Reshaping Urban Conservation

This volume focuses on the implementation of the 2011 UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL approach), designed to foster the integration of heritage management in regional and urban planning and management, and strengthen the role of heritage in sustainable urban development.Earlier publications and research looked at the underlying theory of why the HUL approach was needed and how this theory was developed and elaborated by UNESCO. A comprehensive analysis was carried out in consultation with a multitude of actors in the twenty-first-century urban scene and with disciplinary approaches that are available to heritage managers and practitioners to implement the HUL approach.This volume aims to be empirical, describing, analyzing, and comparing 28 cities taken as case studies to implement the HUL approach. From those cases, many lessons can be learned and much guidance shared on best practices concerning what can be done to make the HUL approach work.Whereas the previous studies served to illustrate issues and challenges, in this volume the studies point to innovations in regional and urban planning and management that can allow cities to avoid major conflicts and to further develop in competitiveness. These accomplishments have been possible by building partnerships, devising financial strategies, and using heritage as a key resource in sustainable urban development, to name but a few effective strategies.For these reasons, this volume is primarily pragmatic, linked to the daily work and challenges of practitioners and administrators, using specific cases to assess what was and is good about current practices and what can be improved, in accordance with the HUL approach and aims.

Historic Urban Landscape is a new approach to urban heritage management, promoted by UNESCO, and currently one of the most debated issues in the international preservation community. However, few conservation practitioners have a clear understanding of what it entails, and more importantly, what it can achieve. Examples drawn from urban heritage sites worldwide – from Timbuktu to Liverpool Richly illustrated with colour photographs Addresses key issues and best practice for urban conservation

This book offers a comprehensive overview of the intellectual developments in urban conservation. The authors offer unique insights from UNESCO's World Heritage Centre and the book is richly illustrated with colour photographs. Examples are drawn from urban heritage sites worldwide from Timbuktu to Liverpool to demonstrate key issues and best practice in urban conservation today. The book offers an invaluable resource for architects, planners, surveyors and engineers worldwide working in heritage conservation, as well as for local authority conservation officers and managers of heritage sites.

More than half of the world’s population now live in urban areas, and cities provide the setting for contemporary challenges such as population growth, mass tourism and unequal access to socio-economic opportunities. Urban Heritage, Development and Sustainability examines the impact of these issues on urban heritage, considering innovative approaches to managing developmental pressures and focusing on how taking an ethical, inclusive and holistic approach to urban planning and heritage conservation may create a stronger basis for the sustainable growth of cities in the future. This volume is a timely analysis of current theories and practises in urban heritage, with particular reference to the conflict between, and potential reconciliation of, conservation and development goals. A global range of case studies detail a number of distinct practical approaches to heritage on international, national and local scales. Chapters reveal the disjunctions between international frameworks and national implementation and assess how internationally agreed concepts can be misused to justify unsustainable practices or to further economic globalisation and political nationalism. The exclusion of many local communities from development policies, and the subsequent erosion of their cultural heritage, is also discussed, with the collection emphasising the importance of ‘grass roots’ heritage and exploring more inclusive and culturally responsive conservation strategies. Contributions from an international group of authors, including practitioners as well as leading academics, deliver a broad and balanced coverage of this topic. Addressing the interests of both urban planners and heritage specialists, Urban Heritage, Development and Sustainability is an important addition to the field that will encourage further discourse.

Report presents a series of analyses and recommendations for fostering the role of culture for sustainable development. Drawing on a global survey implemented with nine regional partners and insights from scholars, NGOs and urban thinkers, the report offers a global overview of urban heritage safeguarding, conservation and management, as well as the promotion of cultural and creative industries, highlighting their role as resources for sustainable urban development. Report is intended as a policy framework document to support governments in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Urban Development and the New Urban Agenda.

The 1960s and 1970s saw a marked change in the approach to built heritage conservation. From a focus on the preservation of individual buildings, attention turned to the conservation, regeneration, and reuse of entire historic districts. A key player in this process was the Belgian art and architecture historian Raymond Lemaire (1921–1997), yet beyond those in conservation circles few people know of his work and influence or even recognize his name. In this book, Claudine Houbart traces how the change came about and the role played by Lemaire. She describes his work and influence and in so doing provides a history of urban conservation over the last four decades of the twentieth century and beyond. The first chapter summarizes Lemaire’s background from his training during the Second World War and his work as a Monuments Man immediately after the war, to his role in the drafting of the Venice Charter and his appointment as Secretary General of ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites). The next chapter describes the rehabilitation of Great Beguinage in Louvain. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the project was directed by Lemaire and is a perfect example of the restoration of an entire district. The following chapter provides case studies of his work in Brussels, demonstrating his methodology in action. The final chapter discusses the transposition of the model of the historic city to urban projects and summarizes Lemaire’s influence on heritage conservation today, particularly integrated conservation. His participation in drafting key conservation documents sponsored by the Council of Europe, UNESCO and ICOMOS, and his desire to revise the Venice Charter are discussed. The book’s conclusion reflects on what has gone before, ending aptly with Lemaire’s own words ‘the past, properly understood, is one of the references for judging the value of today and tomorrow’.

This book examines heritage-led regeneration and decision-making processes in Tokyo’s urban centres of Nihonbashi and Marunouchi. Detailing some of the city’s most prominent and recent redevelopment projects, Jiewon Song recognizes key institutions and actors; their collective actions as placemakers; and how they project the authenticity of urban places in planning processes. Song argues that heritage-led regeneration tends to monopolize authenticity by weakening the visibility of other cultural and historic qualities in urban places. Authenticity consequently turns into a singular entity leading to the homogenization of urban places. As cities increasingly seek authenticity in the urban age, nation-states initiate top-down processes to achieve such ends, interweaving nationalism and national narratives into placemaking practices. In this fashion, Song challenges existing scholarship on urban conservation, global cities and the notion of authenticity.

In cities around the world, urban culture is threatened as commercial pressures overwhelm concerns for architectural integrity. Recognizing that isolated efforts at architectural renovation do not automatically restore the historic integrity of cities, planners are now seeking new methods and tools to save the structure and history of cities. In this book, Nahoum Cohen establishes the emerging discipline of urban conservation as crucial to the future of urban planning and to the survival of cities into the 21st century.