Assif:
Kinderdijk - the quintessential Dutch landscape, which demonstrates traditional flour production.
All the mills at Kinderdijk are for pumping water. This not the case for all Windmills in NL - the famous group at Zaanse Schans, for instance, were Mustard mills, Saw mills and Dye mills. So we have 2 WHS in NL for getting rid of water - this using wind technology and the Ir D.F. Woudagemaal using steam pumps. Beemster Polder also includes water pumping windmills. I would choose Kinderijk for a YES over both Schokland and Beemster as covering land reclamation and giving us a "traditional" essentially "Dutch" landscape with associated canals for channelling, controlling and disposing of water from an area below sea level..
As for the rest
-Aflaj - NO -we have a number of dry landscape water management WHS (also Mzab, Shushtar, Bam etc). I prefer Shushtar over this one.
-Padre Tembleque - NO - water management by Spain in its new colonies is a bit too niche - and is almost certainly (??) represented in one or other of the colonial towns anyway
-Centennial Hall, Wroclaw - MAYBE - is "fishing" in several ponds - one for its technology and another for its role as a purpose-built public space for exhibitions etc. Only on the former might it be significant "
In this development, Max Berg's Centennial Hall is an avantgarde structure which opens new grounds in the use of the materials and in spatial conceptions. It is the largest dome structure in reinforced concrete built before the First World War" .... (and ....anticipates the large reinforced concrete structures in later 20th century, e.g. by Pier Luigi Nervi in Italy and others
around the world (ICOMOS).
-Curonian Spit (Why here?) - NO - This is another of those sites whose inscription logic crumbles (or at least is shown as inconsistent) on deeper investigation. Although nominated on mixed criteria it is actually inscribed solely on a single Cultural one. I cannot find the negative IUCN evaluation but the WHC decision states
"Concerning natural values, the Committee noted that the Curonian Spit is an important site at the European scale and very significant within the Baltic Region as a whole. However, it was not considered to meet the criteria for inscription on the World Heritage List as a natural property." And the cultural OUV? "
The Curonian Spit is an outstanding example of a landscape of sand dunes that is under constant threat from natural forces (wind and tide). After disastrous human interventions that menaced its survival the Spit was reclaimed by massive protection and stabilization works begun in the 19th century and still continuing to the present day.".
-Moscow Kremlin - YES. Incontrovertible but interesting that this is the only Category it has been assigned to!
-Madara Rider (Why here?)- NO - not really very significant and Bulgaria did well to get it inscribed so early in the history of WHS! It perhaps really ought to be considered with the Pictographs/glyphs?
-Margravial Opera House, Bayreuth - NO - There are opera houses in other sites and I find this provincial example standing on its own a bit too "niche"even if it does have some uncommon and rather fine features
-Sokolovic Bridge - NO - All a bit "regional". It doesn't represent anything new technologically. Its comparators are all part of wider WHS. ICOMOS AB states
"The Višegrad Bridge is one of the major historic edifices of the Balkans and the South-East of Europe. In stylistic terms, it is emblematic of the Classical Ottoman period of the 16th century, and it offers parallels with the bridges of the Renaissance. The construction and assembly details are similar. Like the Renaissance bridges, it bears witness to the long duration of the influences of Roman antiquity on bridge building in Europe and the Middle East. The Višegrad Bridge is exactly contemporaneous with the Santa Trinita Bridge in Florence," - Mt Qingcheng)/Dujiangyan - MAYBE - yet another "water management" site. From quite early on (256BC) and a different geographical area from others we are considering. I feel that we probably have enough of these?
-Palau de la Musica Catalana/Hospital de Sant Pau - NO - Fine buildings (I visited in Oct for the first time. But I don't see them as having quite enough to be included to represent the period/ Barcelona etc
-Shushtar - MAYBE - I suspect that none of us know a great deal about this site!!
-Su Nuraxi (Why here?)
-Sydney Opera House - YES - its distinctiveness and its resultant iconic status around the World - as well perhaps as its "representation" of post colonial European Australia would seem to make it an essential inclusion
-Westminster - YES - even if the Religious aspects of this site aren't regarded as quite "cutting it" this "Mother of Parliaments" with its representation of the journey towards "parliamentary democracy" across many centuries would seem to clinch it