WORKS IN THE FOG:

Views and attitudes towards the built heritage in the city

of La Plata 1

Laura De Leão Dornelles

Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina

Abstract
La Plata was planned to become the capital of the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Being inaugurated on
November 19, 1882, it is an icon of urban planning in the molds of an "ideal hygienist city" of the end of the nineteenth
century. However, throughout the twentieth century the city went through a process of intense destruction of its built
heritage.
We can say that the validity of the heritage is exactly its symbolic character, its capacity to represent symbolically an
identity (PRATS, 2004: 22). The city contains many places built at different times, impregnated with meanings that
symbolize and represent the act of living. Such architectural works are in themselves spaces of life, where life stories
develop (RICOEUR, 1998). In this way, it is necessary to remove such works from the fog, bring them to light and
value the particular sense of identity that they designate to their community. Taking into account these considerations,
the present study aims to know and analyze the emotional bonds of the inhabitants in relation to historical-cultural
heritage, that is, their perception and their attitudes regarding heritage. Being mental phenomena, not observable from
outside the subject, it is necessary to infer such perceptions and attitudes, based on certain indicators and using
different tools (KATZ, 1984). In this way, we plan to achieve our research objective based on the analysis of relevant
written documentation, personal interviews and direct observation (participant or not). Our intention is to work with the
conformation of an empirical sample (not probabilistic), based on the researcher's judgment (VALLES, 1999). We
expect that the achieved results can help future urban rehabilitation projects, favoring the increased approximation of
the citizen to heritage and being fruitful in the context of the most diverse cities that transit through similar
circumstances.
Keywords: heritage preservation, city, identity.

Introduction
The worldwide discussion about popular participation in the processes of preservation of the
historical and cultural heritage is a constant throughout the 20th century and culminates with the
Declaration of Amsterdam, in 1975.2 Despite the continuous debate, unfortunately the issue is
not addressed in depth in the reality of our Latin American cities. That is the situation of La
1
This research is subsidized by the CONICET Postdoctoral Fellowship (National Council of Scientific and
Technical Research of Argentina) and is developed in HiTePAC (History, Theory and Praxis of Architecture and the
City - Research Institute / Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the National University of La Plata / Argentina),
under the direction of Fernando Gandolfi (Dean of the FAU / UNLP, Research Professor Category I of the Incentive
Program / Secretariat of University Policies of the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Nation) and co-
direction Fernando Aliata (Independent Researcher of the CONICET and president of the ASAIH - Argentine
Association of Researchers in History).
2
The Declaration of Amsterdam was very important for the subject, as it recommended popular participation in
preservation processes, in addition to implementing integrated measures for the maintenance of goods, delegating to
municipalities the task of formulating conservation measures and finding ways to finance them.
Plata, a planned urban icon of the late nineteenth century and that in the last fifty years went
through a process of intense destruction of its built heritage. Taking this information into
consideration, this work aims to complement the line of research opened with the doctoral thesis
entitled: "BETWEEN THE LINES OF MEMORY AND PLACES: the process of preservation
of cultural heritage-material of the city of La Plata (1982) -2008)" 3, which sought to develop an
interdisciplinary study between the areas of History and Architecture / Urbanism.

General objective
Analyze and know the opinion of the inhabitants of La Plata about the historical-cultural heritage
and the perception of the habitants have about it. The space cut chosen is Plaza Moreno, the
geographical heart of the city (Figure 1). This objective seeks to serve in the future to generate
proposals that help urban rehabilitation projects, together with heritage preservation, favoring the
greater approach of the citizen to heritage, as well as generating a profitable use and enjoyment
of the heritage by the community.
 Fig. 1 – Plan of La Plata city.4

3
DE LEAO DORNELLES, Laura (2017). “En las entrelíneas de la memoria y de los lugares: El proceso histórico
de preservación del patrimonio cultural-material en la ciudad de La Plata (1982-2008)” (PhD thesis). Presented at
the “Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación - Argentina”
(Doctorate in History) and at the “Universidad de Sevilla. Escuela Técnica Superior en Arquitectura - Spain”
(Doctorate in Architecture).
4
The plane of La Plata at present was drawn by the Arq. Magali Franchino. In the present article, this image will
illustratively serve as a point of reference for the explanation of some specific characteristics of the planning of the
city. It is important to highlight that there are modifications between such plane and the one raised at the time of its
foundation (1882).
Specific objectives
- Know the opinions and attitudes of the inhabitants of La Plata regarding the conservation of
historical heritage, in the surroundings of Plaza Moreno;
- Analyze the conception and knowledge that the inhabitants of La Plata have about patrimonial
works, that is, a real and tangible approach that people have of heritage reality;
- Analyze the relation between local residents as well as their perception about La Plata’s
heritage, specially Plaza Moreno, as an important place to reproduce local memories;
- Take into consideration the different motivations for legitimizing the heritage;
- Observe and describe the use of patrimonial spaces by the population.

