TITLE:
Residents’ Attitudes towards the Built Environment in Historic Parklands in Nairobi, Kenya
AUTHORS:
Njiiri Wallace, Mugwima Bernard, Karanja Dennis
KEYWORDS:
Cultural Heritage, Attitudes, Values, Urban Conservation
JOURNAL NAME:
Current Urban Studies,
Vol.8 No.2,
April
7,
2020
ABSTRACT: Contemporary attitudes shaping urban areas are not
always sympathetic to the historic character of built heritage, meaning
heritage contexts are subject to loss of scale, visual quality and associated
values. This study sought to identify attitudes associated with this built
heritage in order to establish community values necessary for the urban
conservation of Historic Parklands in Nairobi. The Cultural Worldview (CV)
scale was used to assess attitudinal preferences for the built environment
among 302 respondents who were asked to rate 32 statement items on a 7-degree
Likert scale designed for responses. Statements with shared variances were
grouped together under factor analysis and the degree of variability within
shared variances distilled 3 attitudinal preference dimensions. From the rated
attitudinal statements, the identified preference dimensions included the
following; One, cultural heritage loss which scored a high mean of 5.29
perceived as the disappearance of architectural, historic and aesthetic values.
Two, cultural heritage recognition which scored a mean of 4.79 confirming that
heritage assets were acknowledged as important legible site markers. Three,
cultural heritage linkage which scored a mean of 4.34 supported by the
perceived associational, cultural and social values. This study recommends
three action points. First, a heritage monitoring database that assigns the
priorities of preservation, rehabilitation and adaptive-reuse to mitigate
cultural heritage loss. Second, buffer zones to classify and protect recognized
built heritage from unplanned urban growth process. Third, a heritage walk to
foster the interactions between residents, visitors and the host place in order
to reinforce the interpretation qualities of built heritage responsible for
enhancing history, community values and collective identity.