L Loes Veldpaus

Urban Heritage: Putting the Past into the Future

Abstract This article presents part of the results of doctoral research focused on the contribution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s historic urban landscape approach to the theory of urban heritage management. This paper argues that the historic urban landscape approach reflects a century of evolution on theories related to urban heritage management. Moreover, it confirms that heritage management is going through a process of change both in theory and practice, from focusing on isolated built heritage assets, towards a landscape-based approach, adopting notions such as the intangible, setting and context, and urban and sustainable development. Next, this process of change is related in theory to the need for a more integrated approach towards urban heritage management, combining policies and practices on conservation with those of urban development. Furthermore, this article discusses the challenges and possible contributions of the landscape-based approach to urban heritage management. Lastly, this article pleads for the need not only to develop, but also to assess the adequacy of the tools and methods to support the implementation of such an integrated approach, because only then can the sustainable development and conservation of urban heritage be fostered.

Heritage and Brexit

In what is traditionally known as ‘the West’, it feels like a very uncertain world at the moment and this has become manifest in the political processes of many European countries and the USA. Unce...

Captain, where can we find the attributes?

Abstract Every site that is listed as World Heritage comes with its own justification for inscription, explaining why this specific place is considered to be of Outstanding Universal Value (OUV). This global cultural significance is to be described based on attributes, tangible or intangible, and their subsequent values. As suggested by the management approach indicated in the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape, the management of such attributes and values should be integrated into a wider sustainable urban management framework. Though, how can they be properly included in such framework when most often, it is not clear where they are located exactly? In order to develop efficient management plans to manage cultural significance, a thorough understanding of what exactly reflects this outstanding universal value is required. The aim of this paper is, firstly to present the results of a research on systematically revealing and locating a selection of attributes of the Amsterdam Canal Zone, as described in the Nomination File (Kingdom of the Netherlands, Canal Ring Area of Amsterdam) and the Advisory Body Evaluation (International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), Canal Area of Amsterdam). Next, some recommendations will be provided on how they can be integrated in the local urban management framework.

Heritage management and sustainable development in perspective: theory, law, and practice

Books reviewed: Heritage Planning: Principles and Process by Harold Kalman, Routledge, 2014, 344 pp., £36.99, ISBN 978-1-13-801792-4; Conserving Cultural Landscapes: Challenges and New Directions by Ken Taylor, Archer St. Clair, Nora J. Mitchell (eds.), Routledge, 2015, 394 pp., £90.00, ISBN 978-0-41-574405-8; Cultural Heritage in International Investment Law and Arbitration, by Valentina Vadi, Cambridge University Press, 2014, 344 pp., £70.00, ISBN 978-1-10-703848-6

Reconnecting the city:the historic urban landscape approach and the future of urban heritage

Cities have gained a central place in cultural, economic, environmental, and social policy-making and there is wide and trans-disciplinary interest in regional and urban cultures (Soja, 2003, 2011)...