| Summary: |
The Mediterranean is an encounter and history territory. Peoples,
cultures and civilizations faced, followed and were mixed. Nowhere
else, such a long history has had physical consequences on the “urban
shapes” of the cities. Nowhere else did the history influenced
this form of human life that the cities represent through their monuments,
ordinary architecture, their shape. Despite of the diversity of urban
shapes, the Mediterranean cities have a particular atmosphere, which
gives them a common identity. The sea has been for thousands of years
a place for contact and exchanges: goods, ideas and techniques travelled
through the harbours of the Mediterranean Sea.
With the arrival of the industrial society, and the changes that
occurred, all these cities had to face a fast growth often badly
handled du to the hasty rural exodus. Then the primitive urban nucleus
had to face vast issues: should they knock down everything and build
new cities? If not, how could they avoid their economic and social
decline? their isolation? How could they maintain diversified populations
and activities? Modernise without denaturing? These questions were
the reality of all the cities and urban and architectural refurbishing
policies were missing.
Moreover, this world region is particularly in danger du to frequent
natural or industrial threats, which represents a major stake for
the urban heritage.
Objectives:
The seminar will gather high-level representatives from North and
South of the Mediterranean area. 15 cities were chosen to present
the issues they have to deal with every day:
- Alep (Syria),
- Alger (Algeria),
- Amman (Jordan),
- Arles (France),
- Evora (Portugal),
- Fez (Morocco),
- Gênes (Italy),
- Ghardaïa (Algeria),
- Perpignan (France),
- Pézenas (France),
- Sevilla (Spain),
- Tel-Aviv (Israel),
- Tunis (Tunisia),
- Ubeda (Spain),
- Valletta (Malta).
To prepare the content of the seminar, a group of students of the
Institute of Urbanism of Paris IV – La Sorbonne, made a study
on different representative cities of the Mediterranean. You can
read the sum up of the study in the page “Case study”.
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