Publicomos

Réf.

42437

Type

conference item

Titre

The conversion of Melbourne

Langues

English

Auteurs

Tonkin, Ray

Date

21/05/2012

Pages

p. 937-946

Titre de conférence

ICOMOS 17th General Assembly

Lieu de conférence

Paris, France

Date de conférence

2011-11-27 / 2011-12-02

Mots-clés

modernization / social aspects / economic development / towns / management plans / historical surveys / town planning schemes / town planning policy / cultural policy / urban development / modern architecture / architectural heritage / architectural projects / town planning / historic urban landscapes / economic impact / economic value / conservation policy / historic towns

Pays mentionnés

Australia

Monuments et sites

Melbourne, Australia / Sydney, Australia

Résumé en anglais

In 1950 Melbourne, Australia was physically a nineteenth century city and socially and economically clinging to its past glories as the largest and richest city in the country.By the 1970s it realised that it needed to reassert its position over its rival, Sydney. After a short flirtation with American modernism and attempting to turn itself into an antipodean version of Los Angeles it struck out in a new direction which built on its prodigious architectural and social heritage.The paper will describe this journey, but in particular highlight the role that heritage conservation played in establishing Melbourne as an attractive, vibrant, economically dynamic and cultural city. How Melbourne movedfrom seeing its history and heritage as an economic impediment to embracing it as a valuable asset. It will point to several lessons, including: 1. the role of the past in determining the future of a place, 2. the need to search for new social and economic opportunities, 3. maintaining a broad view of what is important about a place and the limitations of simply preserving monuments, and 4. the importance of activism in establishing a political agenda.The paper will not be a hard edged economic paper, but rather a descriptive piece focussed on the adoption of different planning strategies and their impact in terms of population, economic activity and social outcomes.

Document joint

IV-3-Article7_Tonkin.pdf

Licence

Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (BY-NC)