Bologna and Porto Historic centres: urban rehabilitation lessons for the contemporary debate

Abstract

The urban rehabilitation cases of the historic centres of Bologna, Italy, and Porto, Portugal, are object of reflection in this paper, with the purpose of revisiting their theoretical assumptions and updating the knowledge on them, for being remarkable references in terms of urban safeguard and rehabilitation. There will be promoted a discussion of the paradigmatic experiences of the rehabilitation of the old and precarious urban settlements of Bologna and Porto in the period from the late 1960s to the 1990s, considering their current resonances as a legacy that offers lessons for the contemporary debate on urban rehabilitation of historical urban sites. An urban approach is adopted for the problematization of such experiences, which are notable for having combined social and urban aspects in their processes of urban rehabilitation, conserving their local residents. However, these historical centres have not remained immune to urban and political processes, nor to scenographic and speculative interventions, particularly in Porto. They offer, therefore, new perspectives for re-reading towards the current processes of financialization of urban rehabilitation and gentrification of the historical centres, in spite of the current guidelines of heritage protection. This problematization assumes importance in face of the challenges of reconciling the current policies of revitalization and touristification of historical sites with the conservation of their heritage and identity - their landscape and their inhabitants