Preservation and Development of Urban Heritage in the Americas

This advanced topic seminar will focus on the challenges confronted by the conservation and urban planning professions in turning the urban heritage into a social and economic development resource for cities in developing countries. The preservation of the urban heritage is moving to a new paradigm of intervention responding to: a growing interest in communities for preserving their intangible and tangible urban heritage; rising development pressures on historic neighborhoods; the generalization of adaptive rehabilitation as a conservation strategy; and recent international agreements calling for expanding the role of the urban heritage in the social and economic development of the communities. This is a problem that is in the cutting edge of the research and practice of heritage conservation and urban planning and has conservation, planning and design implications making it ideally suited to a multi-discipline seminar approach. The course will combine seminar and field study methodologies in ways that they support each other. The knowledge acquired through the seminar work will be put to use in a field study exercise whose objective is to allow the students to work on topics of their interest and pursue research or urban development and heritage conservation interventions related to the semester's specific studio site.

Browse studio reports from previous years:

2014: Quito | Activating Heritage Assets: Adaptive Rehabilitation + Housing in Historic City Centers

2016: Modern Architecture in Urban Heritage Areas: The Case of Quito

2018: Preservation Strategies for Mid-Sized Cities: Cuenca as a Case Study

2020: Balancing Growth and Conservation: The Case of Cartagena de Indias

2022: Mitigating Displacement and Re-Connecting with the City: Strategies for the Sustainable Conservation of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico