I am a social researcher and my work focuses on the political and socio-ethical nature of building(s), and in particular in the context of practices we label as 'heritage'. I have a background in architectural design, urban planning, and heritage studies, and research and teach across those areas. I draw on a variety of social and creative methods to explore the understandings people have of our urban landscapes, about what they are, what they do, and the ways they are cared for, about, and through. 

My co-edited book A Research Agenda for Heritage Planning, Perspectives from Europe is now available (gold open access), and was published with Edward Elgar Publishers in 2021. Direct link to the PDF

Find me on Google Scholar

Twitter: @loena

My research currently focuses on the question “Who do we (not) care for, by (not) caring for this heritage?” I explore care and care ethics perspectives to help us rethink the ways we ‘do’ heritage. Care – rather than just conservation – includes a much wider range of practices, for example, the maintenance, use, engagement, governance, and rejection of heritage. More importantly, I think care can help us think through the ethics of conservation and the way it reproduces injustices as it shifts our focus from materiality to relationality, on ongoing care-relations between people through heritage, and between people and heritage.

I am a co-director of the Centre for Heritage (previously the Heritage NUCoRE)

I am an advisory board member for the EPICA project

current projects

• Towards more inclusive heritage policies: ‘Blue Plaques’ in Tyne and Wear, with John Pendlebury and the Common Room of the North
• The Clayton Street Corridor: Engaging the grassroots arts sector. CTC team, PI Emma Coffield.
• CONSIDER, an MSCA RISE on the planning and politics of post-industrial cities (2021-2025)
• OpenHeritage (2018-2022) a ‘Research and Innovation Action’ funded under H2020), on adaptive heritage reuse practices and policies. In this project, we look at the practices, processes, and policies of adaptive heritage reuse. Our aim here is to experiment with co-creative, participatory, finance, and management innovations, whilst reflecting on them in a constructive and critical manner. With Martin Hulse, John Pendlebury, Ashley Mason, and previously Emma Ormerod, and Miranda Iossifidis. Our main case study is in Sunderland (UK).
  

past projects

• Diversities and Genders, Month Theme in the 'OurWorldHeritage' initiative, recordings can be found on the website as well as on YouTube with Tokie Laotan-Brown and Sophia Labadi (2021)
• Brexit and Heritage (2017-2018) PI John Pendlebury
• JPI PICH (2015-2018) Conservation planning in Norway, Italy, Ireland, and England, PI John Pendlebury

Postgraduate Supervision

Byung Choon Hwang Community-led heritage regeneration in Korea

Gulnur Cengiz Stories and landscapes: Sunderland’s post-industrial landscape

Katy Smith Coast and Country: Understanding Social Inequalities in Rural Coastal Communities in Contemporary England

Elena Balzarini Ecologies of the domestic threshold in UK multi-unit housing: investigating the spaces between domestic and public and their potential to foster inhabitants’ wellbeing and community-building.

As a Lecturer in Architecture and Urban Planning, I teach across the school of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, on undergrad and postgrad degrees, both studio-based and classroom-based modules.

In 2014, I obtained my Dutch University Teaching Qualification (VSNU, TU/e).

