The topic of this presentation is the discussion about the liminal and vague spaces that can be interpreted as everyday urban heritage. These places are waiting for the reconstruction and may seem as forgotten or neglected. We examine the meanings of these blind spots of the urban structure and their transformation processes. Methodologically we have used sensory ethnography to collect the experiences and memories of liminal spaces experienced by the citizens. As a theoretical concept, we have used spatial empathy to interpret the experiences connected to these blind spots of the city.

The University of Tokyo is the oldest university in Japan, and the Hongo Campus is its oldest campus. More than 160 manhole covers embossed with the prewar name “Tokyo Imperial University” or its abbreviation “Teidai” remain on the Hongo Campus, where they have also become a tourist resource.

The Hongo Campus retains many historic buildings that escaped damage from disasters such as the Great Kantō Earthquake and the Tokyo air raids during the Second World War. The “Teidai” manhole covers likewise constitute part of this surviving heritage; however, their significance has received little recognition to date.

This presentation first provides an overview of the existing “Teidai” manhole covers, and then discusses their relationship with major disasters, the postwar student movements (including the period of the global student movements of the late 1960s), and contemporary society, in order to demonstrate the significance of the “Teidai” manhole covers.

The Gründerzeit housing stock (GHS), built during the Austro-Hungarian Empire, shapes the urban fabric of Budapest. Although this heritage is historically and socially significant, the GHS located in partially marginalised neighbourhoods suffers from neglect, demolition or insufficient preservation, lack of recognition and public financial means. In the last decades, this housing stock, experienced changes in functions associated with tourism expansion, such as hotel conversion or platform urbanism, as well as demolition harnessed to developers’ agendas and lack of protection from public authorities. This paper aims at doing two things: first it discusses “marginal heritage” as a theoretical and analytical tools for investigating new forms of relational heritage, and, second, exemplify it by presenting forms of resistance through the work of the 8th district museum and its ability to connect and mediate the residents’ community with the intangible meanings associated with these historic buildings.