Over the past decade, heritage management has become key to sustainable urban development. An increasing proportion of the world’s population lives in cities, yet few policies ensure strategic balance between urban development and conservation. Opportunities for innovative reuse of urban space also arise, however, leading to re-invention of its cultural meaning. In response, new approaches to heritage protection have emerged aimed at better integration with broader urban management policies. At the international level, this reflection culminated in the 2011 UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (RHUL). The RHUL is a normative and general instrument, open to interpretation, that depends upon the cultural context of its implementation. Little research exists on its feasibility, interpretation and effects.

This research project assesses the potential and limits of the emerging approach of ‘historic urban landscape’ (HUL) by analysing the socio-spatial effects of its implementation at the local level in Beijing, Mexico City and Rome. Specifically, it questions how fully this approach recognizes the plurality of memories – from official to subaltern – that underpin attachment to urban territories.

Combining methods from urban sociology, cultural anthropology and visual modeling, the research will map collective perceptions of space in order to identify different types of memorial territories in the three cities and the emerging controversies within and between them.

Focusing on the RHUL implementation at the local level, the project will contribute to the understanding of its specific cultural interpretations. The research will furthermore develop an innovative method enabling a comprehensive mapping of a city’s cultural and human resources and foster stakeholders’ participation.