About the project

The transdisciplinary research project HEI-TRANSFORM connects professionals from the most renowned Slovenian educational and research institutions in thirteen fields - from heritage specialists researching and protecting heritage and tending to its accessibility, to economists, sociologists and tourism profesionalls, who help communities harness the hidden potential of delapidated buildings, remains, areas and landscapes.

Based on research, examples of good practice and four study cases from local environments we will develop a new approach to allow local communities, investors and researchers to better manage the heritage which has until now lacked an appropriate function. The results will be an important basis for including heritage in the sustainable development of local environments and will support anyone who recognises the opportunity of adapting and reusing immobile cultural heritage.

Immobile cultural heritage is an important capital in the sustainable transformation of Slovenia. Its key advantages are described in a number of strategic documents at the national as well as European and global level. The research project Heritage for Inclusive Sustainable Transformation - HEI-TRANSFORM is the key study and action that can serve as base for the development of more thorough guidelines and concrete measures for revitalistion of abandoned heritage and heritage where the current use is not appropriate.

Between October 2023 and September 2025 over 30 researchers from ten research organisations (RO) are going to prepare fundamental research of state-of-the-art in the field of heritage protection, analyse examples of good practice and use four concrete and diverse case studies to identify a vast number of variables used to guide immobile cultural heritage protection procedures, and aim to increase its competitiveness and direct involvement of local communities. The study connecting ten research organisations was conceived by the The Interdisciplinary and Interfaculty Institute of the University of Ljubljana for Sustainable Protection of Heritage (ITD UL).

The results of this research are going to be applied to four actual situations and through RevitLabs used to try out as many different tools as possible. The goal is not only to define the factors needed to protect and revitalise abandoned heritage - the buildings, remains, areas and parts of landscapes: it includes the development of concrete content, programmes and projects that can provide local communities as paragon of sustainable development.

A series of research connecting thirteen fields - architecture, economy, urban planning, archaeology, ethnology, cultural anthropology, art history, history, civil engineering, geography, sociology, psychology and tourism - will consider a number of parameters that affect the successful implementation of adaptive reuse of abandoned heritage and its inclusion in active life. The approaches that prove to be the most effective in our environment will be presented at the end of the project and as a tool named Cultural Heritage 4.0 proposed to those local communities, investors and decision makers who are aware of the role and investment opportunities of inclusive and sustainable solutions.

1.

Establishing a basic research infrastructure for heritage research that will be made freely available to researchers and will support transdisciplinary research.

2.

Demonstrating that ICH is a source of sustainable capital for the realisation of a green transformation and a sustainable future for Slovenia.

3.

Defining the role of ICH for the development of smaller local communities and demonstrating its sustainable development potential.

4.

Thorough analysis of existing planning and management approaches and tools for the revitalisation and reactivation of derelict ICH through adaptive re-use.

5.

Designing and testing the Cultural Heritage 4.0 model that will build on existing approaches and tools, and customising and testing the Conservation 3.0 model for a specific Slovenian context in a way that will allow all stakeholders to comprehensively compare the future potential of adaptive re-use for ICH sites and buildings.

6.

Integrating the research results and newly produced knowledge directly into the study process, enabling the involvement of the three largest Slovenian universities.