The Center is a member of the core group of institutions in the Cultural Heritage and Development Network. Launched in January 1998 by UNESCO and the World Bank, this initiative aimed to coordinate the activities of development aid organizations and international institutions involved in the preservation and conservation of the cultural heritage. The Network has grown to include individual specialists and a broad range of institutions providing expert advice, technical assistance, and capacity building in the field of culture and development.

In addition to the research on the Jerusalem historical database, the Center is working with the Municipality of Christiansfeld, Denmark to prepare an integrated development strategy for the preservation of the Moravian cultural heritage and organize a partnership of outstanding Moravian settlements in Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany and South Africa. The possibility of a UNESCO/WHC serial listing is being explored. In addition, the Center received a grant from the Historic Center Foundation in Mexico City to document current programs for the rehabilitation of Mexico City's Historic Center.

• Conferences
• UNESCO / World Heritage Center
• UNESCO / University Forum on Cultural Heritage
• Center Cultural Heritage Activities
• GSD Cultural Heritage Studios

CORE FACULTY GROUP

François C.D. Vigier

Charles Dyer Norton Professor of Regional Planning

Director of the Center for Urban Development Studies

Mona Serageldin

Adjunct Professor of Urban Planning

Associate Director of the Center for Urban Development Studies

Eduard Sekler

Professor of Architecture, Emeritus

Osgood Hooker Professor of Visual Art, Emeritus

The proceedings of the event are available on-line at

www.gsd.harvard.edu/heritageintheamericas.

International Symposium on The Restoration and Conservation of Historic Cairo, February 2002

During February 2002, Francois Vigier, traveled to Cairo, Egypt to participate in an international symposium, sponsored by UNESCO, on The Restoration and Conservation of Historic Cairo.  Prof. Vigier chaired a thematic session on Urban and Socio-Economic revilatization in Historic Cairo.  Additionally, he made a presentation on Urban Revitalization: A methodology applied to Historic Cairo.

Mona Serageldin was a member of a UNESCO/WHC team working with the Ministry of Culture and Cairo Governate on the historic city of Cairo, between June 1998 and June 2000.

• Presenting the community's religious heritage and integrating its cultural tradition into the contemporary civic life of citizens who are not members of the congregation.
• Defining the modalities of an integrated and sustainable approach to the management of Christianfeld's Moravian cultural heritage based on respect and preservation of Moravian spiritual values. 
• Finding the appropriate balance between tourism and preservation of religious heritage.

 
Christiansfeld, Denmark

Mona Serageldin delivered the keynote presentation. She discussed issues of revitalization and management of the historic urban fabric with specific examples from Europe, Africa and Australia, and highlighted the special case of Moravian settlements in South Africa. Background research on American Moravian settlements was undertaken by Jessica Carew Kraft. Documentation on the Moravian settlements of Elim, Mamre and Wupperthal was graciously provided by the communities. Additional visual documentation was assembled by Hendrik DuPlessis, Chief Engineer of the Department of Housing, Provincial Administration, Western Cape, South Africa.

Australian Council of National Trusts: (2000) 
Mona Serageldin was invitied by the Australian Council of National Trusts to present a paper on the Center's work on Heritage Management and the Revitalization of the Historic Urban Fabric. The paper addressed the challenges of coping with the dynamics of development which marginalize older districts, and overcoming the negative effect of messages and images transmitted by the media. In developing countries, these images tend to devalorize a historic setting associated with backwardness and exclusion. The paper stressed the need to reach out to youth to change their negative perceptions and recommended the development of interactive techniques to foster interpretation in a culturally enriching way. The proceedings of the conference are available from the Australian Council of National Trusts. The publication is entitled The National Trust into the New Millenium.
 

Cultural Heritage in Development Network Conference
The theme of the conference held at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. from May 3-6, 1999 was Preserving the Architecture of Historic Cities and Sacred Places. Eduard Sekler, François Vigier and Mona Serageldin attended the conference. François Vigier, Director of the Center, chaired the session on Transformation in Historic Cities: Roots and Modernization. Mona Serageldin, Associate Director of the Center, gave a presentation to the expert group on the adaptive reuse of historic architecture, Rejuvenating the Historic City: Socio-Economic and Physical Transformation of Fez, Morocco. The proceedings of the conference were published in December 2000. The publication, entitled Historic Cities and Sacred Sites: Cultural Roots for Urban Futures, is available from the World Bank. 

UNESCO / WHC Congress
World Heritage: Shared Legacy, Common Responsibility
Venice, Italy (November 14-16, 2002)

To mark the 30th anniversary of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted in 1972 and ratified to date by 167 parties, UNESCO and the Government of Italy are organizing an International Congress of Experts to reflect on the achievements and challenges of the World Heritage mission.

