L’etnografo e l’umanista. Calvino, Bassani e l’ambiente

Starting from 2008 the real estate crisis changed the approach to the development and transformation of urban areas more than many urban planning tools, effectively regulating the development and transformation of urban areas. In the new scenario, the role of the State and public institutions for driving the transformation of cities has gradually decreased, also due to the inefficiency related to the pachydermic and oxidized bureaucracy. Nowadays, urban regeneration – the transformation of existing real estate assets – is the new channel of intervention that is usually delegated to private initiatives: recovery of past industrial areas, railway stations and tracks, and existing (also historical) buildings. Talking about urban regeneration means shifting the focus on issues such as that of smart cities, favouring the existing urban fabric and, even more so, the historical city It also means taking care of the immense heritage of small historic centres, which must necessarily become an engine for rebalancing the territory and economic development, albeit “slow”. Based on an economic-urban combined analysis, this document illustrates the opportunities that urban regeneration can (and should) have on the housing market and society and which must be then the (good mechanisms) government by public institutions that are in charge of governing the territory, to achieve a reasonable balance between collective interest and private interest (without demonizing the income). Against the policy of unsustainable growth of new real estate development!

In the early twentieth century, America was transformed from a predominantly agricultural nation to one whose population resided mostly in cities. Yet rural areas continued to hold favored status in the country's political life. For prominent figures in the social sciences, city planning, and real estate who were anxious about the future of cities, this obsession with the agrarian past inspired a new campaign for urban reform. They called for ongoing programs of natural resource management to be extended to maintain and improve cities. Jennifer S. Light finds in the rise and fall of the American conservation movement a new understanding of the history of urban renewal in the United States. The professionals Light examines came to view America's urban landscapes as ecological communities requiring scientific management on par with forests and farms. The Nature of Cities brings together environmental and urban history to reveal how, over four decades, this ecological vision shaped the development of cities around the nation.

This article reveals the trends in the formation of tourist complexes in historical cities and protected areas rich in historical and cultural monuments; to study their impact on the formation of master plans and the preservation of historical monuments in the cities included in the tourism system, the types and categories of service enterprises, their location, as well as their high socioeconomic efficiency. Recommendations have been developed for the preservation and rational use and preservation of architectural, historical and cultural monuments.

There is evidence that a great proportion of the 100 historic cities and nearly 200 sites on the World Heritage List are located in the developing world. The question is asked how do these cities and sites fare against the population pressure, crumbling infrastructure and the eroding economic base of the developing world. Increasing recognition that sustainability has environmental, social and economic dimensions helps us understand the potential role of heritage conservation. Developing an approach to heritage conservation that respects these principles is increasingly seen as a fundamental responsibility. In fact, in many ways, heritage conservation and sustainability principles and practices fit together naturally. Historic Sites and Monuments in Kenya that are crucial to the country’s heritage are under threat because of lack of funds to preserve and maintain them. Some of these sites are included in UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Many of these sites including Fort Jesus in Mombasa need extensive rehabilitation works to protect their structures especially the external walls from natural elements like the sea waves of the Indian Ocean. Other sites have either been vandalised or have collapsed due to lack of maintenance, posing a danger to both workers and site visitors. Lack of community involvement has also made it difficult especially where building are gazetted as national monuments. The owners are prohibited to do repairs without permission from the National Museums of Kenya who are the mandated custodian of Historic Sites and National Monuments. The introductory section of the paper discusses the importance of conservation and preservation of a National Heritage. It further explores the main challenges faced in the conservation and preservation of historic sites and National Monuments in Kenya. The final part gives several recommendations. A major recommendation is in adopting measures that promote access to more funds for conservation and maintenance from the national to county governments through sensitization and awareness creation.Another recommendation is the community involvement in the conservation of the building and heritage sites in towns where they live and encouraging communities to share in income derived from local sites by the national government. The promotion of consultation is a critical part of the conservation decision-making process, ensuring that a transparent and open process is put in place.

