‘Townscape’ as an approach to understanding one aspect of quality in the built environment has had mixed fortunes over the last few decades. Nonetheless, it remains a useful category within which the question of how places work at an aesthetic level can be considered. The problem has been, however, the absence of a comprehensive and relatively objective system for recording and representing the findings from townscape evaluation in the field. This paper presents the evolution of one such approach, and illustrates how it has been applied as part of a more general impact assessment research project to determine the effectiveness of the Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI) regeneration programme in the UK. The paper concludes with a discussion of the utility of the method for future built environment monitoring and evaluation programmes.

As a result of various social and economic factors, many historic townscapes in the United Kingdom and elsewhere have declined over the last half century. There have been many attempts throughout the world to revitalise such urban heritage areas, but the actual effectiveness of few of these schemes has been systematically evaluated. Good public policy choices would greatly benefit from such evaluation. The UK's Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) decided in 1999 that their Townscape Heritage Initiatives would be an exception. A research team from Oxford Brookes University was engaged to undertake a ten-year study of the £52 million being spent in about sixty British towns and cities. A sample of about one third of projects receiving HLF support are being scrutinised. The evaluation methodology is outlined, along with explanations of some challenges faced in such a large programme. The four mechanisms for gathering research data are explained, the origin and rationale for the sixteen indicators being employed are described, and the approach to overall evaluation outlined. Finally there is an overview of the baseline stage of the work, highlighting key issues from a research perspective, and briefly reflecting on findings to date.

In 2000, Brazil, as a nation, celebrated their ‘discovery’ by the Portuguese. Such an event was surrounded by contradictions and cultural meanings which impacted, briefly, on one of several ‘discovery’ sites, the town of Porto Seguro in Bahia. This paper focuses on the use of heritage interpretation techniques and community consultation to develop an interpretive programme as part of the town's upgrading for 2000. It examines some of the key influences on the eventual improvements and endorses the importance of a shared design process for the presentation of historic areas. The methods developed are currently being applied in a central area of the city of Recife, the intended subject of a second paper reflecting on the further development of interpretive planning in the Brazilian urban context.

La definición y la forma de entender el "patrimonio" en el Reino Unido y en el mundo (¿sobre?) desarrollado, tienen mucho en común. Similarmente, el proceso de recolectar, valorar y presentar el patrimonio. La literatura de la identificación, conservación, interpretación y preservación se ha expandido desde Norte América e Inglaterra a buena parte de Europa, y a zonas angloparlantes del mundo.

Abstract Each month in Britain marks a further, official, distancing from the past and its memorials, as we move closer to the selected Millennium marker. Heritage has a particularly low profile at present with policies for destruction of the House of Lords encouraging increasing ridicule aimed at legacies from the past. In terms of media coverage, at least, the heritage bubble has burst, as indeed it had to. As soon as modest, individual or community, breaths were marshalled into corporate puff, the sheer size of the national preservation and presentation enterprise hinted at its own demise. Nicholas Howard, he of Castle Howard, provided an appropriate caution in 1993, when he noted: Key Words: HeritageUnited KingdomMillenniumCollecting

Heritage has come to play a very significant, though largely unrecognised, role in the evolution of urban design. Central city heritage quarters are a major response to the development of the urban fringes, and have developed an internationally recognisable form. This paper examines the characteristics and assets of such quarters and also considers their impact on the urban populace, and their implications for future urban design work in the intermediate zone. Key Words: Urban DesignHeritage QuartersVisitor ManagementPublic SpaceTown PlanningUsers