This interdisciplinary course explores the presence of the past and its influence on the future of urban environments. Investigating diverse urban elements, including architecture, buildings, and landscapes, and examining spatial interventions, we will engage with the tension between how the history of the built environment is perceived and how urban development is envisioned. Focusing on the intersection of urban transformation, politics, and cultural heritage, this course provides a nuanced understanding of the historical roles played by cultural heritage in shaping communities and identities. By integrating perspectives from architectural history, heritage studies, and urban design, students will critically explore the ways in which history informs contemporary urban environments. Collaborating with design practitioners, they will develop their own perspectives on the function of history in the construction, reinterpretation, and appropriation of heritage, both ancient and recent. Through direct engagement with the urban fabric, students will critically examine the interplay between permanence and change, navigating the juxtaposition of historical layers and contemporary interventions.

Working in interdisciplinary teams, they will study a specific site, analyse its heritage value, introduce it to the group, develop a planning perspective, and present their analysis and approach. This cross-disciplinary methodology enables a multifaceted understanding of heritage, assessing how it can be meaningfully integrated into present-day urban contexts. Addressing contemporary challenges, the course explores the integration of the monumental with the everyday, the historical with the contemporary, and the fixed with the evolving nature of the city. Students will engage with emerging heritage concepts such as urban landscape archaeology, participatory heritage strategies, and the intersection of heritage management with civic engagement. In developing their planning perspectives, they will propose ways to bridge past and present functions while addressing the spatial needs of diverse stakeholders.