Global experts for historic towns: Leonardo Benevolo and Giorgio Lombardi’s contributions to UNDP/UNESCO Andean region programme

Italy’s policies for the protection of historical cities in the 1960s and early 1970s met with great praise from European countries and institutions at the time of their implementation. In the following decades, they became a model for architects and planners worldwide and particularly for large international organizations. This article focuses on the international dissemination of Leonardo Benevolo’s work during the 1970s, identifying three defining moments: the 1976 UN Habitat Conference, the meetings organized in the framework of the 1975 European Year of Architectural Heritage, and, notably, the consulting work for UNDP/UNESCO carried out in Latin America by Benevolo and his younger colleague, Giorgio Lombardi. In this context, one specific facet of Benevolo’s approach emerges: the idea that preserving historic districts constitutes an integral component of the modern city development. The article provides insights into how Benevolo’s approach to the preservation of historical centres was received, manipulated, and used by international agencies, local experts, and institutions in Latin America.