Significance of three-layered community involvement in the sustainable conservation of the Historic Center of Mexico City

How can we balance conservation and sustainable development in a metropolis? Urban heritage has continued to thrive and evolve as demolishing older buildings and constructing new is a norm of the cities. Historic Centre of Mexico City, a World Heritage site, is a typical case of such a continuously changing cityscape, running through phases of the lacustrine Mexican-capital of Tenochtitlan, Spanish colonial city, to current mixture of modernity and history. As its population continues to grow, it suffers from balancing development and conservation of the cultural heritage. Utilized for natural resources, sustainable development had evolved to include cultural heritage, but the question of how to apply culture in sustainability context is yet to be answered. When the two concepts merged in a hybrid unity, cultural heritage started to be redefined as “cultural resources” from the economic perspective. However, it created a gap between the economic characteristic of cultural heritage and the perception of experts in the field of conservation. Historic Centre of Mexico City is a complex case study of such balance. It is a metropolis and the economic, political and social centre of the Republic of Mexico, and the involved actors of conservation and development are numerous. Each street and building has a distinct guardian and the city is full of vivacious communities of business, residents, and visitors. Current movement of the government aims to involve “quiet” citizens to take actions in conservation of their patrimony. And businesses seek opportunities to regenerate the degraded neighbourhood for their economic benefit. With involvement of governments and communities at international, national, and local level, Mexico City aims to sustainably develop and conserve its historic centre. This paper aims to analyse such complexity of the Historic Centre of Mexico City.