Conservation and transformation of historical sites: a review from a metropolitan viewpoint

Abstract

After many decades of doctrinal development we may say that the premise has been laid
that the conservation of our historical cities, considered as heritage and social assets to be passed
on to future generations, should be removed from the passive freezing of its social and physical
fabrics, and that, on the contrary, actions should be promoted to regenerate and vitalise their social,
urban and architectural structure. All of this falls within the consideration of historical centres as
the most significant cores of the city, in both the physical and urban sense and in terms of their
historical and symbolic nature. It is understood that the question of historical centres, despite its
sector-based character, can only be assumed in a way that is truly effective, from the point of view
of urban-planning theory as well as of sociocultural issues, if it is linked to the urban and spatial
system to which it belongs, understanding this to be a system that is essentially dynamic and
changing. In this paper a brief historical review is undertaken of intervention concepts and
instruments for the conservation of historical complexes, before attempting to focus the issues and
challenges posed by the consideration of historical complexes within the complex systems that
make up today’s metropolitan areas, in which many of them are inserted, as part of a summary that
focuses on four aspects: the role of historical complexes in the search for new physical and symbolic
centralities in the territory, the renewal of housing in these urban areas in the framework of
multicultural societies, the limits of tourism specialization for heritage areas in the hands of the
consumer society, and, finally, the new meaning of historical complexes at the crossroads of
advanced globalisation.