While cities such as Shanghai and Dubai are booming and others like Detroit and the Ruhr cities are shrinking, some European cities are also standing still. Traditional tourist cities such as Venice and Bruges, but also cities in Central and Eastern Europe that have recently discovered their tourist potential such as Tallinn, Vilnius, Krakow and Dubrovnik, possess city centres that are quickly being turned into open-air museums. The economic attractiveness of the heritage industry is tempting historic cities to museumise their built environment, resulting in sleeping cities designed to welcome tourists, but not to house residents. The question is whether such a focus on tourism will guarantee a sustainable future for these cities.

The paper was presented at the world conference of the International Federation for Housing and Planning (IFHP) in Copenhagen in September 2007. The title of the conference was 'Futures of Cities'. One of the main questions addressed was how sustainable solutions can help offer liveable environments to the world’s increasing urban populations.

The paper was also published on the MuseumLab website; a weblog with news, developments and observations on museum innovation.

The paper stresses that creative alternatives to the isolation and conservation of European city centres are needed. Cities should connect with the global and the local and focus on human scale. They should not only focus on their built environment and the polishing of it, but rather trigger a mental shift and apply a more creative approach to urban planning, because people can't live in museums.

LA Group
Michiel van Iersel (consultant on arts, culture, urban development & heritage)

/08/2007

research

Urban Policy > Economy knowledge & employment

Urban economy