Fitting Contemporary Architecture into Historic Cities
an article by Joanne Tawfilis

In a time of rapid environmental change, the mission of the UNESCO World Heritage Center (WHC) is to encourage international cooperation in the conservation of our world's cultural and natural heritage. This goal is one step closer with the spirited discussion at the international conference on World Heritage and Contemporary Architecture sponsored by WHC. There are about 200 cities holding the WHC designation of historic cities and urban centers.

The 16th Century Mostar Bridge, destroyed by Bosnian Croat forces during the Balkans conflict is just one example of a WHC Restoration Project whose construction also represented a healing process since the bridge was rebuilt with multicultural/multinational efforts.

I attended to obtain an update of what management methods were in place to oversee the preservation of cultural sites and to see what UNESCO was thinking with the challenge of combining “the works of nature and man”. The 700 participants consisted of professional planners, mayors of cities, architects, politicians, conservationists, designers, artists, and regular citizens. It was gratifying to see that there really are serious individual conservationists and agencies tending to our historical global. And I also learned that architects seem to be making an effort to consider the soul and spirit of the historical site they design new structures nearby.

The conference was well organized and set up for real conference interaction and debate. One of the aims of the conference was to improve upon a document entitled "the Vienna Memorandum." It was a pleasant surprise that every effort was made to obtain input, verbal or written from the 700 participants at this conference. The WHC’s leader, when not delivering a presentation, could be seen taking copious notes and taking time during the only coffee break allowed, to listen and talk to people, a sure sign that UNESCO is communicating.

My conclusion is that UNESCO is doing a pretty good job at balancing preservation and present needs while preparing for the future of World Cultural Heritage sites.

DISCUSSION

Question(s) related to this article:




As a reader, you are invited to join in the discussion of this article based on any of the above question(s): just click on the question, read the previous comments and add a new reply. You may also enter a new discussion topic on this article - see bottom of this page.

Thematic forum(s) in which this article is being discussed:

Latest reader comment:

This report was posted on May 21, 2005. The moderator is Tony.

If you wish to start a new discussion topic on this article, please copy the title of this article which is Fitting Contemporary Architecture into Historic Cities and its number which is 240 and enter this information along with your discussion question and a brief text on the new topic form.

A few stories are retained on the main listings if they are considered by readers to be a priority. If you have not already done so, please take the time to check a box below: should this article be considered as a priority?