Virtual visits as an alternative approach to learn urban and architectural heritage preservation during lockdown

Abstract

Among the challenges faced at the university, during the lockdown from mid-March 2020, it was the need to give continuity to the learning of subjects that involve a direct approach to cultural property. In "Architectural History, Theory and Composition 3 - Rehabilitation", undergraduated students of the University of Seville’s Degree studies of Fundamentals in Architecture and teachers have practiced new ways of distance learning. Traditionally, reading and consulting materials are provided in digital formats (catalogues and urban plans, publications on buildings, urban history, cartography). Complementary, the visits of immersion in the heritage reality are especially productive in academic terms. Buildings, spaces, and urban perceptions are identified, so that students develop ways of seeing and recognize their complexity. The social, cultural, artistic, archaeological, landscape dimension prepares preservation or rehabilitation practices. This includes a visit to a qualified sector of the historic centre of Seville. This experience was initially planned to be onsite but due to the pandemic became virtual. The possibilities offered by the digital resources resulted in deeper approaches to other features of cultural property that were not frequently repaired by Architecture students.