Purpose – The adaptive reuse of sacred buildings presents a unique challenge and opportunity for urban and real estate development, addressing challenges posed by secularization, demographic shifts, and economic pressures. Despite the increasing emergence of these transformations, the socio-economic and cultural dimensions of repurposing sacred spaces remain underexplored in real estate research. This study addresses this gap by integrating interdisciplinary insights from theology, monument preservation, architecture, real estate economics, and social sciences to propose a common-good-oriented framework for sacred space transformation.Design/methodology/approach – Through a qualitative content analysis (Kuckartz, 2018), we examine over 14 interdisciplinary case studies and workshops, as well as expert interviews, and secondary data. By integrating the Common Good Framework (Mazzucato, 2023) and the Institutional Real Estate Development Process (Healey, 1991), this research seeks to expand existing real estate development models to address complex, metaphysical, and ""wicked"" problems inherent in urban redevelopment.Findings – Our findings reveal barriers and opportunities in aligning adaptive reuse projects with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 11, which emphasizes sustainable urbanization and heritage preservation. Results reveal that sacred buildings can serve as community anchors and drivers of urban resilience when redeveloped with interdisciplinary collaboration and participatory planning.Originality/value – To the best of the author's knowledge, this study is the first to propose a meta-dimensional, common-good-oriented approach to real estate development, integrating theoretical and practical insights from multiple disciplines. It provides actionable strategies for developers and policymakers to enhance inclusivity, sustainability, and cultural preservation in urban environments.

The real estate capital is one of the most resistant forms of the process through which the social surplus product was consolidated, making possible the phenomenon of cities as a gradual layering of the “traces” of a settled community. The complexity and complementarity between homogeneity of the urban fabrics and heterogeneity of the architectural shapes led to the multiplicity of functions that properties play, encouraging the expectations of the players of its enhancement process: administrations, owners, large and small investors. This paper focuses on the interpretation of the urban pattern of the historic city through the analysis of the housing markets. The research deals with the case study of the town of Syracuse, a multifaceted urban context from several points of view. The formal and functional articulation of this real estate market justifies the use of different, layered and structured analysis tools to identify sub-markets, deepening the relationship between value/price.

The Civil Servants Joint Stock Fund (C.S.J.S.F.), since its establishment in 1867, has invested part of its funds in acquiring real estate properties during the interwar period in Greece. The real estate selection was a very significant process for the Fund’s administration, investing on buildings situated in the historic center of Athens and designed by well-known architects. The fund also initiated the restoration procedures in order to keep its real estate up to date with respect to their importance as milestones of Greek Culture. This paper presents a part of the Fund’s heritage preservation policy and its extensive protection, conservation, restoration, and rehabilitation program; referring briefly to the historical and architectural description of the five (C.S.J.S.F.) historical buildings, in addition to the conservation and restoration projects for one of them; the Deligiorgi Residence, which was designed by the architect Ernst Ziller. The restoration work underlines the ultimate need for heritage preservation, and the importance of being sensitive to the historical character of the buildings, thereby improving their economic status and contributing to the sustainable preservation of architectural and cultural heritage within historic cities.

The policy networks of heritage-led development in Chinese historic cities: The case of Xi'an's Big Wild Goose Pagoda area

