Venue: Auditorium, IFT
Speaker: Professor Michael Turner
For years, the focus of heritage preservation practices had been just on monuments and sites, and urban policies were being excluded. However, the approval of the "UNESCO Recommendation on Historic Urban Landscape" in 2011 changed this view and paved the way for a new approach. The recommendation looks at cities not merely as a grouping of buildings, but as a functioning and living entity. It promotes a holistic view of historic urban landscapes by integrating the goals of urban heritage conservation and those of social and economic development.
Since then there is a growing body of knowledge and case-studies that are being evaluated in light of the increasing global urbanisation. Professor Turner is a special envoy in the implementation process of the recommendation. In this lecture, he provided an overview of these examples and discussed how the recommendation is being applied.
Professor Michael Turner is a practising architect and professor, heading the Research Authority and teaching in the graduate programme at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and UNESCO Chairholder in Urban Design and Conservation Studies. Representing Israel, he was elected to the World Heritage Committee in 2005 and served as vice president during the 2007-2008 term