Ordinary places of ordinary people : developing a new method in assessing the social value of community-serving heritage places : the case of Bishop Ford Memorial School

Abstract

This dissertation reviews the conventional historic- and aesthetic-prioritized heritage assessment process to reveal its limitations, and proposes a new method in assessing potential heritage places where the significance is more social-based. The focus is the case of the author’s primary-education alma mater, Bishop Ford Memorial School (hereinafter “the School”), for the scope of demonstrating the overriding importance of social value for potential heritage buildings that are not possessing outstanding historic and aesthetic significance under conventional assessment approaches. The conventional approach of assessing the significance of heritage buildings is not effective because of the over-emphasis on the traditional set of values, namely, historic and aesthetic. As such, many potential heritage buildings worthy of conservation have been ignored or neglected due to the fact that their heritage significance lies not in historic and aesthetic values. The author would continue the argument that these historically and architecturally undistinguished buildings may in fact be highly significant due to their undiscovered social value, especially in terms of the connection of these with their respective community. This dissertation argues that historically and architecturally undistinguished buildings, such as the School, may in fact be highly significant due to their undiscovered social value, especially in terms of the connection of these with their respective community. The research presented in this dissertation is therefore to demonstrate this argument through a new modified statement of significance (SoS) process. The means to do so is by infusing a community-focused social aspect into the key values in order to better understand the connection between a building under assessment with its associated community.