History, Culture, Identity
and the City
Overview of the Lecture
I . First part of the Lecture
• Conservation: Background
• Architectural conservation: beginnings and
evolution
• The language of architectural conservation
• Conservation charters
• Urban conservation: museological beginnings
• Townscape: the concept
• Culture
Overview of the Lecture cont…
II . Second part of the Lecture
• Urban Planning Context
• The pre-industrial city
• The mainstream of modern town planning
o The roots of a utopian vision
o The Garden City and the Modern Movement
• Alternative visions
• Urban conservation: mainstream beginnings in
the United Kingdom
• The character of towns
PART I - CONSERVATION
BACKGROUND
Architectural conservation: beginnings and
evolution
Definition of architectural
conservation
• Conservation has a much narrower
meaning when applied to historic
cities.
• The principal root is architectural
conservation, whose starting points
include
o Archaeology
o Geo-cultural diversity
o historical evolution of architectural
styles,
o building materials and techniques.
Architectural conservation: beginnings and
evolution
Definition of architectural
conservation
• Architectural conservation is
associated with the act of restoring,
conserving, and managing changes of
a particular heritage.
• It is a process that ensures the
significance of these structural icons
and enables their sustainability
Architectural conservation: beginnings and
evolution
Importance of architectural
conservation in preserving cultural
heritage
• The future generations that are to
follow can benefit from their physical
presence.
• Conserving the architectural heritage,
enables us to learn about our past
would not have been possible.
• For Example - Greek architectural
heritage conservation has given us a
taste of the architectural style that era
possessed.
Architectural conservation: beginnings and
evolution
Importance of architectural
conservation in preserving cultural
heritage
• The Conservation of such
architectural landmarks also helps
future architects and designers to
study the architectural experiences
• Possibly learn the art of employing
classical architectural elements in our
modern-day practice.
• Historical buildings also act as
overseas tourist attractions for a
large segment of the world
population.
Architectural conservation: beginnings and
evolution
Historical Background
• History of modern architectural
conservation has been traced to
Confluence of Christianity and
Humanism during the Italian
Renaissance
• Recognition of classical antiquity as
important for cultural continuity and
creativity
• Monuments prized for their
architectural, visual, historical, and
educational value
• 18th Century is the first era for
modern architectural conservation
Architectural conservation: beginnings and
evolution
The Eighteenth Century
• They call this century the Age of
Reason (or Enlightenment)
• Advances in sciences during the Age
of Reason in Europe
• led to the development of modern
archaeology and art history
• Concept of authenticity based on
reliable information sources
cornerstone of modern conservation
philosophy and practice, is a product of
that time.
Architectural conservation: beginnings and
evolution
The Eighteenth Century
• The Picturesque Movement and the
protection, restoration, and construction
of replica or false ruins for picturesque
value
• Custodianship and systems of protection
• Emergence of common ownership and
responsibility of important works of art
and other authentic manifestations of a
particular culture and natural Heritage
expressed through the World Heritage
Convention
Architectural conservation: beginnings and
evolution
The Nineteenth Century
• Spread of Romantic Movement and
recognition of cultural diversity and
pluralism
• Increasing importance attached to
national, regional, and local identity
• Preservation of historic buildings,
works of art, and other expressions of
individual geo-cultural identity
Architectural conservation: beginnings and
evolution
Evolution of Interest in Historic
Buildings
• Expansion from ruins of classical
antiquity to all architectural variants and
styles
• Inclusion of historic gardens, domestic
architecture, vernacular, historic areas of
cities, industrial archaeology, and the
Modern Movement
• Expansion to non-European cultures,
including indigenous ones
Architectural conservation: beginnings and
evolution
Turning points in the history of
architectural conservation
• French Revolution
• Second World War and its aftermath in
Europe
• European Architectural Heritage Year
1975
Architectural conservation: beginnings and
evolution
Traditional Building Materials and
Techniques
• Increasing concern to secure their use
in any intervention involving historic
buildings
• Study and awareness of traditional
building materials, constructional
techniques, and craft skills
Architectural conservation: beginnings and
evolution
Current State of Architectural
Conservation
• Architectural conservation has evolved
from
o partly educational and
inspirational,
o partly romantic and nostalgic
preservation of individual buildings
into
o A broad discipline supported by a
number of key international
governmental and non-
governmental organizations,
o It became the subject of numerous
charters, conventions, declarations
and manifestos.
The language of architectural conservation
Key Architectural Conservation Words
• The practice of architectural conservation employs a number of key words
• That have taken on specific meanings, changed over time, been used
synonymously, or been redefined from those in common usage
• None of which is helpful to a wider appreciation of what conservation is or
has the potential to achieve
• the importance of the language of architectural conservation
The language of architectural conservation
Heritage
Etymology of heritage
• Heritage is related to patrimony and signifies possessions and traditions that
are inherited and passed on.
