Heritage-Based Tools for the Sustainable Urban Development of Historic Centers

The debate on sustainable development often overlooks urban issues and Built Heritage. However, historic centers are the areas where global challenges become evident in all their complexity. A shift in perspective is both urgent and necessary. It involves viewing urban cultural heritage and its communities not just as a problem but as part of the solution. Integrating historic preservation into development plans assigns an active role to this heritage in project strategies. This chapter encourages reflection on the importance and prioritization of this legacy by highlighting key challenges and introducing methodological tools for addressing them.

This chapter examines the situation of “historic centers” in Armenia through three case studies: Gyumri, Ashtarak, and Goris. Each city, distinct in its geographical location, landscape context, size, history, and characteristics, represents the diverse challenges and conditions encountered by “historic centers” amidst a rapidly changing environment. The chapter not only provides a historical overview and current analysis of these three sites but also proposes strategic actions aimed at fostering their development while preserving their unique historical and architectural attributes. Additionally, it explores the tools available for the protection of historic cities, emphasizing the benefits of a heritage-conscious approach. These benefits extend beyond the preservation of historical memory, contributing significantly to the overall revitalization and sustainable growth of the city.

This chapter presents the results of research conducted on Gyumri, aimed at developing a strategic framework of practices and tools as a foundation for the city’s heritage-based revitalization. The chapter begins by reconstructing the historical events that led Gyumri to its current state, followed by an analysis of its current potential and challenges. Gyumri is a planned city, largely preserved in its layout and buildings—a feature that represents its greatest strength. However, it faces many challenges common to “historic centers” in so-called emerging countries: depopulation, deterioration of the oldest parts, lack of job stability among its inhabitants, low income, and inadequate planning policies. Based on the studies, several strategic functions are outlined that could enhance the city’s prospects by preserving its historic buildings and making them the focal point for various revitalization processes. Identifying these strategic functions, derived from local conditions and aligned with its real possibilities in a medium-term scenario, can support the proposals of the Historic City Plan. The historic part of the city can fulfill this pivotal role if provided with tools that ensure its preservation while simultaneously allowing for the introduction of new functions, upgrading housing standards, incorporating new buildings, and conserving existing ones. The final part of the chapter discusses some of these strategies, which, specifically designed for Gyumri, could also serve as inspiration in other contexts.

The document presented below derives, with a few revisions to clarify the meaning in the context of the book, from the research report delivered to the clients of the Asian Development Bank and the Urban Development Committee of the Armenian Government. It consists of guidelines for the maintenance of historic buildings intended mainly for inhabitants and unskilled workers. The choice to propose them maintaining both the simple language and the graphic layout that distinguished the document delivered, is motivated by the intention to propose them as possible methodological tools addressing the theme of the existing city in emerging contexts. Although specifically designed for the city of Gyumri and not exportable uncritically to other realities, they may suggest methods to sensitize the inhabitants to the fact that they live in a cultural heritage intended as a complex formed by the city and its individual buildings. The awareness of the uniqueness and irreproducibility of this Heritage implies, consequently, a more respectful intervention in existing buildings. In contexts where self-construction also concerns the architectural heritage, easy indications are necessary to carry out the necessary interventions to provide the buildings with greater living comfort.

This chapter reports on two of the studies conducted for the city of Gyumri, which can serve as a basis for setting up preliminary analysis tools for drafting Plans for historic centers in other contexts as well. Appropriately adapted to the specificities of the place, they provide an essential reference framework for comprehensive knowledge of the urban fabric, the buildings, and the open spaces that compose it. The first tool consists of an illustrated directory of primary problems of decay. This photographic directory, organized by problems and annotated with long captions, has a dual utility. On one hand, the simple language that accompanies the images makes it understandable even to the residents; on the other hand, it allows the municipal administration to quickly verify over time whether the problems are worsening or being resolved. The second tool contains the guidelines for the minimum quality that base maps should have to conduct studies on a historic center, as well as the description of some of them necessary to tackle the drafting of the Plan with sufficient knowledge of the place. The two tools, not particularly innovative for contexts where there is a long-established practice in drafting specific plans for “historic centers”, can serve as a methodological guide in the so-called emerging countries where, with few exceptions, normally the only instrument is typically a master plan that does not differentiate tools and regulations for the new parts and the older parts of the cities.