paper we present a framework to study strategies used and their implications for balancing costs and benefits. To develop this framework, we analyzed five Dutch urban redevelopment projects with cultural heritage and confronted the results with literature. We then argue that value creation, through collaborative efforts in finding new uses, and value claiming, by negotiating on the costs and benefits involved, go hand in hand. From this perspective, value creation and settlements regarding costs and benefits of cultural heritage depend on how stakeholders handle this tension.