UN cultural agency inscribes four new sites on World Heritage List

The new sites added to the list – designated by the World Heritage Committee of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as being of special cultural or physical significance – include the transnational serial site of the Architectural Work of Le Corbusier, an Outstanding Contribution to the Modern Movement, along with the Antigua Naval Dockyard and Related Archaeological Sites in Antigua

and Barbuda, the Pampulha Modern Ensemble in Brazil, and the Khangchendzonga National Park in India.

The sites were added during the 40th session of the World Heritage Committee, which opened on 10 July in Istanbul, Turkey, and closes today. The session was suspended yesterday due to the attempt on Friday to overthrow the Government of Turkey.

Architectural Work of Le Corbusier

The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier, an Outstanding Contribution to the Modern Movement, is spread over Argentina, Belgium, France, Germany, India, Japan and Switzerland.

The 17 sites comprising the property were chosen from the work of Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, who was better known as Le Corbusier, and are a “testimonial to the invention of a new architectural language that made a break with the past,” UNESCO said.

The sites were built over a period of a half-century, over the course of what Le Corbusier described as “patient research.”

The Complexe du Capitole in Chandigarh in India, the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, Japan, the House of Dr. Curutchet in La Plata, Argentina, and the Unité d'habitation in Marseille, France, reflect the solutions that the Modern Movement sought to apply during the 20th century to the challenges of inventing new architectural techniques to respond to the needs of society, according to the agency.

“These masterpieces of creative genius also attest to the internationalization of architectural practice across the planet,” UNESCO said.

Antigua and Barbuda

The Antigua Naval Dockyard and Related Archaeological Sites – the first property in Antigua and Barbuda to be included on the World Heritage List – consist of a group of Georgian-style naval buildings and structures, set within a walled enclosure.

With its deep, narrow bays surrounded by highlands, the natural environment of this side of the island of Antigua offered shelter from hurricanes and was ideal for repairing ships.

UNESCO underscored that the construction of the Dockyard by the British navy would not have been possible without the labour of generations of enslaved Africans since the end of the 18th century. Its aim was to protect the interests of sugar cane planters at a time when European powers were competing for control of the Eastern Caribbean.

Brazil

The Pampulha Modern Ensemble was the centre of a visionary garden city project created in 1940 at Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais State in Brazil.

Designed around an artificial lake, the cultural and leisure centre included a casino, a ballroom, the Golf Yacht Club and the São Francisco de Assis church. The buildings were designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer, in collaboration with innovative artists.

The Ensemble comprises bold forms that exploit the plastic potential of concrete, while fusing architecture, landscape design, sculpture and painting into a harmonious whole. It reflects the influence of local traditions, the Brazilian climate and natural surroundings on the principles of modern architecture, according to UNESCO.

India

Khangchendzonga National Park – located at the heart of the Himalayan range in the State of Sikkim in northern India – includes a diversity of plains, valleys, lakes, glaciers and snow-capped mountains covered with ancient forests, including the world's third-highest peak, Mount Khangchendzonga.

Mythological stories are associated with the mountain and with a great number of natural elements, such as caves, rivers and lakes, which are the object of worship by the indigenous people of Sikkim. UNESCO highlighted that the sacred meanings of these stories and practices have been integrated with Buddhist beliefs and constitute the basis for Sikkimese identity.

The World Heritage Committee has inscribed 19 properties to the World Heritage List thus far in 2016.