'Urban Heritage, Development and Sustainability' book review, Context 150, 07 2017 (original) (raw)
Related papers
Urban conservation has been a subject of academic and professional discourse for over three decades. Conservation in this paper is seen as an umbrella term that covers a wide spectrum of issues that can be classified under three categories: socio-physical, socio-cultural, and environmental concerns. It is also manifested as a process of evolutionary development which involves preserving, restoring, and adapting old structures, while introducing new ones; a process that respects the continuity of history and tradition, the needs of inhabitants and their cultural aspirations. This understanding indicates that urban conservation is a process of continuous yet controlled interventions in the environment. The extent and the degree of such an intervention is dependent upon crucial factors that include the value system adopted by the society, the resources available, and the cultural and environmental context within which such an intervention takes place. With an ultimate goal to discern lessons from urban conservation practices, urban rehabilitation and adaptive re-use is discussed with reference to a number of non-western case studies. The paper aims at exploring the merits of six conservation and rehabilitation projects which have received considerable coverage and recognition on a national and international level while they have not been put into contextual comparison with others. Merits of these projects are analyzed and highlighted in this article to work as an archetype for similar projects around the world. The paper concludes that to maintain sustainability of the revitalisation and urban conservation approaches, the typical urban tissue and essential qualities of the historic areas and of the life of the communities residing there should be maintained, while adapting the physical structures and activities to some of today's requirements.
'The Governance of Urban Heritage', 2015 08 (text)
The term integrated conservation first entered the lexicon of urban heritage in the 1975 Council of Europe European Charter, recognising that the future of the architectural heritage depends on the weight attached to it within the framework of urban and regional planning. Since then, the agendas of sustainability, sustainable development and climate change have entered the debate, and various attempts have been made to re-position urban heritage from a specialist to a mainstream activity in the European context. In ‘The Geography of Urban Heritage’, we argued that the quantum of urban heritage recognised and appreciated today underscores a level of responsibility for the maintenance and processes of continuity whose realisation is beyond the scope and capacity of a specialist field. Additionally, that the complementary values of community, heritage, resource and usefulness, harnessed to common purpose, afford a potent combination for responding to the challenge. That article promoted the thesis that for urban conservation to become a mainstream activity, heritage professionals need to nurture relationships centrally within the broad discipline of geography – the core discipline of urban planning; and reciprocally, geographers need to recognise the vital role of urban heritage beyond a limited perception of its compass. The 2010 European Union Toledo Declaration acknowledged the importance of urban heritage, and defined the multiple dimensions of sustainability as economic, social, environmental, cultural and governance. Governance at the municipal level is the key to integrated urban planning policy and practice. This article explores current initiatives in the field and proposes directions for further research and implementation.
URBAN HERITAGE AND SUSTAINABILITY IN THE AGE OF GLOBALISATION
Open Book Publishers (OBP), 2024
This book offers a deep exploration of architectural and urban heritage, using interdisciplinary and intercultural approaches to assess how historical, social, economic and political factors have impacted heritage development and its sustainability. It sheds light on the stakes of heritage conservation, management and maintenance in today’s globalised world. Through detailed studies of historic cities, the book explores both the tangible aspects of their built heritage (urban fabric, housing design, construction methods and materials for thermal comfort) and the intangible components of local communities (including identities, cultures, religions, values and ways of life) in diverse case studies in Egypt, France, India, Iran, Jordan, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia. By addressing not only urban and architectural heritage but also socio-cultural, environmental and political issues—including economic challenges and climatic concerns—this book is an essential resource for scholars and researchers across fields, including architecture, civil engineering, urban planning, sociology and philosophical anthropology.
Reimagining Heritage Preservation for Modern Urban Sustainability
LUGARIT, 2024
This article explores the evolving relationship between heritage preservation and modern urban development, challenging the traditional dichotomy between heritage and modernity. It argues that heritage, often viewed as a static relic of the past, should be integrated into the dynamic, everyday lives of communities to remain relevant and sustainable. The discourse around heritage preservation, currently dominated by elitist and populist perspectives, needs to shift towards a more inclusive and flexible approach that aligns with societal needs and economic realities. The article advocates for preservation strategies that stimulate the organic, ongoing interaction between communities and their heritage, ensuring that heritage sites are not just conserved but actively contribute to the vitality and sustainability of urban environments. This requires moving away from rigid legal frameworks and scientific formalities towards creating economic incentives and adaptive practices that allow heritage to thrive as a living process within the fabric of modern cities.
