From heritage preservation and treatment of historical centers to cultural landscapes

Abstract

In the first part of the text I analyze the evolution of the heritage concept and of historic centers management, in order to deepen in the conceptual construction of cultural landscapes and in the characteristics of the intervention plans. These discussions are exemplified with some proposals in Latin American cultural landscapes. While most of the master plans of the twentieth century emphasize population dynamics and industrial development in the current century the most interesting proposals are based on a new binomial: nature and culture. That conviction sets up a joint exploration of several researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia whose main results are included here.