SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 17 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Group of World Heritage Cities of Spain, chaired by La Laguna, organizes the conference ‘Inhabited Cities. Urban life and sustainability in the World Heritage Cities’ that are held in Segovia on April 24 and 25 with the sponsorship of the Ministry of Culture
The objective of the conference is to discuss strategies to revitalize urban centers with sustainability criteria, harmonizing the protection of heritage with the needs of those who inhabit historic centers and responding to the great future challenges posed by the tourist boom in these destinations and the new travel models.
Representatives of the 15 cities that make up the Group will attend this event in which leading experts in urban planning, law, heritage and the economy will debate, through presentations and round tables, strategies for historic cities to revitalize their urban centers and will share good practices.
Taking into account that the main resilience factor of these cities are their inhabitants, the program addresses challenges such as tourist success, quality of life and the conservation of the unique values that Heritage Cities have, for which reason the conferences aim to be a current reflection, among other aspects, on the approach to World Heritage management, which can contribute to the maintenance and sustainability of the rich urban life and its natural environments.
The sessions begin on Monday, April 24 at 9:30 a.m. with the inaugural conference ‘Historic cities, resilient cities: quality of life as a criterion for urban sustainability’, given by Juan Luis de las Rivas, doctor of architecture from the University of Navarra and Professor of Urban Planning and Territorial Planning at the School of Architecture of the University of Valladolid.
Under the heading ‘Move less, get there better. Accessibility to Historic Cities’ will include a presentation by Antonio Lucio Gil, a lawyer from the Madrid Assembly; which will be followed by a discussion table with representatives from Santiago de Compostela, Salamanca and Toledo.
Policies to revitalize commerce in historic centers will focus another block of debate. On this aspect, the economist and geographer Juan Requejo, who is currently responsible for drafting the Management Plan for the Old City of Segovia and its Aqueduct as a World Heritage asset, will offer his vision.
The morning session will close with a debate between the representatives of Tarragona, Baeza and Alcalá de Henares. In the afternoon, there will be a presentation by the economist and professor at the University of Valladolid, Luis César Herrero, as well as a panel discussion by the representatives of Cáceres, Ibiza and Úbeda, which will focus on ‘Tourism and heritage. A puzzle that has to fit’.
Housing and urban rehabilitation will be the focus of the presentations and round tables on Tuesday, April 25. For the first block, which will focus on housing as a priority in the conservation of urban heritage, there will be the testimony of Javier Burón Cuadrado, Housing Manager of Barcelona City Council; and David Martínez García, manager of the Institut Municipal d’Urbanisme of Barcelona City Council. In this regard, the subsequent discussion table will have the opinion of the representatives of Mérida, Córdoba and Ávila.
Urban rehabilitation will then be discussed by two experts in the field: the architect and professor at the Polytechnic University of Barcelona, Albert Cuchí Burgos, and the architect, manager of the Toledo Consortium, Jesús Corroto Briceño. It is in the subsequent debate where representatives of La Laguna will intervene, in addition to the cities of Cuenca and Segovia.
The conferences, with free admission until full capacity is reached and to which representatives of social dialogue forums, the neighborhood movement and associative fabric will be invited, together with groups involved in the defense of heritage.
The conference will be closed by the General Director of Cultural Heritage and Fine Arts of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, Isaac Sastre de Diego. The Ministry of Culture and Sport finances these conferences within the framework of the agreement between the Group and the Ministry and the annual nominative subsidy that makes different programs and initiatives possible to value the world heritage of the 15 cities.
