Problems in the Conservation of the Ancient Architectural Heritage within the Contemporary Environment

All the countries worldwide are driving now more efforts toward the conservation of the historical centers and the revival of their role within the modern urban development from the fact that it contributes in the economical development and its socioeconomic benefits as a part of the community’s identity and their importance in the inspiration of new ideas for shaping the bases of the new city as well as its historical character. The international movement toward preserving the architectural heritage is now more urgent since the burst of modern needs combined with the erection of huge landmarks and structures within the cities has put the historical heritage in a shadowlike marginalized role which may cause them later to be dissolved within its contemporary surrounding environment, especially the vertical growth of this development, which destruct the visual context of the historical centers and put them in a situation to be considered as an obstacle for the development of the modern city. One of the main reasons of the disturbance of the historical centers is the lack of the legislations for the protection of the architectural heritage as well as the weakness in the conducted comprehensive urban plans to successfully implement the conservation demands. In this paper we are dealing with the historical centers recovery and protection within the contemporary environmental changes in some cities and highlighting some cases from Jordan and Italy to draw new methods in dealing with the disturbed and endangered historical centers by introducing new innovative scientific methodologies to revive the architectural heritage, simultaneously finding common characters between the old city and the new installations. In Jordan, we have several cases regarding this issue such as Amman, Jerash, Irbid and Umm Qais as well as Matera in Italy. What is common about these cities that the architectural heritage faced genuine threats from the urban development. Therefore we tried to make a comparative analysis among these cases to find the best procedures that could be taken to save the threatened sites not only in those two countries but also for general international cases. In other words trying to rehabilitate these sites and reviving there characters within the new image of the modern cities.