The first edition of the “HUL Bridging Cultures - HULBriC” training in situ course (27 August- 4 September 2016), has ended on Sunday September 4th.

Group photo

The Course coordinated by the Institute for the Conservation and Valorisation of Cultural Heritage of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ICVBC-Rome) in collaboration with the WHITRAP was organised by CNR-ICVBC and the University of Rome Tor Vergata and had as partners and co-organisers the Municipalities of Palestrina and Castel San Pietro Romano and the Regional Agency Lazio Innova S.p.A.

Based on the HUL approach, the training, addressed issues relative to small historic towns’ conservation, valorisation and management with the aim to bridge different cultures, and more specifically Sino-Italian experiences, and best practices in an interdisciplinary and comparative way. Focusing on selected heritage pilot cases it was built on the Italian expertise on the subject, bringing together in situ training, multidisciplinary workshops and studios with the aim to study and propose a conservation/valorization project for the selected pilot case areas. Training was, thus, integrated with problem solving and the course participants with local stockholders and residents.

Site visit

Meeting with local stakeholders

Studio

More specifically, considering HUL as an approach aiming to overcome the distinction between conservation and transformation – while promoting conservation as management of change – the training was structured and built on the best experiences of Italian conservation history and legislation as exemplified through three major keywords: physical urban and architectural conservation, integrated landscape, local participation.

Small historic towns were selected as the core study because they represent the most authentic depository of traditional cultural values related to: built heritage -- in terms of conservation techniques, materials and craftsmen’s presence; intangible heritage traditions; landscape qualities and relationship to nature (both in productive and aesthetic terms); and local identity values, often expressed in a strong participatory citizenship.

Historic small towns represent the 80% of Italian cities. However, also China has an amazingly rich heritage dispersed in traditional villages and small towns, often unknown to the West and still not well documented, conserved and valorised. Enhancing it may bring not only tourism and resources, also to non-urban areas, but may re-equilibrate unsustainable urbanisation.

Italy is famous worldwide for its longstanding urban history and amazingly stratified cities, which fostered the country’s interest in restoration interventions and conservation theories since late 19th century. This Italian expertise in architectural and urban conservation were considered crucial for the HUL implementation in small historic towns, and were proposed throughout the course’s lectures and visits, together with integrated valorisation and management approaches based on ICT tools.