How to enhance architectural heritage? Answers with Ideal Knowledge

7th National Conference on “Built Heritage & Local Development”

In Amiens (Dewailly Cloister), October 13 and 14, 2010

Preserving, renovating, and enhancing their built heritage has become a major local development issue for communities, often for tourism purposes. It allows for the creation of direct jobs: restoration and maintenance, but is also a factor of social integration, with all citizens feeling a sense of belonging to cultural references. How can public policies that communities implement in this area of intervention be advanced? What is the role of the State in this approach? How can citizens be involved?

This is the purpose of the 7th National Conference on "Built Heritage and Local Development" that IDEAL is organizing with Amiens Métropole and the Heritage Foundation on October 13 and 14, 2010 at the Cloître Dewailly in Amiens.



THE CHALLENGE: DEVELOPING CULTURAL TOURISM

Twelve million French people participated in the French Heritage Days on September 19 and 20. Year after year, their scope continues to expand: beyond churches, castles, and palaces of power, the public also appreciates a whole host of less noble and prestigious sites that tell their own story: factories, suburban or rural town dwellings, old farms, oratories, mills, etc.

A true social phenomenon, this enthusiasm for heritage did not arise spontaneously. It is the result of an awareness and then a collective commitment, initiated by the State more than forty years ago, then gradually relayed by local authorities to preserve, renovate, maintain and promote all these heritage assets, individual or collective, strong in their proven historical, economic and social interest.

Heritage, whether built or natural, has today become a major issue for local communities in terms of local development, with tourist and cultural purposes.



AMIENS METROPOLE, A LEGITIMATE PARTNER

Amiens Métropole is very involved in the restoration and promotion of its heritage: its cathedral (listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site), its Picardy Museum and its archaeological and medieval collections, its Jules Verne house, its Saint Leu district, its hortillonnages... It implements a dynamic animation and promotion policy, characterized by great accessibility to all audiences, in particular children and people with disabilities: in 2008 it obtained the "tourism and disability" label. Amiens Métropole therefore has a strong legitimacy to position itself as a host community and main partner of these 7th National Conferences "Built Heritage and Local Development".

Beyond Amiens Métropole, the Picardy region, also very rich in high places and heritage buildings, has just acquired a tool bringing together all of its policies: the Regional Planning and Sustainable Development Plan which includes, among other things, the objective of restoring vernacular built heritage (vernacular heritage or small heritage can be defined as all the buildings which have had, in the past, a use in everyday life.)



PROGRAM THEMES

Over two days, a series of conferences and round tables will focus on:

- The revitalization of historic hearts

- The reconversion of heritage

- The preservation and enhancement of heritage through know-how

- Restoration of local heritage

- The attractiveness of a territory