Multiple approaches to heritage in urban regeneration: the case of City Gate, Valletta

Abstract

Using heritage resources within local urban regeneration is rarely a simple matter of preserving some structures or relating some historical events and presuming that this will make some contribution to the contemporary objectives of regeneration. Buildings, spaces and historic narratives are not in themselves heritage but they can become it. This paper examines a single case seeking answers to the question, ‘how does heritage happen?’ and specifically explores the variety of ways in which built environmental forms in particular can be treated in order to use heritage to achieve contemporary regeneration objectives.