In this article, the preservation of the monumental built environment from the colonial period is related to and discussed within the perspective of heritage ownership. It contributes to a debate in which heritage resource preservation is approached and connected to several heritage ownership issues. It argues that an effective built environmental preservation policy for colonial heritage is strongly related to and dependent on issues such as legal property ownership, legislation on listed buildings, enforcement of such legislation, and the willingness among different categories of potential owners to participate and support such preservation. Especially, when it comes to built colonial heritage as an imported alien resource from a colonial past, these issues are particularly interesting and sensitive. A good illustration of these issues is the case of Paramaribo, Suriname. The national government policy following the inscription of the historic inner city of Paramaribo on the World Heritage List of UNESCO in 2002 clearly demonstrates an area of tension and difficulty between and within the interested parties. It shows that monumental preservation and heritage management and interpretation are strongly affected and determined by concepts such as ownership, affinity, interest, economic priorities, and political will. By referring to the actual problems encountered in the preservation efforts relating to the built colonial heritage in Paramaribo and subsequently explaining these problems in relation to specific ownership issues, this article throws light on a number of dilemmas. Conclusions are drawn widening the argument and contributing to the ongoing debate on heritage ownership issues and monument preservation policies especially as it relates to the global issue of managing the relics of now defunct empires.In recent years an increasing interest can be detected in issues concerning the legal property ownership of heritage. This growth in interest focuses in particular on the legislation in relationship to property ownership issues. An important aim of national governments is to use legislation to safeguard their cultural property by embedding it in law, especially, when this cultural property has a high monetary or identity value (as stressed by Fechner, 1998). Additionally, the growing awareness and recognition of heritage as a valuable economic, sociopsychological and environmental asset is receiving increasing international attention. For example, the international acknowledgment that heritage resources are under pressure from all kinds of processes and impacts has encouraged the need for an extension of international legal measures. Consequently, this international interest, often expressed in conventions, charters, and treaties, encourages national and local initiatives (Techera, 2011). An interesting complication to this issue is the question that arises where it involves the monumental built environment from the colonial period that is being preserved and restored, as it may be viewed as a heritage based on alien resources. In particular the acceptance, recognition, and role of what may be viewed as an imported colonial built environment in a multicultural and multiethnic context, may impact effective legislation. Although the discussion about the roles of heritage within a plural cultural and ethnic society has already begun (recently emphasized by Van Maanen, 2011; Ashworth, Graham, & Tunbridge, 2007), it is still an underresearched topic when it comes to legal property ownership as part of a management strategy for preserving built colonial heritage resources.This article examines in particular the effectiveness of policies and laws pursued in Suriname as an instrument for the preservation of resources. It highlights the legal and administrative challenges facing the implementation, management, and enforcement of these strategies and measures. The first part of this article examines the debate about the approach and strategy in using law in conservation and preservation policies. Then the article proceeds to introduce Suriname as an instructive case study. It describes the existing multiethnic context of Suriname and the evolution of legislative policy for the historic inner city of the capital, Paramaribo, with its monumental built environment from the colonial period. By using field data, the article continues with an analysis of the effectiveness and impacts of this administrative and legal framework established in Suriname. It examines in detail the main problems encountered and the extent to which this strategy is supported by the key stakeholders.

Ten years ago Dutch universities became owners of their real estate portfolios. Their real estate portfolios contain many academic buildings and laboratories. Some of the universities own (monumental) buildings in historical inner cities (Amsterdam, Utrecht, Groningen, Maastricht) and most of them have large real estate portfolios, both in terms or gross floor area and in terms of land property. Together they own as much as 4,5 million square meters (equals 48.5 million square feet) gross floor area and 4000 acres of land. Ever since the universities have dealt with many corporate real estate (CRE) issues: adding value to strategic management, coping with diminishing public (financial) support, improving customer satisfaction and managing many complicated building projects. Meanwhile developments in higher education and research created a very dynamic context with many uncertainties. Corporate real estate managers of all 13 Dutch universities joined forces to discuss the opportunities and threats of their new responsibilities and to generate more management information for their own situation. Delft University of Technology was asked to assist them with research projects that combined theory and practice - in an international context of managing university real estate portfolios n and has done that for more than 5 years now. This paper summarizes the results of 5 years of research on managing university real estate portfolios. It emphasises on the latest results (2004/2005) that focus on CRE-performance measurement in general and on benchmarking costs in relation to quality and use of buildings and real estate (data analysis in February/March 2005) in particular. The paper will contain theories n applied to universities but relevant for CREM in general n and will include results of quantitative and qualitative surveys, both on portfolio level and on (building) project level. Conclusions will concentrate on methods for measuring performance of CREM and for generating management information for CRE-managers to communicate and negotiate with policy makers, strategic planners, controllers, building users and parties in construction management.