UNESCO's definition of heritage
• (UNESCO) defines heritage broadly and well: ‘heritage is our legacy from the
past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations’.
• In this definition heritage is neither limited in time nor restricted to material
objects – whether they be historic remains, buildings, artefacts or whatever.
• Heritage is interpreted as the foundation of the present, the springboard for
the future, with the present generation as its custodians and the creative link.
The language of architectural conservation
Heritage
Limited meanings of heritage
• heritage has become a concept that relates only to history,
• that can be packaged for education and tourism, and
• that is perceived to be divorced from individual and community life today.
Consequences of limiting the purpose of conservation
• Limits the perception of the purpose of architectural conservation:
o first, for the preservation of historical evidence; and
o second, to provide fuel for the heritage industry.
The language of architectural conservation
Preservation, Restoration, and Conservation
• Triad of preservation, restoration, and conservation
• Older conservation charters and the ICCROM's use of all three words
(Interchangeable use of words)
• A formula derived by the Burra Charter (first published in 1979, most recently
revised in 1999)
• Preservation + Restoration = Conservation
• Preservation means maintaining the fabric of a place in its existing state and
retarding deterioration.
• Restoration means returning the existing fabric of a place to a known earlier
state by removing accretions or by reassembling existing components without the
introduction of new material.
• Conservation means all the processes of looking after a place so as to retain its
cultural significance.
The language of architectural conservation
Preservation, Restoration, and Conservation
Problem with the definition of restoration in the Burra Charter
• restoration is represents an enhanced form of preservation,
• It has little relevance in the case of historic buildings in use where new
material may be introduced
Addition of reconstruction to the triad in the Burra Charter
• To resolve the problem created by this definition, the Burra Charter adds
Reconstruction to the triad
• Reconstruction means returning a place to a known earlier state and is
distinguished from restoration by the introduction of new material into the
fabric
The language of architectural conservation
Authenticity
• A word that is used on the
international stage but is unhelpfully
and ambiguously
• Authenticity is defined in an ICCROM
publication (essentially in a European
context) as: ‘materially original or
genuine as it was constructed and as it
has aged and weathered in time’.
• Ambiguity of character and
appearance in the UK's protective
legislation and practice
Conservation Charters
• The philosophy and practice of both architectural and urban conservation
are informed by an ever-increasing number of national and international
charters and declarations
• There is a sense in which these documents constitute an essentially
intellectual exercise
• European tradition of philosophy and practice
• Product of time, place, and authorship
• Examples of reactive and proactive charters
• Common Thread of Conservation Charters
o Protection of selected buildings or groupings
o Concept of authenticity
• Expansion of values beyond cultural into social and economic
Conservation Charters Cont …
• Inconsistencies in Conservation Charters
o Design of new buildings in the surroundings of historic monuments
o Different Parameters in different charters
o Historical derivation as a characteristic of pre-Modern Movement architecture
• Key Conservation Charters and Their Contexts
o SPAB Manifesto of 1877
o Athens Charter of 1931
o Charte d'Athènes of 1933
o Venice Charter of 1964
o European Charter of 1975
o Washington Charter of 1987
Urban conservation: museological beginnings
Marais quarter, Paris, France
Brief overview of urban
conservation in Europe
• France is credited with initiating
the first major projects of urban
conservation in Europe,
• Enactment of Loi Malraux in 1962
and establishment of secteurs
sauvegardés in France
Urban conservation: museological beginnings
Marais quarter, Paris, France
Challenges faced by the city
• Former aristocratic quarter that became
an artisan district in the 19th century
• Dilapidation and poor living conditions by
the end of World War II
• Survey results showing lack of basic
amenities in the 1960s
Urban conservation: museological beginnings
Marais quarter, Paris, France
Secteur Sauvegardé Plan for the
Marais Quarter
• Comprehensive plan that
encompasses town planning,
architecture, and historic building
conservation
• Restoration of entire quarter to its
former glory, guided by a plan from 1739
• Key historic buildings and more
modest houses and apartment buildings
included in the plan
• Proposed uses for restored buildings,
including embassies, head offices of
large companies, museums, and
government offices
Urban conservation: museological beginnings
Marais quarter, Paris, France
Conservation Issues and Challenges
• Focus on restoring the quarter up to a notional ideal date in the mid-1700s
• Resonance with the work of Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc in the 19th
century
• Rigid blueprint approach to secteur sauvegardé plans initially
• Softening of approach in the mid-1970s due to challenges in finding end-
users for restored buildings, political concerns, and contested use of
architectural pastiche
Townscape: Understanding the Concept
• Townscape is the cornerstone of urban design,
• A discipline that runs parallel to architectural conservation in the urban context
• Forms a bridge between architecture and town planning.
