Abstract
Based on the concepts of culture, territory, integrated conservation, and sustainability, this article analyses the meaning of social participation in the recognition, appropriation, preservation, and enhancement of cultural heritage. The object of analysis is the Manguinhos Historical Architectural Site, at Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, and its Requalification Plan, which aims to transform it into a "park campus." A diagnostic study was conducted of social participation in this heritage, which found that greater participation should be encouraged if the complex is to be consolidated as science and health heritage and also appropriated by the territory as an asset of symbolic, cognitive, and identity values and a structuring element for sustainable development.