• Veldpaus L. Who Cares?. In: Taylor J; Institute of Historic Building Conservation, ed. Institute of Historic Building Conservation Yearbook 2021. Wiltshire, UK: IHBC; Cathedral Communications Limited, 2021, pp.29-32.
• Veldpaus L, Szemző H. Heritage as a Matter of Care, and Conservation as Caring for the Matter. In: Angelika Gabauer, Sabine Knierbein, Nir Cohen, Henrik Lebuhn, Kim Trogal, Tihomir Viderman, Tigran Haas, ed. Care and the City: Encounters with Urban Studies. New York: Routledge, 2022, pp.194-203.
• Stegmeijer E, Veldpaus L, ed. Research Agenda for Heritage Planning: Perspectives from Europe. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021.
• Veldpaus L, Kisic V, Stegmeijer E, Janssen J. Towards a More Just World: An Agenda for Transformative Heritage Planning Futures. In: Stegmeijer E; Veldpaus L, ed. A Research Agenda for Heritage Planning: Perspectives from Europe. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishers, 2021, pp.201-220.
• Veldpaus L, Wacogne R. Industrial heritage and conservation planning, changing governance practices, examples from Europe. In: Stegmeijer, E; Veldpaus, L, ed. A Research Agenda for Heritage Planning: Perspectives from Europe. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021, pp.75-86.
• Stegmeijer E, Veldpaus L, Janssen J. Introduction: The State of Heritage Planning in Europe. In: Stegmeijer E; Veldpaus L, ed. A research agenda for heritage planning: Perspectives from Europe. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021, pp.3-20.
• Veldpaus L, Krajewska O, Miah J, Szemzö H. Adaptive Heritage Reuse: Learning from policy and governance frameworks across Europe. ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, 2020. Available at: https://openheritage.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Open-Heritage-policy-brief-01-pages.pdf.
• Veldpaus L, Pendlebury J. Heritage as a Vehicle for Development: The Case of Bigg Market, Newcastle upon Tyne. Planning Practice and Research 2019, n/a, n/a.
• Pendlebury J, Scott M, Veldpaus L, van der Toorn Vrijthoff W, Redmond D. After the Crash: the conservation-planning assemblage in an era of austerity. European Planning Studies 2019, 28(4), 672-690.
• Veldpaus L, Bokhove Helma. Integrating Policy: The Historic Urban Landscape Approach in Amsterdam. In: Pereira Roders, A.; Bandarin, F, ed. Reshaping Urban Conservation: The Historic Urban Landscape Approach in Action. Singapore: Springer, 2019, pp.111-122.
• Pendlebury J, Veldpaus L. Heritage and Brexit. Planning Theory & Practice 2018, 19(3), 448-453.
• Tomka G, Kisic V, Veldpaus L, ed. Dossier Petrovaradin: Managing Historic Urban Landscapes. Novi Sad, Serbia; Belgrade, Serbia: Faculty of sport and tourism, Novi Sad; Europa Nostra Belgrade; Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the City of Novi Sad, 2019.
• Veldpaus L, Pendlebury J. Brexit & Heritage: report ESRC IAA funded workshop. Newcastle upon Tyne: Global Urban Research Unit, Newcastle University, 2017.
• Law A, Veldpaus L. Colonial nostalgia, growth coalitions and urban planning in China. Urbanistica Informazioni 2017, 272(Special issue, part 4), 400-408.
• Veldpaus L, Pereira Roders A. Historic urban landscape approach as a tool for sustainable urban heritage management. In: Asikainen S; Brites C; Plebańczyk K; Rogač Mijatović L; Soini K, ed. Culture in sustainability: towards a transdisciplinary approach. Helsinki: University of Jyväskylä, 2017, pp.61-73.
• Veldpaus L. Amsterdam: Heritage policy analysis tool for the HUL approach. In: The HUL Guidebook: Managing heritage in dynamic and constantly changing urban environments. Ballarat, Shanghai: WHITRAP, City of Ballarat, Tongji University, Federation University Australia, 2016, pp.50-55.
• Sobhani Sanjbod H, Hermans LMC, Reijnders DAH, Veldpaus L. Captain, where can we find the attributes?. The Historic Environment: Policy & Practice 2016, 7(2-3), 177-188.
• Veldpaus L. Heritage management and sustainable development in perspective: theory, law, and practice. Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development 2015, 5(3).
• Veldpaus L. Historic urban landscapes : framing the integration of urban and heritage planning in multilevel governance. Eindhoven: Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, 2015.
• Veldpaus L. Reconnecting the city: the historic urban landscape approach and the future of urban heritage [Book review]. Cultural Trends 2015, 24(4), 340-342.
• Veldpaus L, Pereira Roders A. Learning from a Legacy: Venice to Valletta. Change Over Time 2014, 4(2), 244-263.
• Veldpaus L, Pereira Roders A, Colenbrander BJF. Urban Heritage: Putting the Past into the Future. The Historic Environment: Policy & Practice 2013, 4(1), 3-18.