GOTHAM: A History of New York City to 1898. By EDWIN C. BURROWS and MIKE WALLACE. xxiv and 1,383 pp.; maps, ills., bibliog., index. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. $60.00 (cloth), ISBN 0195116348; $24.95 (paper), ISBN 0195140494. THE HISTORICAL ATLAS OF NEW YORK CITY: A Visual Celebration of Nearly 400 Years of New York City's History. By ERIC HOMBERGER. 192 pp.; maps, bibliog., index. New York: Henry Holt and Company, Owl Books Imprint, 1998. $22.00 (paper), ISBN 0805060049. INVISIBLE NEW YORK: The Hidden Infrastructure of the City. By STANLEY GREENBERG. xi and 90 pp., ills., notes, bibliog., index. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. $34.95 (cloth), ISBN 0801805945X. MANHATTAN IN MAPS, 1527-1995. By PAUL E. COHEN and ROBERT T. AUGUSTYN. 176 pp.; maps, bibliog., index. New York: Rizzoli Press, 1997. $50.00 (cloth), ISBN 0847820521. NEW YORK: A Documentary Film. Written by RIC BURNS and JAMES SANDERS; directed by RIC BURNS; produced by LISA ADES and RIC BURNS. PBS Video, 1999. $139.98 (DVD); $99.98 (VHS). NEW YORK: An Illustrated History. By RIC BURNS, JAMES SANDERS, and LISA ADES. Xv and 575 pp.; maps, bibliog., index. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999. $60.00 (cloth), ISBN 0679454829; $35.00 (paper), ISBN 0375709681. RECONSTRUCTING TIMES SQUARE: Politics and Culture in Urban Development. By ALEXANDER J. REICHL. xii and 239 pp.; ills., bibliog., index. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1999. $39.95 (cloth), ISBN 0700609490; $19.95 (paper), ISBN 070060-9490. SELLING THE LOWER EAST SIDE: Culture, Real Estate, and Resistance in New York City. By CHRISTOPHER MELE. xvi and 361 pp.; maps, ills., bibliog., index. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000. $49.95 (cloth), ISBN 0816631816; $19.95 (paper), ISBN 0816631824. WATER FOR GOTHAM: A History. By GERARD T. KOEPPEL. xiv and 355 pp.; ills., notes, index. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000. $49.95 (cloth), ISBN 0691011397; $17.95 (paper), ISBN 0691089760. By destroying the World Trade Center towers in Lower Manhttan, the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 reminded US yet again of the fragility of great cities. Their concentration of people and activities has always made cities vulnerable to disruption by terrorism, warfare, natural disaster, technological breakdown, social disruption, and other forces. As a preeminent global symbol of U.S. financial power, media influence, and cultural dominance, the very skyline, the profile, of New York City became a prime target in the acts of savagery directed against America, eclipsing even the assault on the Pentagon, near the seat of national government. New Yorkers reacted to the 9/11 tragedy with an emotional outpouring of solidarity for the victims, often reflected in the poignant memorialization of public space (Figure 1). In addition to the carnage of nearly 3,000 lost lives, the World Trade Center attacks destroyed or severely damaged nearly 30 million square feet of office and retail space in Lower Manhattan, forcing 100,000 of the area's workers to relocate to other areas (Figure 2). The crippled public transportation infrastructure, which will take years to rebuild, put the Financial District's remaining 270,000 jobs at risk. New York City's economy stands to lose roughly $83 billion and 57,000 jobs over three years, according to an economic impact analysis by the New York City Partnership and Chamber of Commerce (NYCP 2001). As the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation debates various proposals for rebuilding Ground Zero, it serves us well to ponder the historical geography of America's largest city. In recent decades a growing literature has focused on the role of New York City as one of the dominant command in an integrated world economy (AbuLughod 1999; Godfrey and Zhou 1999; Sassen 2001). The global-city hypothesis posits that such transnational centers articulate financial transactions, corporate decision making, advertising campaigns, mass-media networks, legal and other services, and other political-economic functions (Friedmann and Wolff 1982; Friedmann 1995). …

A real estate market survey has been carried out within the old town of Noto, in order to describe the progressive increase of the property market prices performed in the last decade. A sample of 56 properties was analyzed by considering a large amount of characteristics grouped in a frame of five main features progressively detailed. Due to the architectural, historical and landscape performances of this urban-land context, many expectations influence prices and the kind of and exploitation of these properties, so that a further study concerning the costs of renovation, the rents and cap rates of the surveyed properties has been carried out in order to identify the economic, financial and monetary profile of each of them and some recursive rules for investments’ layout. A multi-layer clustering analysis was carried out to integrate two approaches, the empirical one sorting by characteristics, the analytic one based on the scored attributes.

