Cultural Resilience of Historic Urban Cores

Abstract

Many of the historic urban cores in India are found to be crumbling under neglect or under development pressures. The vulnerability of the cultural heritage in the historic core is related to lifestyle changes, stagnation, decay and outmigration towards new developments in the peripheries and new towns. In spite of these vulnerabilities, communities exhibit inherent resilience when the question is about an object or an act which they value. How does one evaluate cultural heritage – tangible as well as intangible? ‘Cultural resilience’ entails retaining the identity of the place and communities in a highly globalised world. These identities have been incrementally built by generations before ours. In the context of climate change, the discussions on the ecological impact inherent in the current models of demolition and new construction development are significant. The author subscribes to the idea that the resilience model of conservation and retrofitting of heritage assets to new age requirements, partially at least, relieves the pressures on our natural resources.