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“Vive Alameda”: culture and heritage-related provisions of the New Urban Agenda

Vive Alameda Habitat 3 Urban Village Project Six Years Later: 

From a Quito Neighborhood to the World, A look at Advances in the Implementation of the New Urban Agenda Through Culture and Heritage

In the framework of the High-Level Meeting of the UN General Assembly on the progress in the implementation of the New Urban Agenda

 

Date and Time:  Wednesday, 27 April 2022, 10:00 to 12:30pm 

Modality:  Hybrid (Online and In-Person).  In person location: Van Alen Institute, located at 303 Bond Street, Brooklyn, NY  11232.  https://www.vanalen.org/about/. 

Registration:

  • In-person: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/implementing-the-new-urban-agenda-thru-culture-and-heritage-in-person-tickets-316991910337
  • Online: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/implementing-the-new-urban-agenda-thru-culture-and-heritage-online-only-tickets-313853944597

Organizer: Instituto Metropolitano de Patrimonio de Quito (IMP)

Partners: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ecuador; Climate Heritage Network; International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS); Municipality of Quito (additional partners forthcoming)

Short Concept Note:  

This event will examine the state of progress towards implementation of the culture and heritage-related provisions of the New Urban Agenda. The event comes on the eve of 6th anniversary of the NUA’s adoption at the landmark Habitat III Conference held in Quito, Ecuador in September 2016.  The Habitat 3 conference was instrumental in advancing the global understanding of the role of culture and heritage for sustainable and resilient cities and human settlements. It occurred only a few months after the UN General Assembly had taken the innovative decision to expressly include natural and cultural heritage in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, through SDG 11.4. The amplification of SDG11.4 in the urban context can particularly be seen in sections 14c, 38, 45, 52, 60, 69, 97, 124 and 125 of the New Urban Agenda.

The April 2022 event will use as a point of departure the Habitat III Urban Village Project “La Alameda Historic District of Quito: Forging Heritage Tools for Urban Sustainability (Art and Citizen Participation).” The project is known informally as “Vive Alameda” after the Quito neighbourhood that was home to Habitat 3 and which is also part of the “buffer zone” of the Historic Center of Quito, the first city inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. 

This project was a collaboration between different community actors and various local, national and international cultural heritage experts. They came together to explore, experiment and examine the historical layers of fabric, values, cultures, traditions and experiences of the historic La Alameda neighborhood to test the cultural concepts proposed for inclusion in the NUA and to develop and showcase tools to implement them. The Project aimed to benefit the neighborhood through the creation of concrete cultural heritage-based sustainable development tools and also to point the way towards viable strategies, replicable around the world, to realize the potential of culture to drive sustainable urbanization, as expressed in the NUA.

Six years later, participants in the Vive Alameda project as well as partner and colleagues will assemble to consider the potential for culture and heritage in sustainable urbanism documented in Alameda and reflected in the New Urban Agenda – and the ongoing efforts to realise that potential.

Focal point:  Arq Angelica Arias, Executive Director, Instituto Metropolitano de Patrimonio de Quito. [email protected]

Select one or several themes the side-event contributes to (fighting inequalities, sustainable urban economic development, climate action, peace and security, localizing global agendas)

The event will focus on the treatment of culture and heritage in the New Urban Agenda, including the following: 

  • Promoting the ecological and social function of land, fostering ecosystem-based solutions to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns (NUA Sections 14c, 45, 69)
  • Quality, decent and productive jobs, including through the promotion of cultural and creative industries, sustainable tourism, performing arts and heritage conservation activities (NUA 60)
  • Leveraging of cultural heritage for sustainable urban development,  rehabilitating and revitalizing urban areas (NUA Section 38, 125)
  • Strengthening social participation and the exercise of citizenship, stimulating participation and responsibility (NUA Section 38, 125) 
  • Sustainable, dense, low-carbon, inclusive land use and territorial planning, including the upgrading of slums and informal, while preserving cultural heritage (52, 69, 97, 124)