ABSTRACT
Taking its cue from the 1972 UNESCO World Heritage Convention’s categorization of cultural heritage properties as monuments, groups of buildings, and sites, this chapter examines the distinctiveness of urban heritage and the challenges that conventional approaches to the protection of selected tangible heritage pose to a broad appreciation of the values constituted in urban heritage. A city is at one and the same time a physical place and a human space; the complexity of its infrastructure, urban grain, and the fabric of its buildings are inextricably linked to its everyday life. Orthodox interpretations of urban heritage disassemble this complexity and ignore the cultural diversity and spectrum of social and economic activities that enabled historic cities to function as communities rather than just expressions of contemporary wonder. In this orthodox narrative, the city as a place of continuous habitation is downplayed and, whereas natural heritage addresses habitat and its continuity, only lip service is paid to community displacement in urban cultural heritage sites, whether arising from tourism, gentrification, or other pressures. From the perspective of an architect and urban planner working across the field, this chapter challenges the view that urban heritage is necessarily an elite brand that can only be accessed intellectually in the same way as monumental ensembles or delineated sites. Citing examples of academically undervalued urban heritage, it poses the complementary view that recognition and respect for the scope and scale of urban heritage—in concert with 21st-century agendas of environmental sustainability—open avenues for securitization that have been insufficiently nurtured.
