Authenticity and the Sense of Place in Urban Design

Urban conservation has drastically changed its theory, practice and even basic definitions over the last 50 years. The definition of human heritage has been evolving since the 1931 Athens Charter to cover historic towns and urban areas as well as natural landscape and community-valued natural and man-made artefacts. The complexity of the field stems from its parallel theoretical and practical developments from the fields of archaeology, architecture, urban history and urban design as each discipline has a different area of interest in conserving human urban heritage. After being the realm of archaeologists for a long time, urban conservation is currently an interest for urban designers and city administrators concerned with providing a historical urban identity as much as an authentic urban identity. The increased role of urban designers and the new understanding about urban heritage that covers whole city districts have brought new professional and theoretical approaches to urban conservation during rece...