Shared Heritage

Financed within the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean actions initiated by the European Union, this joint research program aims at improving the knowledge on the architectural forms and urban heritage of the 19th and 20th century in the Mediterranean, in view of helping at its development. It concerns a specific component of the Mediterranean cultural heritage that has been shaped by the exchanges and circulations between its two shores. Such ?heritage? is currently in the process of being recognized, at varying rhythms and degrees, in the entire region.

The legacy of the past two centuries represents today a significant, often essential, share of the built landscape in most cities of the North and South Mediterranean. It is the product of the diverse urban transformations stemmed by the industrial revolution, European expansion across the Mediterranean, or local policies of westernization (associated with the Ottoman reforms, known as Tanzimat).

The main objectives of the program, to be achieved through joint actions, are as follows :

• To improve and support the knowledge on recent built heritage in the Mediterranean, particularly in the large cities of its southern shore. This is achieved through locating, pooling, and disseminating data that are currently dispersed, fragmented, and not easily accessible,
• To identify and promote forms of development and revitalization adapted to local contexts and based on exchanges of experiences between the two shores of the Mediterranean. This is to be reached through detailed analysis of key projects of rehabilitation, conversion, and revitalization, as well as studies of institutional apparatuses and regulations and of actual practices in this field,
• To experiment with new information technologies in order to ease access to available data and to assist in decision-making (building a specialized website and experimenting with Geographical Information Systems at the scale of buildings, which will in turn evolve into tools that can help in decision making and in sensitizing the public).

This program is led by URBAMA (a joint research center of CNRS and the Francois-Rabelais University in Tours) and coordinated by Mercedes Volait, and Romeo Carabelli. It associates 15 partners belonging to the academic, scientific, and professional milieus of nine countries around the Mediterranean: Algeria, Egypt, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Syria, and Tunisia.

It is scheduled for three years (2002-2004) and organized in sub-projects, each centered on a theme: "Repertoire of Knowledge and Sources", "Inventory of Instruments and Practices", "New Assistance Tools for Decision Making", "Key Elements of Rehabilitation", "Diffusion and Valorization", "Assessments and Recommendations". It should be wrapped up by a series of publications accounting for the various concluded investigations.

Information: www.patrimoinespartages.org
Contact: carabelli@univ-tours.fr or volait@univ-tours.fr