(IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

The study concerns the multiple threats continually facing the world’s cultural heritage during crises. It intends to shift the interests of urgent reconstruction practices to the importance of building City Archive and explore its values for urban recovery and cultural identity protection. The paper would discuss how we might employ this concept of method to regenerate a destroyed space with an inherited cultural and historical significance. At the same time, it draws attention to the role of collective memory and active citizenship in relation to the city archive within post-war settings. This research aims to propose a theoretical model for continuing and reproducing features of City Archive as model of collective memory and culture-led generation of the historic urban spaces. The study would be pursued through a theoretical discussion, analysis of the scientific production and experiences that are related to such issues. It would apply also a qualitative method via field study and in-depth interviews with expertise in this archival field, architectural and conservation professionals, residents/immigrants who are known as local residents to the case study. The paper is timely research joining the ongoing ones to protect cultural heritage and shared identity. Thus, the hypothesis may be more open and could productively inform debates and practices relating to urban cultural memory. It would end with some concluding thoughts on the role of city archives in rebuilding war-damaged cities as well as in the spatial urban-based cultural memory studies and the broader theoretical and practical implications in relation to space, archive and memory. It would take the Old City of Aleppo as a piece of study for investigation after its massive destruction in the recent war but expands that exploration through a number of case studies. The paper positions its questions and objectives to investigate the roles of city archive and collective memory as tools for rebuilding the city and protecting its cultural heritage.