Author(s)

ALEJANDRO ACOSTA COLLAZO

Abstract

The strategic foundation of Mexican cities at the beginning of the 16th century allowed economic administration and enabled mining facilities, as well as mineral transportation from inland territories to Veracruz port, and at the end of the crossings to the Port of Cadiz Bay, Spain, through maritime transportation. These circumstances were the seed of cultural values – in addition to Pre-Columbian civilizations – that detonated cities development, but also historic elements worth analysing in the present time, e.g. the Royal Mining Road. Afterward, industrialization processes became relevant to urban growth. Nowadays and during the last decade, the use of electronic devices and the cyberspace have allowed people enormous possibilities of interaction with unknown places. The increasing information on the internet permits several ways of organizing data so people can learn valuable facts about cultural heritage sites, such as buildings and industrial solutions to solve quotidian life challenges as details of human existence. Augmented reality is a tool that can improve understanding of cultural heritage sites. Web surfers can visit a museum and interact with objects and learning experiences. The main purpose of this paper is to analyse several points of views – in a diverse range of ages – to determine how we make social constructs of cultural heritage by augmented reality, but also to define if these tools can be of help for a sustainable city management, addressing the three major variables: environment, economy and especially society. The results of the questionnaires, based on a statistical method, helped us define the interpretation of the past becoming accurate with the use of augmented reality in museums and schools, but also conclude if people become more sensible about historic preservation through industrial archaeology facts and architectural evidences. The paper shows what happens in Mexico in order to illustrate general principles in Ibero-America.

Keywords

sustainable city, preservation, social constructs, heritage sites