The Heritage Authority has started working on the draft Modern Urban Heritage Strategy as a key phase of the Modern Heritage Initiative action plan that was launched in November 2022, which is concerned with preserving important modern architectural heritage features that represent key elements that formed the memory and history of architecture and urbanism in the Kingdom in a past time period.
Multiple tracks and programs of the initiative
<The initiative is going through a number of stages, including the current stage of building a future strategy that includes various tracks related to the documentation, preservation and development of modern heritage buildings and sites in the Kingdom's regions, such as the tracks of inventory and classification of the initial list, architectural and urban documentation, registration and coding, restoration and rehabilitation, development and investment, as well as management and operation, which all fall under the main scientific programs identified by the Authority to activate the initiative, namely: The Modern Urban Heritage Exploration and Registration Program, the Modern Urban Heritage Documentation Program, and finally the Modern Urban Heritage Preservation and Restoration Program.8 criteria in the Modern Urban Heritage Initiative
The Heritage Authority has identified eight main criteria on which the initiative is based to select and register modern urban heritage landmarks and buildings: aesthetics, cultural historical value, scientific and technological value, landmark status, rarity, spatial context, current site status, and authenticity, so that the targeted building will be included in the National Urban Heritage Register after it meets all or at least four of these criteria.This initiative comes within the framework of the National Urban Heritage Initiative (NUHI). <This initiative comes within the vision of هيئة Heritage that celebrates heritage as a cultural asset. Based on its mission to protect, manage and enable innovation and sustainable development of cultural heritage components, the initiative is a response to the paramount importance The initiative's timeframe covers a key architectural period in the Kingdom's development journey, which has been closely linked to the changing building patterns synchronized with the economic and social growth that Saudi society has experienced in the past six decades.
The initiative also seeks to recover the memory of the buildings that embody this period, both those that still exist and those that have been lost or neglected in previous periods.
