1. Urban Conservation in the 1960s and 1970s: A European Overview.
- Author
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Rodwell, Dennis
- Subjects
PRESERVATION of historic districts ,20TH century European history ,POSTWAR reconstruction ,20TH century urban planning ,URBAN planning ,HISTORIC preservation ,HISTORY ,HISTORY of urban planning - Abstract
The 1960s and 1970s in Europe were a formative period not simply in terms of modern architecture and spatial planning but how the historic quarters of cities would henceforth function socio-economically. This paper addresses the theme of the AHSS--DOCOMOMO conference, ''Mirror of Modernity: the postwar revolution in urban conservation'', in the context of differing approaches across Europe to the functional as well as physical relationship between historic city centres and their expanding modern counterparts, and how this impacted on the theory and practice of urban conservation. Examples of post-Second World War historical reconstruction are cited alongside museological, integrated and strategic approaches. These disclose a disparity between historic areas treated by conservators and planners in accordance with a limited range of architectural and aesthetic parameters, and by a broader coincidence of interests that sought to achieve their continuity as distinctive, small-scale, mixed-use quarters that accorded more closely with their historic character and sense of place. The paper concludes by reflecting on the closer coincidence between the evolving integrated urban conservation practice in Scotland -- specifically Edinburgh -- and continental examples, compared to the more limited urban design approach that dominated south of the border. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2010
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