26/01/2012
UNESCO Warns that Wayward Italian Cruise Ships and Ugly Skyscrapers Threaten Culture
Blouin Artinfo, International Edition by Kate Deimling
The chief danger facing the sites on the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)'s World Heritage List isn't the ravages of time or unstable infrastructure; rather, it is damage caused by human interference. The organization is currently confronting a knot of problems that they say threaten World Heritage sites across Europe — and all are the result of modern innovation. In the wake of the Costa Concordia Italian cruise ship wreck off of Tuscany's Islo de Giglio, UNESCO has asked Italy to protect Venice by developing alternate routes for maritime traffic, forcing large boats to avoid the city. The organization has also warned London and Seville that new skyscrapers could overshadow historic buildings, and has threatened to take away the sites' prestigious World Heritage status.
UNESCO assistant director-general for culture Francesco Bandarin recently wrote to Italian minister of the environment Corrado Clini to express "longstanding concern" over the risk that cruise ships pose to Venice. In a statement released Monday, UNESCO accused the ships of causing tides that erode the foundations of buildings, create pollution, and dwarf the city's monuments. The Venitian Lagoon and the Basin of San Marco are both World Heritage sites, though maritime traffic in the area is high — according to the Daily Mail, 629 cruise ships passed through the City of Bridges last year. Venice mayor Giorgio Orsoni has already spoken to the port authority about the possibility of moving cruise ship terminals to the mainland.
In London, UNESCO argues that new skyscrapers threaten the "visual integrity" of the Tower of London and the Westminster Palace and Abbey. According to the BBC, a World Heritage Committee official expressed concern last month that there were no "buffer zones" between these sites and 20 new or ongoing real estate developments nearby. The main culprit is the Shard, a Renzo Piano-designed skyscraper that is 80 percent owned by Qatar. Due to be completed in May, it has already become the tallest building in the European Union.
In Seville, a 40-story skyscraper designed by Argentine architect César Pelli is being built across the river from a World Heritage site home to a cathedral with a bell tower (called the Giralda) that was once a minaret adorning a Moorish mosque. "The Giralda minaret is a masterpiece of Almohad architecture," UNESCO said. "[Pelli's tower] will end the Giralda Tower's unrivalled pre-eminence in the urban landscape."
It's not clear how British and Spanish authorities will respond to UNESCO's warnings, especially since the organization first drew their attention to the encroachment of these new buildings on historic sites years ago. According to El País, UNESCO's new report was leaked by city authorities, which led the paper to speculate that Seville's new city council may be willing to lower the Pelli tower's height. Although any actions taken by UNESCO could be an embarrassment to London leading up to the 2012 Olympics, a spokesperson for Britain's department of culture, media, and sport told the BBC that UNESCO's stance will not affect the granting of permits for new developments.
Critics in the British media have been divided over the skyscraper issue. In the Telegraph, Stephen Bayley mocked UNESCO's concerns: "Who wants to live in a dead place? The beautiful corpse of Venice never changes. Venetians do not like that: they take the first opportunity to leave for the mainland." But Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins took the warning as a call to action, writing that "as UNESCO rightly suggests, no city in Europe has shown less concern for the setting of its historic buildings than London."
The World Heritage Committee will address the cases of London and Seville at a meeting set for June. In both cases, UNESCO could strip the sites of their World Heritage status or place them on their "World Heritage In Danger" list. Other sites on that list include the Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan (where the Taliban destroyed enormous Buddha statues in 2001) and the Samarra Archaeological City, 80 miles north of Baghdad.
The chief danger facing the sites on the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)'s World Heritage List isn't the ravages of time or unstable infrastructure; rather, it is damage caused by human interference. The organization is currently confronting a knot of problems that they say threaten World Heritage sites across Europe — and all are the result of modern innovation. In the wake of the Costa Concordia Italian cruise ship wreck off of Tuscany's Islo de Giglio, UNESCO has asked Italy to protect Venice by developing alternate routes for maritime traffic, forcing large boats to avoid the city. The organization has also warned London and Seville that new skyscrapers could overshadow historic buildings, and has threatened to take away the sites' prestigious World Heritage status.
UNESCO assistant director-general for culture Francesco Bandarin recently wrote to Italian minister of the environment Corrado Clini to express "longstanding concern" over the risk that cruise ships pose to Venice. In a statement released Monday, UNESCO accused the ships of causing tides that erode the foundations of buildings, create pollution, and dwarf the city's monuments. The Venitian Lagoon and the Basin of San Marco are both World Heritage sites, though maritime traffic in the area is high — according to the Daily Mail, 629 cruise ships passed through the City of Bridges last year. Venice mayor Giorgio Orsoni has already spoken to the port authority about the possibility of moving cruise ship terminals to the mainland.
In London, UNESCO argues that new skyscrapers threaten the "visual integrity" of the Tower of London and the Westminster Palace and Abbey. According to the BBC, a World Heritage Committee official expressed concern last month that there were no "buffer zones" between these sites and 20 new or ongoing real estate developments nearby. The main culprit is the Shard, a Renzo Piano-designed skyscraper that is 80 percent owned by Qatar. Due to be completed in May, it has already become the tallest building in the European Union.
In Seville, a 40-story skyscraper designed by Argentine architect César Pelli is being built across the river from a World Heritage site home to a cathedral with a bell tower (called the Giralda) that was once a minaret adorning a Moorish mosque. "The Giralda minaret is a masterpiece of Almohad architecture," UNESCO said. "[Pelli's tower] will end the Giralda Tower's unrivalled pre-eminence in the urban landscape."
It's not clear how British and Spanish authorities will respond to UNESCO's warnings, especially since the organization first drew their attention to the encroachment of these new buildings on historic sites years ago. According to El País, UNESCO's new report was leaked by city authorities, which led the paper to speculate that Seville's new city council may be willing to lower the Pelli tower's height. Although any actions taken by UNESCO could be an embarrassment to London leading up to the 2012 Olympics, a spokesperson for Britain's department of culture, media, and sport told the BBC that UNESCO's stance will not affect the granting of permits for new developments.
Critics in the British media have been divided over the skyscraper issue. In the Telegraph, Stephen Bayley mocked UNESCO's concerns: "Who wants to live in a dead place? The beautiful corpse of Venice never changes. Venetians do not like that: they take the first opportunity to leave for the mainland." But Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins took the warning as a call to action, writing that "as UNESCO rightly suggests, no city in Europe has shown less concern for the setting of its historic buildings than London."
The World Heritage Committee will address the cases of London and Seville at a meeting set for June. In both cases, UNESCO could strip the sites of their World Heritage status or place them on their "World Heritage In Danger" list. Other sites on that list include the Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan (where the Taliban destroyed enormous Buddha statues in 2001) and the Samarra Archaeological City, 80 miles north of Baghdad.
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