Sustainable Design in Heritage Sites: An Archeological Park in Argentina

Keeping the spirit of each place is the greatest challenge posed by interventions in heritage sites. The delicacy of the environments that host these sites entails that the adaptations required to serve tourism be conceived in full harmony with the surrounding context. This paper starts from the recognition that sustainable design, linked to the principles of sustainable tourism and particularly of ecotourism, is an operative and instrumental basis for the physical planning of sustainable tourism projects. The paper presents an application of sustainability criteria to the planning and design of an archaeological park, located in Quebrada de Humahuaca (a World Heritage Site in Argentina). Its aim is thus to expose the planning and sustainable design process that was carried out at different projecting scales, from the general zoning to the technological resolution of the park's facilities. It communicates the results obtained from the design experimentation and exploration, which were generated from the very local resources. As a conclusion, it is found that sustainable design allows the transfer of ecotourism principles to the physical planning level of the tourist activity. In this case, it is demonstrated that the setting out of sustainable criteria in terms of context, function, formality and technology is essential to help a sustainable tourist product comes to fruition. Success in conservation, protection and valuation of the existing resources in heritage destinations will depend on the degree of suitability of sustainable design measures at each intervention scale.