What is it about?
Historical city centers play a vital role in defining a city's identity, memory, and sense of belonging. Within these centers, the commercial areas are particularly significant as they contribute to the vitality of the urban environment. However, due to rapid developments, many historic commercial streets have lost their importance and have been subjected to informal usage, resulting in the erosion of their historical identity. This study aims to emphasize the importance of renovating these historic commercial streets as they are crucial to a community's identity. The proposed methodology focuses on revitalizing these streets and prioritizing heritage preservation principles and criteria to foster local culture. The study suggests several steps for renovating commercial streets in historical city centers, accompanied by reliable criteria to preserve their historical identity. To achieve the objective, a comparative analysis was conducted, examining three international and Arab commercial streets. Ultimately, this research aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of best practices in rehabilitating historic commercial streets. By equipping urban stakeholders with knowledge and tools, cities can create vibrant, culturally rich, and economically thriving urban environments.
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Why is it important?
Historic commercial streets represent an essential part of urban heritage, reflecting the cultural identity, collective memory, and economic development of cities. This paper addresses the growing challenges facing these streets, particularly the deterioration of their historic character, changing commercial activities, and increasing informal uses. Its importance lies in identifying practical approaches to revitalisation that balance heritage preservation with contemporary social and economic needs. Through a comparative analysis of international and Arab experiences, the study contributes to a better understanding of effective urban regeneration practices and provides useful criteria to support planners, urban designers, and decision-makers in preserving the distinctive identity and vitality of historic city centres.
Perspectives
The study offers a broader perspective on revitalising historic commercial streets by considering them as dynamic urban spaces rather than merely physical heritage assets. Its findings provide a basis for developing context-sensitive regeneration strategies that integrate cultural preservation, economic revitalisation, and improvements to the public realm. Future research could extend the proposed criteria through empirical applications in different historic city centres, incorporating community participation, spatial analysis, and digital urban assessment tools. Such applications could help evaluate the long-term effectiveness of revitalisation interventions and support more adaptable, inclusive, and sustainable approaches to managing historic commercial environments.
Ahmed Aboulsaadat
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Revitalizing Historic Commercial Streets in City Centers: A Comparative Study, Journal of Engineering Research, March 2024, Egypts Presidential Specialized Council for Education and Scientific Research,
DOI: 10.21608/jer.2024.511564.
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