Vienna Memorandum on "World Heritage and Contemporary Architecture - Managing the Historic Urban Landscape"

The Vienna Memorandum on "World Heritage and Contemporary Architecture - Managing the Historic Urban Landscape" is a document produced at the behest of the World Heritage Committee to provide guidance on regulating the needs for modernization of the urban environment while also safeguarding the irreplaceable heritage that constitutes historic cities.

Conference
During its 27th session in 2003 in Paris and following the debate on Vienna's proposed high-rise project, the World Heritage Committee called for the organization of an international conference to discuss how to properly regulate the needs for modernization of our daily urban environment, while at the same time safeguarding the irreplaceable heritage that our historic cities constitute. In response to the Committee's request, the World Heritage Centre in cooperation with the City of Vienna and ICOMOS organized the international conference ‘World Heritage and Contemporary Architecture - Managing the Historic Urban Landscape' which took place in Vienna, Austria, from 12 to 14 May 2005 and was hosted by the Austrian Government.

Over 600 experts and professionals from 55 countries attended the conference and discussed 70 case studies involving high-rise or contemporary architectural interventions in historic cities and urban landscapes of heritage value. There was widespread agreement that criteria and guidelines for conservation management of the historic urban landscape are urgently needed and that existing charters and recommendations in this regard are no longer sufficient.

Drafting and refinement
Draft Memorandum outlining such criteria and guidelines was developed prior to the conference by the Centre, by a drafting group consisting of partner organizations of UNESCO, which was circulated to the participants at the conference for discussion and comments. UNESCO's Advisory Bodies ICOMOS and ICCROM, as well as partner organizations OWHC (Organization of World Heritage Cities), IFLA (International Federation of Landscape Architects), IUA (International Union of Architects) and IFHP (International Federation for Housing and Planning). The debates and comments during the Conference refined this document into what is now labeled as the Vienna Memorandum, which was presented to and welcomed by the World Heritage Committee at its 29th session in Durban (South Africa) in July 2005.