Research background
Understanding the inherent complexity of human life, in its time and space, is essential to be able
to plan urban rehabilitation actions. In the present investigation, urban rehabilitation is
understood as the quality of enabling again a degraded space and / or with use that is not
compatible with current needs, seeking the consonance with the quality of life of its inhabitants
(QUINTANA LOPES, CESARES MARCOS, 2016). The logic of urban rehabilitation is very
broad and not only can, but also must dialogue with other areas. In this research, a direct
dialogue with urban sustainability and heritage preservation is proposed. For sustainability, the
acting capacity of permanence of a certain process, system or element over time is reasoned. In
this way, sustainable rehabilitation must address global intervention and systemic urban
intervention, generating proposals and concrete actions in the three most significant media
(social environment + economic + environmental), in the field of intervention (HIGUERAS,
2009: 130). Understanding these three parameters as the Triple Shed of Sustainability, the aim is
to visualize the logic of Platen's social environment, that is, its culture and relationship with its
historical heritage.
Historical cultural heritage is understood as material and immaterial cultural works, which are
connected to the memory and identity of communities and whose preservation is essential for the
maintenance of such memories and collective identities. Currently, the term "cultural heritage" is
the most widely used in the area of heritage preservation, since it encompasses both tangible and
intangible goods, in addition to being guided by the cultural references of the peoples (CHOAY,
2001).
In addition, we know that the reflections around cultural heritage may show multiple
approaches. Specifically in this case, we focus our attention into the idea of heritage as strategic
tool of territory management once different municipalities around the world have been trying to
promote themselves through their local culture, traditional know-how and vernacular
architecture. In light of this, Poulot notice that certain kinds of objects and/or buildings become
heritage in order tooppose other objects that are either neglected or destroyed (POULOT, 2009,
p. 15).As a result, the assumed “uniformization” of the world thanks to the Globalization
process, paradoxically, have been emerged an effect like “particularization” of different regions
and places, which means the use of their respective heritages, as strategic resources, in
competitive edge’s condition.
In La Plata, a large part of the works about heritage preservation focus on giving an account
of the history of the city, paying special attention to its particular urban layout (Among others:
MUNICIPALIDAD DE LA PLATA, 1982; DE PAULA, 1987), or to the architectural
production (in this field the research works directed by Eduardo Gentile and Fernando Gandolfi
stand out, within the framework of the Research Unit No. 7 of the IDEHAB, FAU / UNLP). At
present, we can highlight the work of the NGO “Defendamos La Plata”, whose main focus is the
attempt to stop the demolition of historic buildings in counterpoint to the strong development of
civil construction.5 But a vacuum of academic research is noted in what concerns a field study on
the perception of the citizens about the historical heritage, emptiness that seeks to be replaced by
the present investigation. The inhabitant of the city lives daily urban space, what (re) means and
uses. In this way, he is the historical agent of daily action who must be able to express his
conceptions about the space he experiences. (SANTORO DE CONSTANTINO, 2004). The fact
of giving "voice" to the social agents enriches this study, demonstrating directly the role of the
inhabitant in the active and daily construction of his own city.
Ultimately, the question arises: Why to preserve? The answer is clear: simply because it is not
limited to keep mere buildings and places of coexistence. But we must bear in mind that such
places are representations of collective memory. It can be affirmed that the real validity of these
patrimonial works is exactly its symbolic character, its capacity to represent symbolically an
identity (PRATS, 2004: 22). In the spaces of life is where the life stories develop. The city
contains many places built at different times, which are full of meanings that symbolize and
represent living. These places coexist and represent particular meanings of that community.
Therefore, it is necessary to remove such “works in the fog”, bring them to light and value the
particular meaning that the community designates. As Marisa Barda said, one city is never the
same as another. Cities are the result of a multitude of geographical differences or tradition
(BARDA, 2007), being documents of one's own civic history, in which the reading must
understand the meanings of the printed marks in the urban space, as a language to be deciphered
and, whenever possible, enriched (MELO, 1998: 38).6