• Gordon Cullen (1961) defines townscape as the art of coherent three-dimensional
composition,
• The individual components of any urban landscape
o the spaces and enclosures,
o the connections and closures,
o the vistas and views
• knit together to form a set of relationships the buildings,
o harmonious and contrasting,
o static and changing, and
o whose combined impact determines the physical sense of place and identity.
Townscape: Understanding the Concept
• Cullen appreciates that older towns and cities have been created over time,
• Usually organically, and that they embrace different periods and
architectural styles.
• Cullen’s treatise coincided with the publication of The Image of the City,
• Kevin Lynch and the Image of the City
• Analysis of how people read and relate to visual form in cities
• Five elements of mental image-making: paths, edges, districts, nodes,
landmarks
• Contribution of the Image of the City to city planning and civic design
Culture
Definition
• The beliefs, customs, arts, etc…, of a particular society,
group, places or time
• A particular Society that has its own beliefs, ways of life,
art…
• A way of thinking, behaving, or working that exists in a
place or organization.
Culture
• Is a key to make cities attractive, creative and sustainable.
• The heart of urban development– evidenced through
cultural landmarks, heritage and traditions.
• Without culture, cities as vibrant life space do not exist. It
is culture that makes the difference.
• It is culture that defines the city as – coherent social
complex, the collective body of all citizens.
Cultural Expression
• Give people the opportunity to identify themselves
• To read the traces of history
• To understand the importance of traditions for their daily
life
• To enjoy beauty, harmony and artistic endeavor
• These are fundamental social and human needs that must
be addressed in the context of urban development
processes.
Summary
• Architectural conservation has European, Christian, and monumental roots, and
has evolved over time to recognize the value of different building types, scales, and
geo-cultural diversity.
• The discipline is based on a scientific approach to evidence and involves value
judgments related to architectural and historic interest.
• The sequence of charters reflects attempts to reconcile architectural
conservation with other interests and pave the way for a multi-disciplinary
approach to urban conservation.
• Practical conservation prioritizes authenticity and the use of traditional
materials, constructional techniques, and craft skills.
• However, there is confusion and ambiguity in key elements of its vocabulary
such as heritage, preservation, conservation, restoration, and authenticity.
• Early approaches to urban conservation were criticized for being divorced from
wider socio-economic and town-planning context but the analogy between good
urban design and 'the agreement to differ within a recognized tolerance of
behavior' is valuable.
Part II - URBAN PLANNING
CONTEXT
Urban Planning: From Pre-Industrial City to
Modern Town Planning
Pre-Industrial City
• European cities of the pre-industrial era – whether they were planned at a
specific date or developed organically over time – held certain functions and
elements in common
Characteristics of pre-industrial European cities
• centers of power, trade, and social and cultural interaction
• They were clearly defined and compact – whether for defensive or
administrative reasons
Urban Planning: From Pre-Industrial City to
Modern Town Planning
Functions and elements of pre-industrial cities
• Few major buildings: a palace or castle; religious buildings; a guild or town
hall; and an exchange
• They were diffused with craft industries and traders
• integral with residential accommodation
• housed mixed communities
• further east in Europe, by religion and ethnic origin
• The market place was the focal point for trade,
• Sited strategically within a city so as to serve its citizens best and to entice
travelers passing through.
Urban Planning: From Pre-Industrial City to
Modern Town Planning
Relationship with topography and outlying communities
• Cities related to their topography and enjoyed a balanced relationship to
their locality
• Their sense of place and harmony was enhanced by the limited range of
local materials and craft
• skills used in their construction, sometimes reinforced by strict building
codes
• Their scale was essentially human, and they functioned socio-economically
Urban Planning: From Pre-Industrial City to
Modern Town Planning
Aspects of townscape in pre-industrial cities
• art of coherent three-dimensional composition
• traced back at least to the Italian Renaissance:
• order; views and vistas; relationships between buildings, public and private
spaces; and
• contrast between public ostentation and private intimacy
Hierarchy of activities and circulation in pre-industrial cities
• hierarchical organization of activities according to type and scale,
• Always in close proximity,
• primary and secondary circulation by horse-drawn vehicle or by foot
Urban Planning: From Pre-Industrial City to
Modern Town Planning
Urban Planning: From Pre-Industrial City to
Modern Town Planning
The Mainstream of Modern Town Planning
• Roots of modern town planning in the Industrial Revolution
• Concentration of factories in cities and migration from the countryside
• Migration from the countryside
• Use of coal as the primary source of power and heat for industry and the
home
• mechanical transportation of goods and people
• Harsh conditions of the Victorian city in Britain
o acute urban pollution,
o high rates of infant mortality, and
o Successive cholera and typhoid outbreaks
Urban Planning: From Pre-Industrial City to
Modern Town Planning
The Mainstream of Modern Town Planning
• Roots of modern town planning in the Industrial Revolution
• Due to Concerns for public health and working-class housing conditions Anti-
urban movement created
• These movements changed into new utopian vision
Impact on the theory and practice of planning in historic cities
• Denied the pre-industrial concept of urbanity:
• Denied the built forms and relationships that reflected it;
The Garden City and Modern Movement
• The principle of modern movement was separation of uses
• Interconnected by mechanized transport
• the answer to the problems of the industrial city and metropolis.
