The historic towns and town centres concept and the UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape: Is it a natural continuum or have we gone too far?

Abstract

Cities – Historic cities – Inhabited Historic cities; their protection, nomination and preservation are focus of this thesis. The UNESCO Recommendation on Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) adopted in 2011, and “Cronocaos” exhibition (Rem Koolhaas and Shohei Shigematso, New Museum NYC, 2011) which raised some criticism about preservation limiting contemporary architecture and urbanism interventions, triggered this thesis. This thesis, however, posits that new Recommendation is in fact a natural continuum of previous standard-setting documents developed gradually from mid-twentieth century to today, and is well connected to current trends rather than being too ambitious and going too far. A thorough study of HUL approach and new Recommendation, along with contemporary sources, provide an understanding of current professional discourse, and further supports this suggestion. The thesis findings illustrate that various aspects, such as setting, context, environment; social values and local communities; constant change, contemporary interventions, as well as integrated conservation, planning and management policies included in 2011 Recommendation were addressed by previous recommendations, declarations, and charters, dealing directly and indirectly with urban heritage. The new Recommendation expands upon some of these issues, clarifies others, and adds new ones. Furthermore, similar characteristics of cultural landscapes and historic towns as living properties, and relationship between two concepts, demonstrated by Operational Guidelines for implementation of World Heritage Convention, support applying landscape approach to HUL. By providing a traditional and innovative toolkit, 2011 UNESCO Recommendation, which is essentially a management plan, will hopefully minimize the gap existing between ideal world of “Charters” and practical realities, (2010 Preliminary Report). Overall Recommendation retains strong ties to former international standard-setting documents, demonstrating that it is indeed a natural continuum rather than a disconnected and overly-ambitious preservation trend. This continuum has potential to be integrated into twenty-first century environmental, ecological and sustainability approaches, and is thus appropriate for its time. Such integration holds promise for improvement of local communities' quality of life - of our life.