Cultural Heritage and Local Development. Experiments in Presevation and Urban of the Middle eastern Historical City

Abstract

The problem of saving and renovating the Middle East historical city is one that goes back to the 1960s. However for decades it has remained secondary with regard to the emergence of the urban crisis of  big and middle size cities from an economic, social and physical  point of view. Only from the end of the 1990s have some projects been started for the recovery and renovation of the historical city. In particular, this article describes the programs of the AgaKhan Trust for culture in Cairo and those of the  Cultural Heritage and Urban Development (CHUD) undertaken by the World Bank in Lebanon and Jordan. There are many reasons for the interest in these “urban projects” but above all it is important to underline how these projects help to spread in these countries a culture of “preservation” profoundly renewed in its objectives and in the means of intervention which permit at the same time a rethinking of the techniques and means of urban planning