17 June 2025

On June 9 and 10, 2025, the city of Cordoba hosted the very first CityLab organized as part of the OWHC’s Cordoba Path program. This collaborative, one-off, thematic workshop format allows member cities to explore key topics to feed into the collective writing of the New Urban Project (NUP), to be adopted at the 18th OWHC World Congress in Marrakech.
For this first edition, representatives from the cities of Cordoba, Marrakech, Riga and San Antonio gathered around the theme “Heritage Narratives and Urban Regeneration.” The objective was to explore how the diversity of urban and heritage narratives—often overlooked—can become a strategic resource for responding to contemporary challenges.
The program, structured around the methodology of the Faro Convention, combined:
- Field explorations through a heritage walk, including traditional patios in Cordoba and local citizen initiatives
- Critical workshops on dominant narratives, drawing on examples from the Venice Arsenal, the northern districts of Marseille, and the practices of the cities present
- Discussions on methods of inclusive governance with a focus on how to mobilize less visible narratives, people, and heritage and the associated values in line with the four strategic axes of the NUP: Requalify the Habitat, Refresh the City, Transform Mobility, and Regenerate the Urban Environment.

At the end of these two days of exchange, the participants began to formulate a collective set of shared statements that will be integrated into the New Urban Project and contribute to the ambition of placing residents, their narratives, and their heritage at the heart of the transformation of historic centers.
The report will be available soon.