Sustainable Historic Towns

Chair: Dag Arne Reinar

Historic towns form an important part of the built heritage in the Baltic Sea Region. Historic towns have individual characteristics due to the political, economical, social and cultural conditions over time. Towns have undergone different stages in history and development. Today´s challenge to historic towns is to manage the balance between development and preservation. Enhancement of the local heritage is a way to preserve the historic urban fabric.

“Sustainable Historic Towns”- working group is a forum for heritage authorities, researchers and planners, and it aims to foster methods for preserving and sustainable developing the historic urban fabric.

The working group has carried out an EU Interreg III B- financed project “Sustainable Historic Towns – Urban Heritage as an Asset of Development” in years 2003-2005.The project report with the same name (edited by Marianne Lehtimäki, ISBN 951-616-141-3) can be ordered from National Board of Antiquities, Post Box 169, 00511 Helsinki. These project activities are presented at the web site: http://www.nba.fi/en/sustainablehistorictowns.

A follow-up project, "Communicating Heritage in Urban Development Processes" took place 2007-08 with co-financing from the Nordic Council of Ministers. It was based on the output of the previous project: Enquiries as tools for public participation and the urban heritage analysis DIVE as a planning tool. The reports from the Co-Herit project can be accessed and downloaded at http://www.riksantikvaren.no/Norsk/Arbeidsomrader/Byer og steder/Co-Herit/The_project. 

The Norwegian publication of the DIVE Guidelines, ISBN 978-82-7574-047-0 (editors Dag Arne Reinar and Ann Mari Westerlind), can be ordered from the Directorate for Cultural Heritage, Oslo. The printed Swedish version of the DIVE Guidelines, ISBN 978-91-7209-538-0, can be ordered from the National Heritage Board, Stockholm. A Finnish printed version and English web-based pdf of the DIVE Guidelines are due late 2009.

Participants and Work Periods

2009 -		Participants
2005 - 2008		Participants and Meetings
2003 - 2005		Participants and Meetings
2001 - 2003		Participants and Meetings