Historical centres: changing definitions

Roberta Lazzarotti

Abstract


Since the end of the Second World War, the architectural and planning culture has been showing a fluctuating attention to the theme of historical centres and their enhancement. First of all this uneven progress explains the difficulty to reach a homogeneous definition and this is still lacking. During a long phase of this period, the historical parts of the town were considered as objects to be preserved in an integral way, as urban monuments. This is mostly due to the high symbolic value of these settlements, that represent fundamental landmarks. Identity building and empowerment of local communities are indispensable conditions for any development programme, especially in the case of centres or other historic environments at risk of abandonment. The progressive evolution of this concept brings awareness of the impossibility of separating – either in analytical or in planning terms ­ historical centres from their urban and territorial contexts, which are linked by mutual, deep relationships. This article attempts to retrace the steps signaled by the publication of international documents and conventions, from the Charter of Gubbio (1960) to the Charter of Krakow and the European Landscape Convention (2000); they obviously represent particular points of view, not exhaustive of the richness of the positions in the debate, but extremely significant in terms of diffusion and consensus.


Keywords


Italian Planning; Italy; Environmental Planning; Development Control; Development Plans; Strategic Plans; Strategic Environmental Assessment; Heritage Management

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Copyright (c) 2015 Roberta Lazzarotti

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ISSN: 2239-267X

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Quest'opera è distribuita con Licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale 4.0 Internazionale