The Sustainable Historic Towns working group was initiated by the Monitoring Group on Cultural Heritage Co-operation in the Baltic Sea States, and was set up in 2000 in order to establish firm cultural heritage co-operation in the area. The working group promotes preservation and sustainable development of historic towns of the Baltic Sea States by recognizing their local identity. The means used are to develop a common strategy, management and good practices for sustainable development in historic towns. Furthermore research activities are encouraged and innovative projects are promoted in participation with national, regional and local authorities, NGOs and other sectors.

The working group has members from nine countries in the Baltic Sea Region. The participants are experts from national and regional heritage boards in Finland, Estonia, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland and Sweden. From Lithuania the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University is also involved. A representative of the Russian authorities has taken part in two meetings.

The chairmanship is under the National Board of Antiquities of Finland together with the National Heritage Board of Estonia.

The historic towns in the Baltic Sea Region form an important part of local and regional built heritage. The urban fabric in these towns is under an accelerated process of development and change. Town planning is the legal instrument to steer the urban development and enhance the heritage. Planning and decision-making concerning urban heritage areas are mainly in the hands of individual municipalities, with varying resources. The complexity of sustainable urban heritage management needs cross-sector co-operation and further research to develop integrated strategic approaches.

The aims and goals of the Sustainable Historic Towns working group are:

The activities will focus on the creation of networks, exchange of knowledge and experience, and raising public awareness by organizing seminars and meetings between partners.

The first workshop 'Identity as a Cultural Resource - Small Historic Towns Facing Development and Change' was arranged in Tallinn in May 2001. The papers took up problems on the methodology for sustainable urban development on one hand and urban heritage protection on the other. Case studies were presented. The workshop presentations were published in a leaflet of 16 pages, titled 'Place Identity as an Asset of Development - How to Integrate Preservation of Urban Heritage to the Sustainable Development of Towns'.

The Conference on 'Contemporary Architecture and Design in Historic Urban Areas' took place in Riga in December 2002. The conference was attended by some 90 local and international experts. The papers discussed, for example, the questions of local heritage identity in times of change, the role of different actors in urban heritage preservation, and what the pre-conditions are for contemporary architecture in a historic urban environment. The conference opened a dialogue between heritage professionals, planners, architects, designers and urban developers as well as private investors.

The activities of the working group 'Sustainable Historic Towns' have also resulted in national reports on urban heritage preservation. They deal with the national legislation on urban preservation, methods on inventories and analyses and current tasks and challenges. These reports also form the basic material for the future activities of the working group.

In order to co-operate more tightly, the network has initiated the project 'Sustainable Historic Towns - Urban Heritage as an Asset of Development' (SuHiTo project).

The National Board of Antiquities of Finland
Ms. Margaretha Ehrström (Leader of the working group), tel. +358 9 40501

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Urban Policy > Urban environment

Cultural heritage