Wasting heritage. The slow abandonment of the Italian Historic Centers

Micelli, Ezio; Pellegrini, Paola

doi:10.1016/j.culher.2017.11.011

Cited by 30 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…The first phase of the research analyzed the Census data of 1991-2011 of demographic movements and property dynamics of 14 small-to-medium-sized cities in Northern Italy [15,16]. The findings show severe underutilisation in the city centres and urge to question the effectiveness of the planning approach and regulations.…”

Section: Introduction and Research Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The research analyzed the Italian Census data from 1991 to 2011, the last comprehensive available one, of 20 small-to-medium-sized cities in six regions of Northern Italy: Friuli Venezia Giulia, Veneto, Trentino Alto Adige, Emilia Romagna, Lombardia, Piemonte [15,16]. There is no official classification in Italy of what a small-to-medium-sized city is; the research adopted the range between 30,000 and 200,000 inhabitants, which is pertinent to the dimension of the urban centres in Italy [25][26][27].…”

Section: Evidence Of Underutilisation Of the Built Stock In Historic mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even though precise numbers for a large sample of cities had not been produced until very recently [10,15,16], the abandonment of the historic centre has been perceivable for several years in Italy. Therefore, it is plausible to hypothesize city planning documents have registered it and proposed to recycle the empty stock, adopting a circular economy approach, which integrates sustainable production as well as better use of resources.…”

Section: The Missed Opportunity Of Promoting the Re-cycling Of The CImentioning

confidence: 99%

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Paradoxes of the Italian Historic Centres between Underutilisation and Planning Policies for Sustainability

Pellegrini

Micelli

2019

Sustainability

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The paper presents the analysis of the statistical data on population and real estate in 20 small-to-medium-sized cities in Northern Italy and shows a high rate of vacancy of housing and significant shrinkage of businesses and institutions in the historic centres, where urban heritage is concentrated. Given these findings, the paper analyses the official city plans of the cities with the worst underutilisation conditions, to understand how the plans have reacted to the decline of the centre. The result shows the extensive planning and regulation activity has very limitedly registered the phenomenon and failed to propose the empty inner cores as resources to reduce land consumption and recycle valuable assets in a circular economic vision. Combining the statistical data and the findings from the city plans, the paper concludes that Italian historic centres are living paradoxes—a collection of beauty, icon of well-being, model of sustainability, but abandoned—and therefore, the dense regulatory mechanisms that were necessary to conserve urban heritage during the decades of economic and demographic growth must be reframed to implement a circular economy and adapt to new requirements for living conditions.

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Section: Introduction and Research Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Evidence Of Underutilisation Of the Built Stock In Historic mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Missed Opportunity Of Promoting the Re-cycling Of The CImentioning

confidence: 99%

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Paradoxes of the Italian Historic Centres between Underutilisation and Planning Policies for Sustainability

Pellegrini

Micelli

2019

Sustainability

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“…In fact, over half of all building activity is preservationist in nature [24]. The development of international discourse on heritage conservation was largely influenced by reflections and the development of theories on urban conservation and morphology in Italy's heritage [24][25][26]. Therefore, the developed charters and acts are inextricably mixed with the philosophies, such as the restoration theories of Viollet-le-Duc and Ruskin [27].…”

Section: Cultural Heritage In the Context Of Italymentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a Shared Understanding of the Concept of Heritage in the European Context

2019

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The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of commonalities and differences in the concept of cultural heritage in Europe. This was achieved through a comprehensive academic and non-academic literature review focused on different definitions and conceptualisations related to cultural heritage internationally and in the European context. This is complemented with a comparative study in three European countries. This paper frames cultural heritage using the foundation set up by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). It further discusses the European actors involved in defining heritage today. Finally, it focuses on three European countries and verifies that they share an understanding of cultural heritage including classifications, categorisation and heritage values. Findings from the overall study show how the definition of cultural heritage across Europe is reasonably homogeneous, and this is confirmed by the analysis of the three chosen test case studies. This finding is relevant to policy makers as it allows the support of potential common frameworks for heritage management at the European level, including risk management and risk reduction common methodologies. Further studies will shed light on the implementation issues which may arise from the creation of a common European framework for cultural heritage management, with emphasis on risk management and risk reduction of cultural heritage.

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“…With the contemporary interest of tourism in rural areas, keeping historic urban cores alive and preserving their architectural, historical, and cultural values has become a pressing challenge from the social and cultural realm [34]. There is also a concern about historic urban cores' saturation [35][36][37] as well as gentrification and uberisation [38][39][40].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Practical Vision of Heritage Tourism in Low-Population-Density Areas. The Spanish Mediterranean as a Case Study

Tena

García-Esparza

2021

Sustainability

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Heritage tourism bases its definition on searching for different, authentic, and somewhat unexplored places. Recent literature speaks of the growth of new forms of tourism based on the tradition that seeks to surprise visitors with popular culture, traditional activities, or actions that bring traditional culture closer to tourists. However, the reality is that the influx of tourists to small mountain villages is marked by the most “monumental” historical and architectural values, leaving aside some other minor attributes. This article uses the historical centres of rural villages to place inhabitants’ knowledge at the centre of tourism initiatives. The aim of the study was to develop cohesive and inclusive tourism activities in historic centres by analysing the built environment’s attributes and values. A participatory methodology marks the cultural change to enhance collaboration through transparent and ethical foundations and respect these places’ distinctive character. The study of values helped to conduct an in-depth analysis of local realities to document and map historical centres’ tangible attributes through crafts, traditional culture, and local heritage forms.

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Wasting heritage. The slow abandonment of the Italian Historic Centers

Cited by 30 publications

References 11 publications

Paradoxes of the Italian Historic Centres between Underutilisation and Planning Policies for Sustainability

Paradoxes of the Italian Historic Centres between Underutilisation and Planning Policies for Sustainability

Towards a Shared Understanding of the Concept of Heritage in the European Context

A Practical Vision of Heritage Tourism in Low-Population-Density Areas. The Spanish Mediterranean as a Case Study

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