Heritage Contexts: Heritage, Voice, Process and the Everyday Welcome to MORE 2026

Researchers: David Littlefield, Kate Jordan, and Maja Jović 

The subject of heritage is typically taught in schools of history, archaeology or human geography. In Schools of Architecture, however, it tends to be considered in terms of conservation. Within our own School of Architecture + Cities, we are foregrounding heritage as a subject rooted in ideas of memory, identity, ownership, story-telling and belonging.

We described this approach at the UHC-HEI conference ‘Reshaping Heritage Conservation in Higher Education: What, How, for Whom?’, which took place in Shanghai on 25-26 October 2025. In discussing our approaches to teaching and reflecting on heritage in a city such as London (defined internationally by iconic symbols), we emphasised our attention to neighbourhoods and community-oriented heritage-making.

We spoke about how ‘heritage is understood as a dynamic process of actively constructed and negotiated narratives’, intimately connected to people and community. 

This approach has included relocating teaching to the Tower Tavern, a former pub owned by the university. The space is also being used to host community events including the practice of the ‘human library’. Paying attention to language and students’ lived experience, and researching the histories and heritage of everyday streets and spaces, the atypical venue has disrupted the assumed hierarchies.

KEY WORDS: heritage; pedagogy; identity; narrative