The course aims at developing awareness on the notion of heritage both in relation to the man-made as well as the natural environment and landscape. By examining the characteristics of heritage and the need for conserving it, the module aims at developing the knowledge required to protect and enhance it. The issue is approached not also in as much as the local community is concerned but also in relation to develop the interest for attracting visitors and capital from other communities of different cultural and geographical background. In view of this need, heritage is approached both at the level of analysis as well as that of synthesis, based on the facilities offered by new technologies. Thus it is important for students to learn how to collect and interpret data and how to assess the positive and negative aspects of the areas in question so that they arrive at the best possible solution.

The module consists of lectures delivered by the course organizer and specific invited experts on the issues of the conservation of cultural heritage and landscape. Among other areas, these issues relate to archaeological sites, protected areas of all categories, traditional villages, historical town centers, cultural landscapes, landscapes of natural aesthetic value. Both the lectures and the discussion that follows it aim at investigating how the built environment may attain the meaning of heritage and how this meaning may be strengthened and conveyed according to the objectives set. This rests on the scrutiny of successful paradigmatic conservation cases in Greece and abroad. In addition to the above, students are asked to prepare a dissertation on the conservation characteristics and needs of a specific traditional settlement either in Mount Pelion or the Isles of Sporades.