The Chorá of Patmos (Greece): Analysis of architectural heritage, identification of risks and assessment of impacts

The Historic Center (Chorá) of Patmos, located in one of the Dodecanese Islands of Greece, was inscribed in the World Heritage List in 1999. The morphological feature, the housing typologies and the building techniques that characterize the Chorá provide an authentic and astonishing expression of the stylistic and typological models of the vernacular architecture of the Greek islands. This paper presents part of the research carried out on the Chorá of Patmos, within the 3D Past project, funded by the European Creative Europe program. The first part illustrates the results of the research concerning the analysis of the material components of the architectural heritage of Patmos: the urban structure, the evolution of the main architectural typologies, the feature of the main building systems. The second part of the paper presents the application of the Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA), a tool for the management of site transformations and in particular for identifying, forecasting and evaluating the impact of potential development on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the properties. In the case of Patmos the application of HIA can provide an important contribution to manage changes and future transformations in order to preserve the cultural significance of the site and ensure its sustainable development.