Reshaping Urban Conservation

The paper examines the process that led, throughout over 30 years of policy evolution, to the integration of culture in the International Development Agenda. It also looks at how the Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL Recommendation) has reflected the new policy framework and has transferred it into the field of urban conservation. From the Decade for Cultural Development (1988–1997) to Agenda 2030 adopted by the United Nations in 2015, a major shift has occurred in cultural policies. During the 1990s and the 2000s, several important innovations have come about, ranging from the adoption of two new international conventions, for intangible heritage (2003) and the diversity of cultural expressions (2005). Parallel to this shift, the World Heritage Convention has evolved, with the inclusion of new heritage types such as cultural landscapes. Within this Convention a debate on the conservation of urban heritage has led to the Vienna Memorandum of 2005 and later to the adoption by UNESCO of the HUL Recommendation. This has prompted a broader reflection on the role of cities and urban heritage in cultural policies, currently under way. The adoption of the New Urban Agenda in 2016 has opened up new perspectives on urban heritage policies and on the role of culture in promoting urban regeneration and resilience.