• Expressed by Ebenezer Howard (1850-1928).
• Simplistic geometric diagram for Garden City was first published in 1898.
• It was conceived for a population of 30,000
• They should be developed in cluster form
• Allocation of land in to separate zones for housing, recreation and industry,
interconnected by a hierarchical pattern of circulation and surrounded by
agricultural land.
The Garden City and Modern Movement
• Charles-Edouard Jeanneret (1887–1965), known as Le Corbusier
• Separation of uses interconnected by mechanized transport
• Plan Voisin of 1925 showed the demolition of the entire Marais quarter,
• which he described as a particularly antiquated and unhealthy part of Paris,
• Reconstruction as the new commercial neighborhood with eighteen
skyscrapers
• Rebuilding of a separate residential neighbourhood to its west
The Garden City and Modern Movement
Impact of the Garden City and Modern Movement
• Destructive Ideas that had a major impact on historic cities
• Slum clearance and redevelopment
• Comprehensive redevelopment programs aimed at focusing a limited number of
uses in city centers – primarily offices and shops
• The challenge of accommodating the motor car
Challenges in Recovering Historical Inheritance
• Current state of towns and cities
• The need for constructive and positive living in historical cities
• Recovering the coherent, embracing, pre-industrial sense of city living
Reevaluating the Garden City and the Modern Movement
• Criticisms of the Garden City and the Modern Movement
• Alternative approaches to urban planning that address their negative impacts
The Garden City and Modern Movement
Urban Conservation: Mainstream
Beginnings in The United Kingdom
Definition and Importance of Urban Conservation
• Urban conservation is concerned with those parts of the built environment that
are of architectural or historic significance.
• This includes buildings (individually or in groups), localities (streets, blocks,
environments or precincts), special gardens or landscapes, and other structures.
• Urban conservation helps to preserve the cultural and historical heritage of a
city, allowing future generations to learn about and appreciate the city's past.
Background of urban conservation in the UK during the 1960s
• The 1960s were formative years for the future of historic cities in Britain
• Attempts made at reconciling the emerging agenda of urban conservation with
the mainstream of modern town planning.
• It was a decade that set the scene for the idea of Urban Conservation
Urban Conservation: Mainstream
Beginnings in The United Kingdom
The Buchanan Report
• Concept of environmental areas and environmental capacity
• Indicative solution for the historic city of Norwich
Impact of major road proposals on historic cities
• Threats posed by major road proposals to historic cities in the UK
• Examples of major road proposals and their impact on historic cities
• Loss of proximity and increased reliance on motor vehicles
Challenges and solutions in urban conservation
• Reconciling conservation with modern development pressures
• Maintenance and preservation of historic building stock
• Disuse and dilapidation of formerly commercial areas
• Balancing conservation with tourism and economic benefits
Urban Conservation: Mainstream
Beginnings in The United Kingdom
Summary
• Modern town planning has roots in anti-urban traditions due to the harsh
conditions of 19th century cities during the Industrial Revolution.
• Two modernizing visions emerged from this experience: the separation of daily
functions into discrete areas connected by transport and a bottom-up approach
focused on integrating historic areas into modern life.
• The legacy of separate land-use zoning in the UK has led to a concentration of
commercial uses in historic areas, putting them under development pressures.
• Le Corbusier was iconoclastic towards historic cities, while Geddes and
Giovannoni sought to work with them and embrace constructive progress and
innovation.
• Geddes recognized the need for a balanced relationship between urban societies
and the natural world.
• The Buchanan Report and historic city studies in conservation seek to reconcile
opposing forces without questioning the underlying thesis, which values historic
cities primarily in morphological and aesthetic terms.
•