<p>Nadmierna koncentracja ruchu turystycznego (overtourism) prowadzi do zatłoczenia atrakcyjnych miejsc oraz przereklamowania i agresywnej komercjalizacji, co obniża poziom estetycznych doznań turystów i skutkuje degradacją naturalnych i kulturowych zasobów. Efektem nadmiernej frekwencji turystów jest wzrost cen usług, mieszkań i nieruchomości. W miastach historycznych dochodzi przez to do gentryfikacji zabytkowych dzielnic. Celem pracy było ukazanie genezy zjawiska zwanego overtourismem, jego rozwoju oraz działań mających na celu ograniczenie jego negatywnych skutków. Artykuł został oparty na przeglądzie literatury oraz na obserwacji zjawisk towarzyszących nadmiernej frekwencji turystów w 2018 r., opisywanych w mediach społecznościowych i identy fi kowanych na terenie zabytkowej dzielnicy Krakowa. Omówiono negatywne skutki overtourismu obserwowane w atrakcjach i destynacjach turystycznych, ilustrując ten problem przykładami ze świata i z Polski. Proces gentryfikacji pokazano, posługując się przykładem Krakowa. Ponadto zestawiono opisane w literaturze i doniesieniach medialnych działania na rzecz łagodzenia negatywnych skutków overtourismu. Dotyczą one zarówno działań po stronie podaży ofert usług turystycznych jak i popytu na te usługi. Wskazano na potrzebę budowania kompromisu pomiędzy trzema stronami interesariuszy: mieszkańcami, turystami i branżą turystyczną.</p>

The real estate capital is one of the most resistant forms of the process through which the social surplus product was consolidated, making possible the development of cities. The gradual layering of these traces has given shape to structured and complex urban environments, characterized by the complementarity between homogeneity and heterogeneity. This led to the multiplicity of functions that properties gradually were able to play, and the expectations that these potentials have engendered in the players of its growing enhancement process: administrations, owners, large and small investors.This paper focuses on the interpretation of the urban pattern of the historic city through the analysis of the housing markets. The research deals with the case study of the town of Syracuse, a complex urban context from several points of view. Firstly, the city has a particular geographical and landscape planning; secondly the sequences of historical phases that have characterized its urban development; finally, the amount of public and private investments that over the past three decades have helped to make it one of the thirty major touristic destinations in the world.The formal and functional articulation of this real estate market justifies the use of different, layered and structured analysis tools to identify sub-markets and to place among them some unique properties as residual cases (gaps) or exemplary cases (overlaps). Those cases are traditionally considered outlier due to a relationship between value/price difficult to interpret in the light of the consolidated analysis tools.

This paper examines the reasons and the process that has led to the elaboration and adoption of a new tool for the preservation and adaptive reuse of the contemporary historic city. Urban conservation has developed mostly in the second half of the XXth century, and is now an established discipline. Urban conservators have at their disposal a system of internationally accepted principles of conservation, which is reflected in important international legal instruments such as the 1972 World Heritage Convention. Furthermore, elaborate planning frameworks are available, as well as the accumulation of an extensive body of experience over a century in different contexts. However, the system often proves to be weak and powerless in the face of the types of change that characterise our contemporary world and its urban scene. These are linked to urbanisation and environmental change, and to the shift of decision-making power from national to local governments, as well as from local to international actors in areas such as tourism, real estate or business. These forces are all pulling in different directions, leaving the urban preservation discipline often confused and in disarray, unable to take advantage of important opportunities. More than a decade of regular and systematic monitoring by UNESCO has revealed that many of the most important historic urban areas existing in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Islamic World have lost their traditional functions and are in the process of transformation that threatens to undermine their integrity and historic, social and artistic values. Urban planners are increasingly aware of the gap between the ideal world of conservation principles and the practical reality, especially in emerging societies, and are calling for new approaches and tools to tackle the new challenges. To respond to these challenges, a new UNESCO Recommendation, a non-binding ‘soft law’, has been prepared in cooperation with a large group of international experts from all regions of the world. The Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL), adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO in November 2011, represents the first heritage-related Recommendation in 35 years adopted by this institution and can be considered as the culmination of this process. The HUL Recommendation is currently being implemented in several historic cities in the world.