Urban Conservation Planning in Southeast Asia

The vast Southeast Asia region faces formidable challenges to the conservation of its urban cultural heritage from population growth, intensifying tourism, economic and infrastructure development, and lack of institutional or legal frameworks to alleviate destruction of historic urban fabric.

This project seeks to improve urban conservation practice in the region by offering a series of short, intensive, and practical courses for Malaysian and other Southeast Asian urban planners and architects that emphasize internationally recognized urban conservation planning methodologies.

• Series of courses entitled "Urban Conservation Planning in Malaysia" that emphasized internationally recognized urban conservation planning methodologies for twenty participants in George Town, Penang, in 2012 and 2013, and in Kuala Lumpur in 2015
• Educational materials including technical notes about key concepts and instruments used by urban conservation planners, outlines of sessions and exercises used during the courses, useful bibliographies, and other related sources
• Series of courses entitled "Old Cities, New Challenges" for mid-career urban planners, architects, and associated urban conservation professionals from the ASEAN region. The courses taught participants how to manage these challenges in historic cities through the Historic Urban Landscape Approach, a holistic and interdisciplinary framework for urban conservation. The first course was convened in person in 2018 in George Town, Penang; and the 2021 and 2024 courses were convened online.

This project developed from the Built Heritage in Southeast Asia Initiative and a 2005 assessment of the initiative’s work, which identified a need for professional training and guidance on dealing with rampant urban development in the region.

The vast Southeast Asia region faces formidable challenges to the conservation of its urban cultural heritage from population growth, intensifying tourism, economic and infrastructure development, and, in places, a lack of institutional or legal frameworks to mitigate destruction of historic urban fabric.

Sara Lardinois, Project Manager, Senior Project Specialist; Sara Iwahashi, Supervisor and Senior Project Coordinator

Think City Institute