8 C O N T E X T 1 1 4 : M A Y 2 0 1 0 ICOMOS-CIVVIH conference, Valletta Historic cities and sustainable urban development The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) boasts a score of scientific committees that address various cultural heritage themes and issues, from underwater and polar heritage, through documentation and training, to 20th century heritage and tourism. These committees undertake research, develop guidelines, and promote international exchanges and projects. One of the largest and most active of these committees is that devoted to historic towns and villages, namely CIVVIH (Comité International sur les Villes et Villages Historiques). The 2010 annual meeting of this committee was held in the Maltese capital Valletta, with the theme of ‘The historic city, a reference model for urban sustainable development policies’. At a time when governments and communities across the continents are responding to the priorities of environmental sustainability and the challenges of climate change, to what extent can characteristics attributable to historic cities guide development in our increasingly urbanised world? Helen Maistrou, professor in the department of architecture, National Technical University of Athens, stressed the coincidence between sustainable development and the conservation of historic cities. Both emphasise quality of life and support cultural diversity. Sustainability addresses the maintenance and improvement of ecological systems, and the articulation of the city as an ecosystem dates back at least to the time of Patrick Geddes. Prioritising the use of local resources and the support of local economies applies to both, as do the principles of minimum intervention, reuse and the recycling of wastes. Maistrou urged greater interaction and the strengthening of these coincidences to the objective of positioning urban conservation as a determining factor in sustainable development. The empowerment of citizens and local communities is central to the catchphrase of ‘think global, act local’. The meeting was given two examples of this in practice. David Logan, a heritage consultant from Sydney, spoke of the historical example of the unwavering union-led opposition that saved the Rocks area of that city from redevelopment, and whose conservation programme Logan later led. Diana Belci, an urban planner from Romania’s second city of Timişoara, presented the integrated heritage and community-led strategic plan for quarters of the city, its current phased implementation with the support of European Union funds, and the status of the project as a model for a large city in post-communist Europe. The meeting concluded by adopting the Valletta Position Paper on historic cities. This opens by iterating that non-renewable resources are at the heart of the debate on sustainable development and climate change, and that these include extracted materials, fossil fuels and the heritage. Thus the heritage in a broad sense should be considered the starting point for planning and development in a sustainable society. Historic cities are characterised in the paper Grand harbour,Valletta Valletta’s main square has recently been cleared of cars and re-landscaped. as possessing many of the attributes that accord with today’s concept of the sustainable city. They are rooted in their natural environments, adapted to them climatically, human in scale, closely knit, multifunctional and have a strong sense of belonging and identity. The position paper closes by affirming that ‘historic cities may be seen as a source of knowledge for the functional and social organisation and spatial distribution of urban activities and natural elements, and an archetype for cities seeking sustainability. They minimise the use of resources, favour interaction and solidarity, and secure cultural continuity.’ In an age when critics claim that historic buildings are obsolete in the face of the challenges of climate change, positioning historic cities at the centre of the sustainability debate is most timely. Dennis Rodwell, consultant in cultural heritage and sustainable urban development.
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