Hypothesis
As an initial hypothesis of research, it can be inferred that a considerable part of the population
of La Plata has a low valuation and not very positive attitudes towards the historical-cultural
heritage of the city. This hypothesis is based on the data obtained by the aforementioned doctoral
thesis (De Leao Dornelles, 2017), which verified the extensive destruction of patrimonial
buildings of its foundational period in the last three decades. This indicates that the population
lost connection with the initial idea of urban design and does not recognize its importance as an
urban model of the late nineteenth century, which was why an ideal city was proposed to live
(what today could be understood as a city with ample quality of life for its inhabitants).
Therefore, it is necessary to understand how the population relates to the urban environment, that
is, to understand how it sees its city and what it understands for its heritage. When such an
5
Website: http: //defendamoslaplata.blogspot. com.ar/
6
It is important to name an interesting study carried out in Spanish territory, entitled "Knowledge and perception of
historical heritage in Spanish society" (GÓMEZ GIMÉNEZ, 2012), a profound interdisciplinary work that will serve
as inspiration for the development of the current research.
understanding is reached, proposals for greater awareness of the population about the history of
the city, closer to the patrimonial works, can be developed in the future. In this case, Plaza
Moreno, where this research is concentrated, represents the core of La Plata city, also being an
icon of its foundation on the 20th century. However, based upon empirical experiences, we notice
that Plaza Moreno remains under carelessness conditions, which, supposedly, indicates a gap
between who transit in there and the place itself. Therefore, it’s necessary to understand how La
Plata citizens think about and occupy Plaza Moreno, which may help us to introduce actions to
deepen and narrow the relationship between La Plata inhabitants and its erected cultural heritage.

 Table 1 – Activities / Plan of Stages

2017 2018 2019

WORKS IN THE FOG:
Aug. Mar. Aug. As
Views and attitudes towards the built heritage
- - - Mar. from
in the city of La Plata. Dic. Jul. Dic. april
F 0.1: Definition of research
objectives
P
H
F 0.2: Bibliographic reading
A
S Construction of
E research plan F 0.3: Theoretical-conceptual
delimitation
0
F 0.4: Selection of analysis methods

F 1.1: Pre questionnaire design

P
H F 1.2: Personal interviews (Pre
A questionnaire)
S METODOLOGY
E F.1.3: Revision of the pre
questionnaire
1
F 1.4: Direct observation

P
F 2.1: Analysis of the results of the
H
direct observation
A ANALYSIS OF
S RESULTS
E F 2.2: Analysis of the results of the
questionnaire
2

SYNTHESIS F 3.1: Preparation of the final report

Participation and attendance in

Congresses, seminars and courses
Complementary
activities Publication of articles in indexed
journals

Methodology
The research process begins with the search for documentation. It is about defining the reality to
be studied and configuring a context that allows defining the state of the issue. Being a
multidisciplinary study, we consult manuals and studies on history, architecture, urban planning,
psychology and sociology. The bibliographical reading, although it is essential in a first moment
of the study, is present throughout the investigative process.
As far as social attitudes are concerned, these are conceived as global and relatively stable
evaluations that people make about other people, ideas or things (SHERIF, SHERIF,
NEBERGALL, 1965). An attitude can direct behavior, conforming as a predisposition to act in
one way or another, in front of the object of the attitude. By constituting a mental phenomenon
and not being observable from outside the subject, it is necessary to infer the attitudes of people
based on certain indicators and using different tools (KATZ, 1984). There are two types of
attitude analysis methods. Direct methods directly ask the subject for their attitudes and it is this
that expresses them in some kind of previously designed scale. Indirect methods infer the value
of attitudes based on the subject's reactions (observing their behavior).
Based on direct observationand in the results of a questionnaire proposed, the use that is given
to public spaces will be determined. Even by direct methods, personal interviews are being
conducted. The questionnaire used contains a series of open and closed questions, which are
focused on knowing the socio-demographic profile of the population and their attitudes
regarding the historical heritage of La Plata, specially the geographical axis involving the Plaza
Moreno. Four broad categories are established: questions aimed at defining the socio-
demographic profile of the population, questions that assess the knowledge that the population
has about the historical heritage that symbolize Plaza Moreno, questions that analyze the
affective component and questions about the behavior of the population with respect to the
object of analysis. The interviews are individual, semi structured, directed and with closed and
open answers according to the item.
The results obtained can be used to develop future proposals, aimed at improving the
assessment and attitudes of the inhabitants regarding the heritage of their city.If we take into
account that attitudes are acquired (they are the result of the experiences and learning that the
individual has obtained throughout their life history), it is known that they can change. The fact
that attitudes are learned makes education play a very important role in their formation and in
their change. We must still point out the important role of the State, as regulator and promoter of
such process (Figure 3).

