This paper defines conservation and sustainability in the context of historic cities, and establishes relationships with today’s concept of the sustainable city. The paper then relates how traditional approaches to architectural and urban conservation have expanded to recognise broader cultural heritage values, and evolved into an anthropological vision of geo-cultural identity and creative continuity than is process rather than object driven. The paper outlines differing approaches to urban conservation in practice, including a ‘top-down meeting bottom-up’ case study of Sibiu, Romania, and summarises the UNESCO initiative on historic urban landscapes. It concludes by summarising the challenge and opportunity for urban conservation to position itself as a determining component of sustainable development in the 21st century.
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