Integrating urban conservation into urban planning

Abstract

In this chapter, we critically explore the evolution of urban conservation as a component of urban planning and governance. While built heritage governance has traditionally been dominated by a positivist epistemological perspective emphasising professional knowledge and intrinsic properties, conservation as an element within urban planning also intersects with wider societal values. These tend to be rooted in non-expert experiential knowledge, associative attributes such as symbolism, collective memories, place-attachment and place-identity, or manifest as nostalgia, and interconnected with intangible heritage. In this context, urban planning provides a key arena for regulating and mediating diverse heritage values. This chapter therefore explores the relationship between urban planning and conservation, charting key policy shifts, for example: from a focus on individual buildings towards the historic urban landscape (HUL); from top-down expert approaches to participatory methods; and from viewing conservation as a ‘cost’ to promoting heritage assets as an economic opportunity. The chapter examines key planning instruments for managing urban heritage, developing a policy typology comprising traditional regulatory tools, design-led frameworks, market-based instruments and deliberative models to explore heritage meaning and values. The chapter concludes by considering future directions in planning for urban conservation, reflecting on the tensions between exploiting and protecting heritage through urban planning.