Co-curating the City

Universities and urban heritage past and future

Edited by Clare Melhuish, Henric Benesch, Dean Sully, and Ingrid Martins Holmberg

ISBN: 9781800081826

Publication: May 24, 2022

Open Access PDF £0.00 Paperback £25.00 Hardback £45.00

Download free

What is this?

Co-curating the City explores the role of universities in the construction and mobilisation of heritage discourses in urban development and regeneration processes, with a focus on six case study sites: University of Gothenburg (Sweden), UCL East (London), University of Lund (Sweden). Roma Tre university (Rome), American University of Beirut, and Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil.

The aim of the book is to expand the field of critical heritage studies in the urban domain, by examining the role of institutional actors both in the construction of urban heritage discourses and in how those discourses influence urban planning decisions or become instrumentalised as mechanisms for urban regeneration. It proposes that universities engage in these processes in a number of ways: as producers of urban knowledge that is mobilised to intervene in planning processes; as producers of heritage practices that are implemented in development contexts in the urban realm; and as developers engaged in campus construction projects that both reference heritage discourses as a mechanism for promoting support and approval by planners and the public, and capitalise on heritage assets as a resource.

The book highlights the participatory processes through which universities are positioning themselves as significant institutions in the development of urban heritage narratives. The case studies investigate how universities, as mixed communities of interest dispersed across buildings and urban sites, engage in strategies of engagement with local people and neighbourhoods, and ask how this may be contributing to a re-shaping of ideas, narratives, and lived experience of urban heritage in which universities have a distinctive agency. The authors cross disciplinary and cultural boundaries, and bridge academia and practice.

Praise for Co-curating the City

'Co-curating the City could prove a valuable read for any academic or practitioner interested to engage in a critical reflexive process on the multifaceted role of universities in producing transformative knowledge, challenging hegemony, and leading more participatory heritage and city-making practices.'
Built Heritage

Clare Melhuish is Principal Research Fellow in The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment at UCL and Director of the UCL Urban Laboratory.

Henric Benesch is Senior Lecturer in Design at Academy of Art and Design at University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Dean Sully is Associate Professor in Conservation at UCL Institute of Archaeology.

Ingrid Martins Holmberg is Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer at the Department of Conservation at University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

List of figures
List of Contributors
Acknowledgements

Introduction
Clare Melhuish, Henric Benesch, Ingrid Martins Holmberg, and Dean Sully

I. Critical Perspectives

1 The evolving role of universities in framing critical urban heritage discourse in regeneration contexts
Clare Melhuish

2 Universities curating change at heritage places in urban spaces
Dean Sully

3 Historic urban buildings in the university curriculum: the re-valuation of Haga, Gothenburg, as urban heritage
Ingrid Martins Holmberg

4 Deferred heritage: digital renderings of sites of future knowledge production Adam Brown

II. Sites and historical contexts, past and future Part 1 University of Gothenburg and UCL East (London)

5 From dispersed multi-site to cluster and campus: understanding the material infrastructure of Gothenburg University as urban heritage
Claes Caldenby

6 The dis-, mis- and re-membering of design education: understanding design education as urban heritage
Henric Benesch

7 London’s mega-event heritage and the development of UCL East
Jonathan Gardner

8 Building Back Better? Hysterical Materialism and the role of the University in post-pandemic heritage making: the case of East London
Phil Cohen

Part 2 Elsewhere: Lund, Rome, Beirut and São Paulo

9 Big Science and Urban Morphogenesis: The Case of Lund University
Mattias Kärrholm and Albena Yaneva

10 The University as Regeneration Strategy in an Urban Heritage Context: The Case of Roma Tre
Ola Wetterberg and Maria Nyström

11 Heritage from a neighbourhood perspective: Reflections from the American University of Beirut
Cynthia Myntti and Mona El Hallak

12 From Red São Paulo to Brazilian Neofascism: urban, political and cultural heritage in the making of a public university Pedro Fiori Arantes

Postscript - A collective reflection by the contributors

Index

'Co-curating the City could prove a valuable read for any academic or practitioner interested to engage in a critical reflexive process on the multifaceted role of universities in producing transformative knowledge, challenging hegemony, and leading more participatory heritage and city-making practices.'
Built Heritage

Format: Open Access PDF

56 colour illustrations

ISBN: 9781800081826

Publication: May 24, 2022