Refine
Document Type
- Doctoral thesis (2)
Has Fulltext
- yes (2)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (2)
Language
- English (2)
Keywords
- Welterbekonvention (2) (remove)
Institute
- FG Interkulturalität (1)
- FG Umweltplanung (1)
Scale dissonances between local and world heritage : the rural landscape of the Palladian villa
(2021)
This research critically analyses the visual representation of the Palladian villa landscape as UNESCO World Heritage. I bring to light certain dissonances around the understanding of this landscape as heritage between global and local perspective. I have explored the ways in which the rural landscape of the Palladian villas is produced by ICOMOS experts, local institution and inhabitants in the contemporary context of the suburban areas of the Veneto region in Italy. Dissonances are arising when the landscape transforms and the visual integrity, or the iconic image of the landscape get lost. I observed that, the loss of the visual integrity, considered as negative by ICOMOS experts, gives space to peculiar heritage social practices from below.
I am problematizing two main aspects of the conservation scheme of this site: the selective visual representation of history and the musealization of agriculture for touristic proposes. I am exploring the potential of reframing and renaming the conservation scheme of the World Heritage Site. I suggest using inhabitant’s visual representation to reframe the UNESCO management plan and considering the peculiar local agricultural practice as a “continuing cultural landscape”. I interpret my empirical and theoretical contribution as a semantic shift in the way the Palladian rural landscape is understood as World Heritage toward an inclusive and situated heritage conservation that extend beyond expert’s conservation philosophies. The research contributes to the deconstruction of modern notions of rural landscape and heritage in the field of heritage studies and landscape conservation especially within the implementation of the World Heritage Convention.
This research comprises an analysis concerning the conflict between the State Party Germany to the World Heritage Convention and UNESCO in the case of the Dresden Elbe Valley. Through a historical and legal analysis, this research aims to ascertain the reasons for this conflict, as well as the impossibility of finding a compromise. First, the conflict in the core of the Dresden Elbe Valley World Heritage Site caused by the construction of the Waldschlößchenbrücke, which is the object of study in this research, is anchored in its context of the City of Dresden. Thus, the object of the conflict, the Waldschlößchenbrücke, is presented in its historical and geo-spatial context in order to shed light on the elements that triggered the conflict. Secondly, the conflict is anchored within the German legal context through the analysis of the legal procedures concerning the binding effects of the World Heritage Convention for the Federal Republic of Germany and the environmental concerns rendered by the construction of the Waldschlößchenbrücke. Based on legal commentaries of the courts’ decisions, a discussion on the non-transposition of the World Heritage concepts in the Federal Republic of Germany is implemented. Thirdly, the State Party Germany to the World Heritage Convention and UNESCO are confronted. A review of the concept of cultural landscape in the context of the World Heritage Convention, adapted to the case of the Dresden Elbe Valley, is first implemented. Subsequently, a commentary on the legally binding effects for the States Parties to the World Heritage Convention is elaborated upon, as well as a deconstruction of the step-by-step decisions from the inscription to the delisting of the Dresden Elbe Valley from the World Heritage List. Fourthly, an evaluation is developed concerning the concept of Historic Urban Landscape as an action plan capable of solving the conflict between urban development and heritage protection, and adapted to the German context. Finally, as a conclusion to this research, recommendations are drawn based on the conflict opposing UNESCO and the State Party Germany to the World Heritage Convention towards the Dresden Elbe Valley. These recommendations are addressed to the City of Dresden, the Free State of Saxony, the Federal Republic of Germany and UNESCO.