At the end of the course, students will be expected to: * Know and understand the main periods, themes, and approaches of architectural and urban historiography, as well as the historical processes through which buildings, urban spaces, landscapes, and material traces become cultural heritage. * Understand the relationships between architectural history, urban history, heritage studies, and the conservation, management, and enhancement of the built environment. * Understand the historical structure of contemporary cities and the interactions between urban growth, social change, heritage, and the memory of places in European and extra-European contexts. * Critically interpret architectural, urban, and territorial heritage through the analysis of material, documentary, cartographic, visual, and bibliographic sources. * Apply historical-critical methods to analyse buildings, urban spaces, and territories, connecting historical processes, spatial transformations, cultural meanings, and heritage values. * Communicate and discuss historical research effectively in written, visual, and oral forms, demonstrating methodological rigour, critical awareness, and interpretative autonomy.

Knowledge of the history of modern and contemporary architecture, disciplines covered in the basic three-year period, is considered a prerequisite. Furthermore, knowledge of historiography and the current debate on issues concerning the architectural and urban heritage is a fundamental prerequisite (subject of the obligatory introductory seminar for students enrolled in the course of study MAP).

The course develops a chronological, multi-layered, and multi-scalar approach to the history of architecture, city, and heritage, with particular attention to moments of critical transformation. Architectural heritage will be analysed in relation to urban and territorial processes, considering the connections between buildings, cities, landscapes, historical narratives, and environmental contexts. The course will examine the formation of cultural heritage as a historical process, with particular attention to the nineteenth century and to the emergence of heritage awareness in the context of industrialisation, urbanisation, and modern state-building. The construction of heritage values, the role of institutions, the contribution of different disciplines and forms of expertise, and the circulation of debates, tools, and conservation practices across different countries will be discussed. A specific focus will be given to the relationship between architectural history, urban history, town planning, and heritage recognition. Through the analysis of different cities and territories in Europe and beyond, the course will investigate how buildings, urban spaces, monuments, infrastructures, landscapes, and ordinary environments become objects of historical interpretation, public memory, conservation, and valorisation. The course will also address the role of images, representations, and imaginaries in processes of heritagisation. Visual sources, maps, photographs, drawings, urban views, and other forms of representation will be considered not only as documents, but also as instruments through which heritage meanings are produced, circulated, contested, and transformed. The twentieth century will be studied through the impact of wars, post-war reconstruction, urban modernization, heritage loss, and the redefinition of historic cities. The theme of heritage at risk will be further explored through different types of disasters, conflicts, environmental transformations, and reconstruction processes in multiple geographical contexts. The impact of the digital age on the history of architecture, cities, and heritage will be addressed as a cross-cutting issue. Digital tools and sources will be discussed in relation to historical research, heritage documentation, public communication, and the changing ways in which architectural and urban heritage is studied, represented, and interpreted. The course will encourage students to reflect on the relationship between global and local approaches to heritage. Particular attention will be paid to postcolonial and gender perspectives, as well as to the ways in which heritage narratives may reproduce, question, or transform dominant interpretations of architectural and urban history. Students will work on specific case studies, individually or in small groups, in order to connect heritagisation processes, historical narratives, and critical interpretation. The final outcome will allow students to apply the methods and themes discussed in the course to a selected architectural, urban, or territorial heritage context.