 Fig. 3 – PRETEST Questionnaire

1) Age:_________

2) Gender: ( ) Male ( ) Female ( ) Other

3) Civil status: ( ) Single ( ) Married / Stable union ( ) Divorced ( ) Widower

4) Nationality: ( ) Argentina. ( ) Other. specify:______________________________

5) Do you live in La Plata city ( ) Yes ( ) No

6) Where do you live in La Plata (neighborhood, zone, other)?

________________________

7) How often do you come to Plaza Moreno?

( ) Once a week. ( ) More than twice a week
( ) Almost daily ( ) Rarely

8) What bring you up to this square? ____________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

9) Do you know La Place history? ( ) Yes ( ) No

If so, what do you know about it?
_______________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

10) How about the history on La Plata’s foundation, do you know it? ( ) Yes ( )
No
¿If so, what do you know?
_____________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

11) Whichbuildings drawn your attention the most in Plaza Moreno? __________________
__________________________________________________________________________

12) Do you think Plaza Moreno is La Plata’s heritage?

( ) Yes ( ) No Why?________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

13) What does heritage mean to you?

___________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

14) Other than Plaza Moreno, do you believe there are other places or buildings that belong
toLa Plata’s heritage? ( ) Yes ( ) No Why?
________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

15) For you, is it necessary to preserve heritage? ( ) Yes ( ) No

Why?_____________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

16) About Plaza Moreno, do you think it’s a preserved place? ( ) Yes ( ) No
Why?_________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

17) How “normal citizen” may help the preservation of Plaza Moreno?
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
 18) How public agencies may collaborate to preserve Plaza Moreno heritage?
_________________________________________________________________________

We would like to emphasize that the current stage of this research gravitates around the pretest
questionnaire, having the objective of introducing some questions and probing how interviewed
public will deal with the heritage thematic. Thus, until this research is finished, some questions
may be changed or eliminated, which highlight the introductory tone of the questionnaire. The
interviewed subjects will not have their names mentioned in order to protect their identity. To
avoid uncomfortable situations, we have opted to not identify their occupation and educational
levels, since some of them may feel troubled in reporting, for example, unemployment or lower
school levels. In short, the main goal of this participatory methodology is comprehend the local
feeling concerning Plaza Moreno and its symbolic importance to La Plata municipality,
preventing as much as possible situations that may generate intimidation to the interviewed
public, respecting each person plurality.
Based on the results of the pretest questionnaire, we will start a new phase of the individual
interviews. This, together with the direct behavior observation, will bring us to an integrated
analysis which will be presented in the final report, due to March 2019.

Interim conclusions
From the exploration of the experimental questionnaire, we see in the imaginary of the
interviewees a strong linkage of the heritage associated with the "monumental", in which
elements such as size and ornamentation of buildings, for example, show greater relevance. It is
also possible to see the association of heritage with something from the past, from previous
generations, as a kind of legacy to the present inhabitants. Incidentally, Choay, reflecting on a
similar logic, reports that "every object of the past can be converted into historical testimony
without having a memorial destiny at its origin" (CHOAY, 2007, 22)

Expected results
The present investigation understands that it is necessary to retake and/or generate a sense of
identification (identity) of the population with patrimonial spaces and buildings, with the
intention of preserving them. We believe that it is from a positive assessment of the heritage that
its conservation is achieved and such a situation is only possible if one understands how the
population relates to the urban environment, that is, understanding how it sees its city and what it
understands by its heritage. Upon reaching such an understanding, it is possible to develop future
proposals aimed at improving the assessment and attitudes of the inhabitants regarding the
heritage of their city. If we take into account that attitudes are acquired (they are the result of
experiences and learning that the individual has obtained throughout his life), it is known that
they can change. The fact that attitudes are learned makes education play a very important role in
their formation and in their change. We must still point out the important role of public bodies,
as regulator and promoter of such process.
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