VIRTUAL London Heritages Conference
Abstract
Our paper explores how the continuity of historic urban landscapes—across time and place—can contribute to sustainability and urbanism within the regenerating city fabric. Contemporary urban discourse tends to treat the preservation of historic urban landscapes and the advancement of urban renewal and regeneration as separate agendas, with little attention given to their integration. Our research proposes a definition of the notion of continuity in both spatial and temporal dimensions, encompassing tangible and intangible elements, as a tool for guiding urban regeneration planning within historic urban fabrics. Drawing on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) approach, we developed a conceptual model and method for identifying, characterizing, and evaluating elements of continuity. This enables the formulation of planning guidelines that integrate these elements into regeneration processes. We applied this model through site observations and archival research in the historic neighbourhood of Ramat Aviv, established in the early 1960s on the agricultural lands of the abandoned village of Sheikh Munis. Designed collaboratively by architects and landscape architects, the neighbourhood follows the garden city model and retains its original terrain and drainage system. Its open space network—comprising communal residential yards, boulevards, groves, and a commercial plaza—embodies the landscape’s continuity and preserves the site’s Genius Loci. Preserving the neighbourhood’s original structure and its tangible and intangible features strengthens and supports its urbanity, including walkability and sustainability. This is evident in the preservation of the natural terrain, water systems, and biodiversity, material and construction details, and most important the neighbourhood’s social fabric.
Tal Alon-Mozes is a landscape architect and professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion. She holds an M.L.A. from UC Berkeley and a Ph.D. from the Technion. Her research focuses on the history and theory of gardens and landscape architecture, with an emphasis on the cultural dimensions of landscape production in Palestine and Israel. Her publications address topics such as the gardens of pre-state Israel, contemporary Israeli landscapes, national and memorial parks, narrative approaches in design studios, and the evolving culture of urban agriculture in Israel.
Yael Sofer is a landscape architect and Technion graduate. She holds a master’s degree in education systems management and a PhD specializing in historic urban landscapes and urban regeneration. Since 2017, she has been teaching and conducting research in the Landscape Architecture Program at the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion. Since 2020, she has been involved in a research project for the Tel Aviv Municipality’s Conservation Department, focusing on urban landscape spaces developed throughout the city between the 1950s and 1970s.