The objectives of the Congress are to discuss:

• The achievements and limitations of the Convention;
• The development of national and international heritage protection and practice;
• Building capacity for the management of heritage sites;
• The mobilization of resources for World Heritage protection and;
• The future direction of the World Heritage Convention in terms of specific action programs, synergies between stakeholders and partnerships.

GSD/CUDS is a partner in the World Heritage Network and will be represented at this congress by Dean Peter Rowe.  Mona Serageldin will be participating in a thematic workshop on Monitoring World Heritage, coordinated ICCROM.
 

UNESCO / UNIVERSITY FORUM ON CULTURAL HERITAGE

Established in 1998, the UNESCO-University Forum on the Cultural Heritage held its fourth meeting at UNESCO headquarters in Paris on July 5-6, 1999. It brought together delegates from 95 universities in 32 countries and representatives from ICOMOS, ICOM, ICROM, IFLA, the Council of Europe, the World Monument Fund, and the International Association of Universities. One of the main themes of the debate, opened by Federico Mayor, Director-General of UNESCO, was the role of the cultural heritage as a driving force for peace and development. 

Participants covered a broad range of topics illsutrating the constructive role played by universities in safeguarding the cultural heritage and sensitizing decision makers and the public as to its economic as well as cutural value. The concluding declaration stressed inter-university colaboration and the need to assist institutions of higher education in lower-income economies. A regional meeting of the Forum will be held on September 26-29 at the University of Buenos Aires. 

The Center represented Harvard University at the UNESCO-University Forum on Cultural Heritage. François Vigier attended the fourth annual meeting July 5-7, 1999 at the UNESCO world headquarters in Paris. He chaired a session and presented the Center's approach to the problems of preserving and adapting the non-monumental fabric in historic cities. 
 

Historic Center of Mexico: (2002)

The Center received a grant from the Historic Center Foundation in Mexico to complete a case study on the Historic Center of Mexico City.The center has developed a text documenting the objectives identified and presenting a comprehensive view of the issues at hand that has served as basis for students in the course on Strategies for Social Inclusion in Development offered by Professors François Vigier and Mona Serageldin.

The Historic Center of Qusair, Egypt: (2001)

The Center prepared a detailed master plan for the revitalization of the Older Urban Fabric of Al Qusair on the Red Sea. The study focused on  identifing public improvements and defining appropriate development regulations to encourage private investment and foster the preservation and rehabilitation of the built environment.

Getty Convervation Institute's Agora and Economics Projects: (2000)

Mona Serageldin is participating in research activities on Cultural Heritage sponsored by the Getty Convervation Institute as part of the Institute's Agora and Economics projects. She was a member of a multi-disciplinary group of experts attending workshops on Values and Benefits of Cultural Heritage and Methodological Approaches to Valuing Cultural Heritage.

Since late 1998, the Center has been engaged in the preparation of a computerized historical database on the Old City of Jerusalem. 

To find out more about this project and access the Jerusalem Atlas, please click here:
Jerusalem Historic Database

Mona Serageldin represented the Center at the US ICOMOS Annual International Conference held in Washington, D.C. March 19-20, 1999.

Mona Serageldin is a member of a UNESCO/WHC team working with the Ministry of Culture, Cairo Governate and specialized agencies in other Ministries to develop an action plan for the rehabilitation of the historic city which inscribed on the World Heritage list. Dr. Serageldin worked closely with the Egyptian authorities concerned on institutional issues and frameworks.

The center participated in the review of the workplan for the revitalization and rehabilitation of the historic city of Timbuktu, a project funded by the World Bank and the KFW. Mona Serageldin traveled to Bamako with the World Bank Mission in October, 1999. The mission worked with Malian authorities and their consultants to revise the proposed workplan in light of the damage caused by heavy rains, the priorities of the inhabitants and the need to rejuvenate the economic base and develop the touristic potential of the site. 

The Medina of Fez was designated a Heritage of Mankind city by UNESCO in 1980. It is one of 6 historic centers selected for a pilot under the joint UNESCO/World Bank initiative for cultural heritage and development. Starting in 1996, the Center has been working with ADER-FES, the agency responsible for the conservation of the Medina, central ministries, and Moroccan central and local authorities to develop a viable approach combining preservation and revitalization. Click here for more information.
 
 

Lublin is committed to the valorization of its cultural heritage through investment in infrastructure and revitalization of the historic urban fabric. The City is exploring strategies to enable residents to participate in the rehabilitation of the built environment. 

