Speaker
Description
Cities with rich historical layers, such as Xi'an, continuously face a persistent tension between urban renewal and heritage conservation. This conflict may find resolution in the integration of archaeological sites into contemporary urban life, fostering both preservation and adaptive reuse. However, in the context of rapid economic growth, many historical areas are subjected to transformations driven by urban renewal, resulting in the erosion of historical continuity.（Pezzetti,2019）The fragmentation of historical traces in these cities has led to the loss of systematic readability, while the reconstruction of meaning for key historical sites has often been limited to superficial forms of individual buildings along prominent historical axes, with less consideration for the larger spatial organization that once supported urban life.（Pezzetti and Liu,2019）
Xi'an, as a representative example of historical cities, illustrates how architectural relics, embedded within the broader urban fabric, contribute to the value of individual buildings.( Miu,1990) This study focuses on the evolution of historical spaces along three main axes within the city’s structure. By analyzing several districts that continue to preserve and renew these historical axes, the research examines urban renewal projects in these areas and their impact on the overall historical configuration. It highlights the influence of these historical patterns on urban space and explores how these areas continue to play vital roles in contemporary urban environments. The research places particular emphasis on the continuity of spatial patterns that reflect traditional urban life, understood as a deep structure that preserves the memory of the city, and investigates their potential for identity reconstruction within the rapidly changing urban landscape.
This study positions conservation and urban renewal as two complementary actions driven by the same intellectual framework (Rogers and Ernesto,1958) , It explores how these actions can ensure the preservation of historical axes and spatial patterns, while also allowing for their integration into the current urban fabric, enabling the transmission of cultural meaning through urban life. Lastly, the study addresses the crisis of cultural identity in post-growth Chinese cities and examines the potential for creating new cultural spaces within the urban environment. By reconstructing public spaces through the lens of historical urban patterns, this research suggests that public spaces can serve as tools for re-reading and rewriting the city's history（Gennaro，2018）,transforming a state of cultural silence into an active process of uncovering and interpreting the city's historical structure.
References
Pezzetti, L.A. (2019) Layered Morphologies and Latent Structures: Reading, Decoding and Rewriting to Enhance Historic Rurban Landscape. Tongji University Press.
Pezzetti, L. and Liu, K. (2019) 'Rewriting: Architecture in Layers of History', symposium held at the Nanjing China Imperial Examination Museum, Nanjing, China, with participation of B. Bao, C. Dai, M. Ge, D. Han, H. Li, A. Lu, K. Tang and B. Zhang.
Miu, P. (1990) 'The Thirteen Characteristics of Traditional Chinese Architecture', Architect, 1990.
Rogers, E.N. and Ernesto Nathan Rogers (1997), Esperienza dell’Architettura, 1958. Einaudi, Milan: SKIRA.
Postiglione, G. (2018) 'L’intervento sull’esistente come “ri-scrittura” dello spazio', LetteraVentidue, Milan, Italy
| Keywords | urban cultures, spatial pattern, urban axis, reconstruction of meaning, rewritting |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
