ABSTRACT
Throughout the last three decades, the process of globalisation has impacted the spatial urban structure of the world’s main cities; however, this impact has negatively affected cities that still have historical hubs and are looking to preserve their local urban and architectural heritage. Meanwhile, adhering to the common requirements of urbanisation for the sake of globalisation has been mandatory for economic and political reasons. The cities that managed to adapt to the impacts of globalisation and, in turn, conserved their urban and architectural heritage, are currently the ones that have a significant and unique urban identity. Cities like Rome, London, Paris and Istanbul have generated good examples of dealing with this issue.
The hypothesis behind this study is that urban identity in main cities can balance between the common requirements of globalisation and the conservation of their architectural heritage. This paper will discuss the connection between the urban requirements of globalisation, the conservation of urban local heritage and urban identity.
The methodology used depended on an analytical comparison of selected case studies to evaluate their urban experiments. The results showed that cities with a significant urban identity have created successful urban experiments, showing that they have been able to find a balance between globalisation and the conservation of local urban heritage.