The course combines lectures, seminars, historiographical discussions, and project-based activities developed through group work. Lectures will introduce the main course topics, providing students with historical, theoretical, and methodological frameworks for the study of architectural, urban, and territorial heritage. Seminars will focus on selected case studies, allowing students to discuss specific processes of heritagisation, urban transformation, conservation, reconstruction, and heritage interpretation in different historical and geographical contexts. Dedicated historiographical discussions will support students in critically engaging with texts, sources, visual materials, and different interpretations of architectural and urban history. The practical component of the course will be developed through student group work. Groups will investigate selected case studies by connecting historical research, source analysis, heritage values, and critical interpretation. The activities will include research exercises, group reviews, seminar presentations, and discussion of work in progress. The final outcome will consist of a research-based interpretation of an architectural, urban, or territorial heritage context. The course may also include guest lectures, site visits, and other external activities, depending on the availability of invited speakers, relevant events, and suitable case-study contexts. The course activities are generally organised as follows: * Lectures on the main course topics. * Seminars and historiographical discussions. * Research exercises and source-based activities. * Group work and project reviews. * Oral presentations and final discussion. * Possible guest lectures and site visits.

Bibliographical references will be provided during the course according to the development of the topics and the students’ research activities. Compulsory readings * UNESCO. (1972). Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. Paris: UNESCO. * UNESCO. (2003). Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Paris: UNESCO. * Lowenthal, D. (1998). The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. * Glendinning, M. (2013). The Conservation Movement: A History of Architectural Preservation: Antiquity to Modernity. London and New York: Routledge.  * Bandarin, F. and van Oers, R. (2012). The Historic Urban Landscape: Managing Heritage in an Urban Century. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. * Jokilehto, J. (1999). A History of Architectural Conservation. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Further readings * Choay, F. (2001). The Invention of the Historic Monument. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. * Harrison, R. (2013). Heritage: Critical Approaches. London and New York: Routledge. * Ashworth, G. J., Graham, B. and Tunbridge, J. E. (2007). Pluralising Pasts: Heritage, Identity and Place in Multicultural Societies. London: Pluto Press. * Graham, B., Ashworth, G. J. and Tunbridge, J. E. (2000). A Geography of Heritage: Power, Culture and Economy. London: Arnold. * Pendlebury, J. (2009). Conservation in the Age of Consensus. London and New York: Routledge. Hayden, D. (1995). The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. * Otero-Pailos, J., Langdalen, E. and Arrhenius, T. (Eds.). (2016). Experimental Preservation. Zurich: Lars Müller Publishers. * Winter, T. (2013). “Clarifying the critical in critical heritage studies.” International Journal of Heritage Studies, 19(6), 532-545. * Dinler, M. (2018) "The Knife’s Edge of the Present: Archaeology in Turkey from the Nineteenth Century to the 1940s." International Journal of Historical Archaeology (22): 728–745. * Dinler M (2021), "Formulation of historic residential architecture as a background to urban conservation". Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development, Vol. 11 No. 1 pp. 1–17, doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/JCHMSD-09-2019-0113 * Dinler, M. and Megarry, W. (Eds.). (2026). The Routledge Handbook on Cultural Heritage and Climate Justice. London and New York: Routledge.

Lecture slides; Text book; Exercises;

Exam: Written test; Compulsory oral exam; Group graphic design project;

Mandatory oral exam. The exam will include: a written individual test (40% of final score); delivery of final outcome of the working student groups (40% of final score); oral presentation of the outcome (20% of final score) Students in this course will gain knowledge about: - ability to move within different periods of architectural historiography (20% written exam) - ability to reach an articulated understanding of the relationship between the evolution of historical research and the social recognition of some historical objects as part of a "heritage". (20% oral presentation of the outcome) - understand the difficult relationship between urban growth (linked to constantly changing needs), the architectural and urban heritage and the memory of places (10% delivery of final outcome) - develop a critical approach in reading the historical structure of contemporary European and extra-European cities. (20% written exam, and 10% delivery of final outcome) - critically study the sources (material, documentary, visual, etc.) of historical research and interpret their meanings (20% delivery of final outcome)

In addition to the message sent by the online system, students with disabilities or Specific Learning Disorders (SLD) are invited to directly inform the professor in charge of the course about the special arrangements for the exam that have been agreed with the Special Needs Unit. The professor has to be informed at least one week before the beginning of the examination session in order to provide students with the most suitable arrangements for each specific type of exam.