Small Historic City Centers of Mediterranean Europe: Critical Points and Potentialities for Environmental Sustainability

Abstract

Conserving historic urban environments with a multidisciplinary and integrated approach is currently one of the most universally urgent and challenging cultural heritage conservation issues, that also deals with environmental sustainability. More specifically, Southern Europe small towns are progressively being abandoned, while they should be preserved with integrated studies and interventions, oriented to innovative solutions. The current conditions and historic resources of the Albaicin quarter of Granada (Spain), as well as of other small historic city centers in Italy, are being pointed out. A method for a comprehensive recovery plan approach of these centers is proposed, that should start from a territorial analysis, throughout different steps, such as: identifying existing assets; historical studies of their evolution; mapping and general classification of the built heritage; study of the accessibility of the historical center’s sites; a deep analysis of their critical points and opportunities and a critical valuation of the existing planning regulations. It is also important to outline the common mistakes which are being currently made, in order to apply corrective measures in the next future, based on a kind of “peer to peer” urbanism. This paper also argues in favor of numerous international projects, aimed at the renewal and resiliency of small historic Mediterranean centers, in order to foster good practices in their conservation worldwide.