The plan adopted by the City Council in 1995 details four programmatic areas:

• Improvement of public space and infrastructure for which the City has assumed major responsibility
• Commercial development driven by the private business sector
• Cultural promotion and tourism, an area where organizations and businesses are taking a lead role, and
• Housing rehabilitation, which presents the greatest challenge and will need to be addressed within the framework of public/private partnerships. 

Experience gained by the Local Intiatives Team in working at the community level is now being applied to the challenge of revitalizing Old Town. The Team has launched a community outreach effort to increase awareness of opportunities. 

The Center for Urban Development Studies provided Lublin with technical assistance and capacity building in the development of participatory approaches to historic preservation. 

The outputs of this effort include a viable operational strategy for conservation and revitalization of Old Town's cultural heritage; an enabling legal and administrative framework fully institutionalized in the organizational structure of the municipality; options for financing the valorization of property, and improved capacity to structure partnership. The city is committing substantial resources to upgrade the infrastructure and repave streets and public spaces.

In an effort to valorize the cultural heritage of its Old Town, Lublin is encouraging and facilitating the revitalization of building facades and public spaces through a resident participatory process similar to that used in Bronowice and Kosminek.

Revitalization and Rehabilation of the Historic District:
City of Samarkand, Uzbekistan (1996) 

The Center for Urban Development Studies joined the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) Historic Cities Program in a mission to assist government authorities to adopt viable strategies in the rehabilitation of the historic urban fabric and discontinue renewal through demolition and rebuiliding. The Unit worked with local public officials, practitioners, and Mahalla leaders to establish an institutional framework for revitalization and local rehabilitation initiatives in the city's Historic District. The main objectives of the resulting Initiative were to:

• Review and revise the City's master plan
• Adopt conservation and design guidelines
• Establish a strategic development plan for the Historic City Center that links and leverages investments in different sectors including infrastructure, environmental improvements, urban conservation and new construction
• Establish organizational frameworks that foster central/local coordination through the Hokim and city/community partnership through the Mahalla communities
• Identify and develop pilot conservation and rehabilitation projects to test planning design, financing and institutional frameworks, and
• Identify financing sources, including public/private partnerships. 

Working in partnership with residents, civic groups, and NGOs providing technical expertise and financial resources, local authorities in Samarkand can become catalysts and enablers rather than sole producers of improvements to the built environment. Mona Serageldin traveled to Samarkand in the summer of 1996 to oversee the project.
 

Working jointly with the Association Sauveguarde de la Medina de Tunis (ASM), the Center for Urban Development Studies conducted an evaluation of the multi-dimensional revitalization strategy initiated in 1982. The Hafsia project pointed to new directions for public/private partnerships and active involvement of residents in reversing the cycle of deterioration and revitalizating historic districts, a responsibility that had been assigned exclusively to the public sector. 
 
 

Urban areas in the Third World are growing rapidly. The traditional quarters of its cities are among the first migrant receptor areas. Their older housing stock has densified and deteriorated over the years as a result of subdivision into smaller units and lack of maintenance. In spite of their urbanistic quality and the presence of individual buildings and groups of buildings of great architectural merit and historical value, significant parts of these traditional quarters have become little more than overcrowded agglomerations of unsanitary housing, with inadequate infrastructures and lacking necessary community facilities.

François Vigier offered a studio on the preservation of the cultural heritage in Tripoli, Lebanon. The topic was developed in cooperation with the Department of Architecture at the American University in Beirut. Eleven students from urban design, urban planning, and landscape architecture visited the site during the Spring break and gave a progress report on their work to the Mayor, municipal officials, and AUB faculty.

This studio focused on the Darb el-Ahmar quarter of Cairo's historic medieval city to illustrate the possibilities of providing an appropriate east-west connector. Transportation plans in Cairo called for a connector to be cut through Darb el-Ahmar's urban fabric. The studio undertook the task of illustrating the possibility of locating the required east-west connection through a culturally sensitive design approach which not only minimizes damage to the area's historic fabric, but simultaneously acts as a catalyst for its revitalization. 

This studio addressed housing issues in the Medina of Tunis to demonstrate that a traditional quarter of the urban fabric of Tunis can be regenerated and transformed into a vibrant element of the city while retaining its urbanistic merits as a living testimony of the city of the past. The studio started by formulating a regeneration strategy that takes into consideration the existing urban dynamics. The investigation of new building forms appropriate to new development in the Medina and their relationship to the existing typologies informed the design of key interventions critical to the success of the regeneration and revitalization strategy.