Modern Architecture in World Heritage Cities
Today I discovered a new publication of the World Heritage Center of the UNESCO. It is called Partnership for World Heritage Cities - Culture as a Vektor for Suistainable Urban Development. It contains abstracts of lectures, which were held on a Workshop in Venice on 11/12 November 2002. One article attracted my attention immediately: »Historic Towns, Sustainable development and Tourism« from Tamas Fejerdy, Chairman of the 26th session of UNESCO's World Heritage Committee.
The role of new architecture in World Heritage Cities is discussed here: On the one hand he warns to permit modern artificial architecture with a fake urbanity in place of tourist attractions, on the other hand he stresses the necessity to keep in historic cities the balance between the cultural identity of the urban environment and the quality of new architectural and urban planning. He compares the development process of historical cities in the ideal case with organic evolution, where a natural and continuous preservation and renewal process by life itself is taking place.
An example how good modern architecture can fit in the historical surroundings of a World Heritage City is in my opinion the »Bath Spa Project«.
As you can see the widespread fear of modern architecture in historic ambience is not always based on serious arguments.
