Symbolic Integrity of Historic Urban Landscapes: The Forgotten Dimension in Urban Conservation

Ref.: 175
Domaine thématique: 02 Intégrité fonctionnelle des paysages urbains historiques
Date de réception: 15/11/2008

AUTEURS (*Auteur principal)

SILVA, Kapila Dharmasena * (États-Unis d'Amérique) - University of Kansas

RÉSUMÉ

This paper argues that symbolic content or meanings associated with environments are crucial to the success of preservation of historic architecture and development of contemporary architecture in historic urban contexts. Making the world around us meaningful by associating the environment with various culturally or personally derived meanings is a most fundamental need for human existence. Thus communicating appropriate meanings to its inhabitants is perhaps the most significant function of a place. For a new building to be an integral part of a historic environment, its associated meanings should be compatible with the symbolic dimensions historically embedded with the place. As societies transform over time, these environmental meanings also transform. It is essential, therefore, to understand the historic place meanings, how they have transformed into new meanings, and how to keep the symbolic integrity of the place in both conservation and contemporary designs within the historic place. The symbolic dimension becomes critical when we focus on conserving South and Southeast Asian historic cities in particular, as they are a product of timeless Hindu and Buddhist cosmological models. The historic fabric, monuments, cultural and religious institutions, ritual events, and the daily life in these cities are closely related to the symbolism underlying the historic place, and is thus of prime importance in the conservation and urban development programs. Yet, the symbolic integrity of historic urban landscapes is the least understood and largely forgotten dimension in the contemporary inquiry of conservation, which has relegated its concern simply to the formal, visual, material, and structural integrity of the historic fabric. When addressed properly, meanings of a place help integrating the physical, functional, and visual dimensions of the historic town as well as sustaining the political, economic, and social dimensions of the communities. This
presentation will make a case for paying attention to the symbolic dimension of historic towns, discussing what it is, how it binds all other dimensions of a place together, how to identify it, how it will guide new designs in old contexts, and how it can be instrumental in establishing socio-economic sustainability of historic urban landscapes. To illustrate this argument, the paper will discuss the World Heritage towns of Bhaktapur in Nepal and Kandy in Sri Lanka as examples.

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