Sustainability, Semantics and Contradictions in Heritage conservation: the case of concrete bunkers

Abstract

Sustainability in heritage conservation emerges today as a contested and evolving paradigm rather than a fixed operational principle. Reconstructing its genealogy from the 1931 Athens Conference to UNESCO policies, the study highlights tensions between universal ambitions, cultural asymmetries, and unstable epistemological foundations. Restoration is interpreted as a critical and interpretative practice shaped by specific historical, material, and cultural conditions. Through the concepts of recognition, responsibility, and “exception as rule,” conservation appears as a process of selection and negotiation rather than the application of universal criteria. The case of Albanian reinforced-concrete bunkers exempli!es these contradictions. Built during the communist regime, these structures challenge conventional notions of heritage based on authenticity and shared value. Their abandonment, reuse, and musealisation reveal tensions between memory, trauma, and contemporary transformation. Within this framework, sustainability in restoration must engage with the life cycle of artefacts, considering permanence, decay, reuse, and environmental impact as interconnected cultural processes. Sustainability thus becomes a critical practice capable of revealing the contradictions between conservation, transformation, and collective memory.