Urban Conservation and Sustainable Development

The paper examines the process that led to the evolution of the concept of urban heritage and to its integration in the frameworks provided by the UN International Development Agenda. It looks specifically at how the UNESCO Recommendation on the 2011 Historic Urban Landscape (HUL Recommendation) has helped developing the new concept. 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, dealing with intangible heritage (2003) and with the diversity of cultural expressions (2005). An important reflection on the conservation of urban heritage spearheaded by the World Heritage Committee has led to the drafting of the Vienna Memorandum in 2005 and later to the adoption by UNESCO of the HUL Recommendation, in 2011, prompting a broader reflection on the role of cities and urban heritage in cultural policies. 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.