Historic Urban Landscape Approach for Historic Coastal Cities Regeneration: The Case of Rosetta, Egypt

Abstract

The concept of Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) was introduced as the latest UNESCO approach considering the ongoing debate around the identification, preservation, and valorization of cultural heritage. The purpose of this paper is to explore the potentials of this approach for the regeneration of Rosetta City in Egypt. This paper attempts to develop a comprehensive framework to finalize and perfect the existing plans. Rosetta City is known for its rich tangible and intangible cultural values and its unique coastal position that acquires an effective innovative approach to urban regeneration to direct future polices for the coastal city. The paper initially begins with brief overview of regeneration policies and precedent heritage conservation theories elucidating their transformation from place to people-oriented approaches. Followed by the rational of potency of (HUL) approach then, it demonstrates the different stances toward (HUL) approach from past best practices case studies in order to learn from their experience. Consequently, the paper attempts to apply and transfer the knowledge gained in the processes of regeneration of the city of Rosetta. Finally, this paper concludes that (HUL) seeks a balance between different dimensions through the maintenance of the human capital, the improvement of the efficiency of urban spaces, and integrating the objectives of conservation of urban heritage with socioeconomic development. Foremost, it explored the operation of HUL in the Egyptian context, promoting the mindset shift and revolutionized method mandatory by the (HUL) approach presenting a constructive initial step in the (HUL) journey.