Lower and Higher Urban Quality Cycles in Urban Heritage Areas: Rejuvenation vs. Conservation

Abstract

Urban heritage areas throughout the world have experienced cycles of neglect and upgrade that were at times intentional and at other times due to economic difficulties or an unbalanced ideological focus on technological, social or political developments. Modernism of the early and mid-1900s was clearly against keeping heritage areas as they were perceived to hinder future developments. Postmodernist thinking afterwards was more sympathetic to heritage as a means of countering the ‘placelessness’ of the modern city. Global appreciation of urban heritage and the world's cultural diversity at the end of the century made the occurrence of ‘physical neglect’ cycles very unlikely in the future. This research paper takes the stand that urban planners and designers face cycles of higher or lower urban quality instead of neglect and upgrade cycles in the future of urban heritage areas. The concept of higher/lower urban quality is authenticated in a newly urbanized community that did not experience many cycles of physical neglect and upgrade to demonstrate a clear picture of lower and higher urban quality. This research paper presents the case of Sharjah City as an example of the rarely researched urban environments of the Arabian/Persian Gulf cities that resemble many other urban environments in the developing world. It discusses the corresponding urban design interventions in response to these higher-lower urban quality cycles. Lessons learned from Sharjah City's heritage areas might be widely applicable in other parts of the developing world since the same life cycles might be expected under similar conditions of rapid urbanization. In addition, urban design interventions to integrate Sharjah City's heritage area into the city's modern urban structure provide noteworthy lessons from which other heritage areas might benefit.