Integration through Emotion, Theory and Practice
Inheritance values describe how cultural frameworks are perceived, interpreted, and transformed by society – and how, in turn, they shape society over time. They are embodied in objects with long lifespans across generations, such as buildings. Inheritance values do not refer solely to officially recognised heritage or protected monuments, but to the broader reality of what is inherited: existing buildings, material resources, spatial structures, and the cultural meanings and emotions attached to them.
CHI-L uses the term inheritance values as a deliberate distinction from established heritage value theories. Inheritance is understood not as a fixed condition, but as an active cultural process shaped through use, care, adaptation, and negotiation. Inheritance values emerge where material substance, lived experience, social practices, and future needs intersect. Predefined and stable features become values through personal reflection, collective engagement, and conscious responsibility.
Emotional dimensions of inheritance values
Artistic inquiry plays a central role in this process. At CHI-L, artistic work is used to experience, question, and emotionally evaluate inheritance values beyond technical or normative frameworks. It makes tensions between continuity and change tangible and opens spaces for reflection that often remain inaccessible through theory, policy, or planning tools alone.
Discursive dimensions of inheritance values
Critical essays complement this experiential approach by providing a discursive arena in which heritage, values, and inheritance processes can be examined, contextualised, and debated. Essays support the negotiation of meaning between expert knowledge, societal perspectives, and everyday experience, allowing values to be articulated, questioned, and shared.
Practical dimensions of inheritance values
Through applied R&D projects, CHI-L operationalises inheritance values in concrete transformation contexts. Narrative dimensions such as memory, identity, and meaning are connected with technical performance criteria including material durability, ecological impact, and functional adaptability. In this way, inheritance values form a shared evaluative framework for transformation and reuse — not aimed at preserving the past, but at actively shaping continuity through change. In practice, this framework is used to analyse existing buildings, identify relevant values, and support decision-making processes for owners, municipalities, and project partners facing complex transformation challenges.