C O N T E X T 9 8 : M A R C H 2 0 0 7 UNESCO conference in St Petersburg Managing change in historic urban landscapes The extent to which established concepts and management tools meet the broadening holistic perception of historic cities and the expanding level of threats to them is the subject of increasing international debate. Existing charters and recommendations that address historic urban areas date back more than 30 years. They did not anticipate the prominence today of the agendas of intangible cultural heritage and of sustainability – and the emphasis on sense of place, community belonging, and cultural identity and diversity. Nor do the charters and recommendations consider historic cities as a whole. They are inadequate to meet major current challenges such as highrise building within or next to historic city centres, iconic modern architecture, and dramatic socio-economic change in many non-Western countries. Following on from the 2005 Vienna Memorandum (see Context 97, November 2006) and the 2006 Jerusalem Statement, theWorld Heritage Centre embarked on a threeyear programme to the objective of consolidating the text and adopting a UNESCO Recommendation on the Safeguarding of Historic Urban Landscapes in 2009. The concept of historic urban landscapes is not new, but the perception of its potential pivotal relevance today is. The concept draws from experience in urban conservation and cultural landscapes, seeking to encompass values relating to intangible heritage, genius loci, authenticity and integrity. From 29 January to 2 February 2007, St Petersburg hosted the first of six UNESCO regional conferences, each to be held this year, each in a different continent. Peter Fowler, former world heritage adviser, showed that most historic cities were organic and associative. They were the result of huge human effort over a long period of time, most of which was both anonymous and unselfconscious. Successful management was not about the individual beads on the necklace but the necklace as a whole, he said. Francesco Bandarin, director of the World Heritage Centre, spoke of the need to distance ourselves from the notion that ‘the city is a monument; unfortunately it is inhabited’. He spoke of the issues and values that needed to be taken into account if we were to conserve more. Professor JeremyWhitehand of the University of Birmingham stressed the importance of understanding urban morphology in historico-geographical terms. Others expanded on the opportunity that this offers for using socio-economic factors as the basis for managing change as a continuous cultural process. Professor Bruno Gabrielli of the University of Genoa pointed to a ‘crisis of legitimacy’ in the theory and practice of urban planning. He called for a new approach that incorporated societal values. St Petersburg is a prime example of a historic city whose socio-historical parameters have changed dramatically in just 300 years, yet whose historic urban landscape has not. Built by Peter the Great as the capital of an empire, the scene of revolution, civil war and siege, and their associated degradation, dilapidation, suffering and squalor, it remains one of the most beautiful and best-preserved cities in the world. One of the key characteristics of its historic urban landscape is its horizontality, and the relationship this reinforces between people and the city’s streets, canals and riverbanks. The conference coincided with local, national and international controversy over the almost 400-metre high office tower (designed by architect RMJM) that Gazprom proposes to construct just across the Neva from the 18th-century Smolny cathedral and convent. Rémi Prud’homme, emeritus professor at the University of Paris XII, likened the proposed tower to a phallic symbol of corporate enterprise. The project focused delegates’ attention on the need for a concept to enable historic cities to be managed effectively in the age of globalisation. Historic urban landscape is an embracing term that is intended to encapsulate our understanding of the city in holistic terms. The fact and focus of this St Petersburg conference reflected the dynamics of the 1972 World Heritage Convention and the determination of UNESCO to link conservation and sustainability in the context of historic cities. Dennis Rodwell, architect-planner and cultural heritage consultant The River Neva, St Petersburg. The historic landscape is threatened by Gazprom’s proposed office tower. The triumphal double arch in the General Staff Headquarters building that links Palace Square to Nevsky Prospekt
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