The governance of urban heritage
The Historic Environment: Policy & Practice, 2016
The term integrated conservation first entered the lexicon of urban heritage in the 1975 Council of Europe European Charter, recognising that the future of the architectural heritage depends on the weight attached to it within the framework of urban and regional planning. Since then, the agendas of sustainability, sustainable development and climate change have entered the debate, and various attempts have been made to re-position urban heritage from a specialist to a mainstream activity in the European context. In ‘The Geography of Urban Heritage’, we argued that the quantum of urban heritage recognised and appreciated today underscores a level of responsibility for the maintenance and processes of continuity whose realisation is beyond the scope and capacity of a specialist field. Additionally, that the complementary values of community, heritage, resource and usefulness, harnessed to common purpose, afford a potent combination for responding to the challenge. That article promoted the thesis that for urban conservation to become a mainstream activity, heritage professionals need to nurture relationships centrally within the broad discipline of geography – the core discipline of urban planning; and reciprocally, geographers need to recognise the vital role of urban heritage beyond a limited perception of its compass. The 2010 European Union Toledo Declaration acknowledged the importance of urban heritage, and defined the multiple dimensions of sustainability as economic, social, environmental, cultural and governance. Governance at the municipal level is the key to integrated urban planning policy and practice. This article explores current initiatives in the field and proposes directions for further research and implementation.
Built cultural heritage and sustainable urban development
Landscape and Urban Planning, 2007
Current debates about urban sustainability tend to focus on technical issues, such as carbon emissions, energy consumption and waste management, or on the economic aspects of urban regeneration and growth. Increasingly, however, governments recognise the contribution that built cultural heritage makes to the social well-being of different groups living within increasingly cosmopolitan towns and cities. Heritage is seen as a major component of quality of life, but the two main methods of identifying and protecting built heritage -the listing of individual monuments and buildings and designation of conservation areas -are unable to deal with less tangible features of townscape, such as street patterns. Yet it is often precisely these features that give a city its unique character and provide the sense of belonging that lies at the core of cultural identity. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to examine the role that built cultural heritage can play within sustainable urban development.
'The Geography of Urban Heritage', 2015 08 (text)
The heritage community has long faced difficulties with the theoretical as well as practical challenges of managing continuity on the scale of historic cities. Identifying individual components of the architectural heritage and selected areas for a variety of levels of conservation, from the benign to the interventionist, has largely proved to be the limit of attainment. In the generality of situations, where the survival of the components depends on their place within the whole, urban heritage is consequently at risk of suffering unnecessary losses. This is especially the case where the culturally sensitive historic cores of towns and cities are the primary focus of pressures for major change or redevelopment and counterbalancing policies are not in place to address those pressures proactively. Recent years have seen a number of reflections on urban heritage: notably, at the international level, by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Centre and the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). Deriving as they do from a vital but largely self-contained set of cultural heritage parameters and interests, their impact on positioning heritage at the core of urban planning and development processes has been limited. The essential human factor has not really been taken into account. With a focus on Europe, this paper looks beyond a paradigm founded on a limited perception of values to the objective of positioning the spectrum of urban heritage within the mainstream of urban planning policy and practice. This is a province dominated on a professional level by the broad discipline of geography, in which the urban geographer is the often-overlooked but essential ally for a constructive partnership. A second paper, in the following issue of this journal, takes the debate forward and addresses the governance of urban heritage.
Bridging the gap between urban development and cultural heritage protection
The integral management of urban development and cultural heritage protection, on individual basis, has proven to contribute to the sustainability of local communities. Instead, economic stagnancy was noticed when cultural heritage protection would overrule urban development. Paradoxically, the loss of cultural values and identity is likely to happen when urban development is prioritized over cultural heritage protection. The two major threats to cultural World Heritage properties are management deficiencies and aggressive development. Thus, the integral management of urban development and cultural heritage protection is far from being reached on general basis. Even though, this paradigm has stimulated academics to define more holistic approaches at both theoretical and operational levels, the development of tools and more appropriate methodologies to relate urban development and cultural heritage protection is still lacking. The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of th...