Build to build A call for a local reversion of the idea of urban heritage

Abstract

This article elaborates a critical and alternative reasoning based on the concept of contemporary urban heritage.
Delving into the origin of the term exposes its construction from specific geographical, historical and political
contexts and, from there, awakens the appetite to reformulate the discourse by incorporating aspects inherent
to our own cities. The notion of urban heritage includes visual, aesthetic and artistic aspects, but at the same
time, it encompasses symbolic and identity issues that are linked to the collective memory and the daily life of
citizens. From the location of and identification with cities in the process of development —where the frequency
of project constructions from the void is much higher than those that act on existing objects or propose their
disappearance to build a posteriori— it becomes convenient to highlight that our crucial challenge does not
yet refer to the ways in which we understand the intervention, but lies in the way we proceed when conceiving
ideas ex novo. Through the construction of a distinctive identity and the collective commitment to forge our
own heritage, we proclaim the search for a city that is a faithful representative and capable reflection of the
interests, needs and concerns of those who inhabit it. From the optimistic perspective that it is possible to make
good architecture, it is imperative to recognize it under the shelter of urban heritage. That which describes a
sensibility and a way of thinking, designing and acting on what already exists, but also, and mainly, on what is
yet to exist.