This article argues that current architecturally-oniented approaches to urban preservation in Beijing fall shortof addressing some key cultural concerns raised by neighborhood redevelopment. In order to clarify these ...This article argues that current architecturally-oniented approaches to urban preservation in Beijing fall shortof addressing some key cultural concerns raised by neighborhood redevelopment. In order to clarify these concerns and put Beijing’s situation in global and historical perspective, the article then reviews some relevant theories of urban culture and the cultural role of neighborhoods.In the West, questions of urban "character" and cultural "health" are bound up with relations between different classes and the maintenance of social solidarity. The most severe cultural problems facing modern Westerncities are socio-geographical segregation and the difficulty of finding a balance between social diversity and solidarity among the various communities that make up the city.In Beding’s Old City, the traditional layout of hutong (lanes) and siheyUan (courtyards) allows a diversePOpulation to live in close proximity, and provides a space for their casual interaction while guaranteeing eachresidents’ sense of security. Today, this traditional environment is being replaced by modern xiao qu (housingestates) designed to express the dwelling culture of an egalitarian and rather monolithic society. However, society today is becoming less egalitarian and more diverse. The current practice of redeveloping large blocks of theOld City as single projects does not consider this social diversity; it increases socio-geographical segregation by either relocating poorer residents out of the Old City or by concentrating them in special estates within the OldCity. The larger these estates are, the more their design tends not to accommodate the dwelling culture of themajority of returned residents.This thesis proposes that although any particular dwelling culture itself cannot be preserved, a diversity ofdwelling cultures-some new and some old-must be allowed to coexist in order to preserve the city’s overall cultural identity. The goal of redevelopment and preservation should be to encourage the development of different housing standards and types to meet the needs of different classes of residents, while guaranteeing a network of public spaces whose image and use is not easily associated with only one class of residents. In Beijing,urban preservation should mean that most neighborhoods continue to POssess the network and qualities ofhutong.展开更多
文摘This article argues that current architecturally-oniented approaches to urban preservation in Beijing fall shortof addressing some key cultural concerns raised by neighborhood redevelopment. In order to clarify these concerns and put Beijing’s situation in global and historical perspective, the article then reviews some relevant theories of urban culture and the cultural role of neighborhoods.In the West, questions of urban "character" and cultural "health" are bound up with relations between different classes and the maintenance of social solidarity. The most severe cultural problems facing modern Westerncities are socio-geographical segregation and the difficulty of finding a balance between social diversity and solidarity among the various communities that make up the city.In Beding’s Old City, the traditional layout of hutong (lanes) and siheyUan (courtyards) allows a diversePOpulation to live in close proximity, and provides a space for their casual interaction while guaranteeing eachresidents’ sense of security. Today, this traditional environment is being replaced by modern xiao qu (housingestates) designed to express the dwelling culture of an egalitarian and rather monolithic society. However, society today is becoming less egalitarian and more diverse. The current practice of redeveloping large blocks of theOld City as single projects does not consider this social diversity; it increases socio-geographical segregation by either relocating poorer residents out of the Old City or by concentrating them in special estates within the OldCity. The larger these estates are, the more their design tends not to accommodate the dwelling culture of themajority of returned residents.This thesis proposes that although any particular dwelling culture itself cannot be preserved, a diversity ofdwelling cultures-some new and some old-must be allowed to coexist in order to preserve the city’s overall cultural identity. The goal of redevelopment and preservation should be to encourage the development of different housing standards and types to meet the needs of different classes of residents, while guaranteeing a network of public spaces whose image and use is not easily associated with only one class of residents. In Beijing,urban preservation should mean that most neighborhoods continue to POssess the network and qualities ofhutong.
