Modern legacy and historical continuity at World Heritage Site. The architecture of Giancarlo De Carlo in Urbino

This paper discusses how to incorporate twentieth-century heritage within an existing UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS), as it represents an implementation of the statement of Outstanding Universal Value (OUV). The work by Giancarlo De Carlo in Urbino is analyzed as a case study. The historic city was designated a WHS in 1988 as an outstanding example of a Renaissance capital. In the second half of the twentieth century, Urbino was the subject of a second renovatio urbis, mainly due to De Carlo, who led the renewal process of the town by developing a comprehensive master plan that entails both adaptive reuse and new constructions, characterized by a high continuity with the city’s history and landscape. Although De Carlo’s work is not mentioned in the OUV statement , the site’s management plan (2012–14) suggests enlarging the buffer zone to include modern buildings beyond the walled city. An extension of the WHS boundaries towards twentieth-century heritage—minimally quantitative but rich in meaning—and/or a review of the OUV statement would supplement the World Heritage List (WHL) with an unprecedented example of integration between modern architecture and a well-known historic heritage and landscape, resulting in better management of the site.