From Ambiente to Historic Urban Landscape. A conceptual history and its effects in today's landscape planning and conservation

While urbanisation rates are increasing exponentially, tourist industry tackles heritage as a commodity, local goods and values are overridden by global production and consumption models and our perception of space changes with the introduction in daily life of virtual space, landscape has assumed new connotations, broadening its significance, encompassing both natural, cultural and historical tangible and intangible heritage aspects. The new UNESCO Recommendation, introducing the Historic Urban Landscape as a "conservation paradigm" integrating conservation, planning and development policies and practices while recognising the dynamic nature of urban heritage, is of course the best exemplification of this transformation under way, which, moreover, indicates the way for a "paradigm shift". But is it really so? This brief presentation addressing the "conservation-transformation" issue aims to contribute introducing a historical perspective and a conceptual genealogy and analysis of the terms in question starting from the HUL (2011) and through the Townscape (1961) back to Ambiente (1913) hoping to enlighten our understanding today. In this sense from Gustavo Giovannoni's concept of "Ambiente /environment" -- better understood as milieu, encompassing urban and natural artefacts, tangible and intangible values and utilising art, history and science as his tools to cope both with planning and restoration -- to Gordon Cullen's "Townscape"; from one's "thinning" approach to the other's "infill", the aim will be to explore how our understanding of heritage has changed; when and how urban conservation was introduced; and which of the tools and/or methodologies used yesterday may be still useful today. In this context the PreservingPlaces methodology for monitoring tourist impact of the CNR-ICVBC experimented in the historic centre of Rome will be very briefly presented.