Colonialist Modernism Strikes Again： EU Urban Development Policy Takes a Big Step Backward by Embracing a Reactionary 20th
Century Ideology Governing New Construction in Historic Contexts
Abstract：We critique the 2019 European Union guidelines for historic preservation, which impose a modernist style on all recon-
struction. We fnd no scientifc evidence base for this action, but only a personal and unproven ideology that seems to
emanate from a group of politically powerful architects. As such, it is a propagation of the worst colonialist instincts of
early 20th Century Europe, typifed by "the 1933 Athens Charter" written by Le Corbusier. Globally, this ideology has
produced catastrophic destruction of historic buildings and neighborhoods everywhere, replaced by "weird buildings"
and fragmented environments that, as evidence shows, signifcantly degrade human well-being.
