New approaches in Historical Settlements in China

Small settlements in China are becoming more and more objects of interest. Small settlements assume a key role, due to their value related to popular memory and identity, material culture, local construction techniques and traditional architectural types. These small settlements, therefore, are both a material and an intangible heritage to be preserved to ensure the preservation of the National identity and to secure suitable cultural and environmental development. Following these considerations, authors argue that the future of these settlements should not be related to their mere conservation and monumentalization in order to become just tourist and cultural attractions, but to the maintenance of the local communities and their lifestyles, commercial activities, and skills, as elements of the real essence of heritage. The maintenance of these cultural aspects, furthermore, should be associated with the conservation of the buildings’ traditional characteristics and style, in order to preserve the material memory. The future challenge will be the achievement of a correct balance between conservation and transformation, preservation and innovation, according to local and national requirements, in order to reach a suitable and sustainable development for the small settlements in China. The paper presents the results of a full-immersion workshop organized by Shanghai Jiaotong University and Politecnico di Milano in 2016 about the water-village of Liantang (Shanghai) in which the authors participated and the results of a thesis degree about the Hutong in Beijing discussed at Politecnico di Milano in 2017 with the authors as supervisors. The Liantang case-study (research): Built on the banks of one of the canals that form the Shanghai south-western territory water network, Liantang village is representative of a multitude of villages around China and, from this point of view, is a relevant and interesting case-study. The common issues are related to the demolition of buildings and the following generation of voids stuck in a state of waiting; the decay and the abandonment of inhabited contexts; and, finally, the absence of a subsistence economy. Authors think that research on these topics can help to define possible design best practices that could be generally applied to similar contexts. Authors synthesized this spatial reading into a diagram that shows a sequence of limits that divide the village and its variation related to the built elements. The proposed strategy aims to connect the public spaces of the canal bank with the interior and more secluded little courtyards that become an opportunity for slow and sustainable tourism, strictly related to the local activities and vocations. Authors propose the topic of “open spaces”, that are elements characterizing the actual historical urban system such as its buildings. Open spaces have different characteristics: they are public spaces – related to the environmental systems, such as waterways, and related to the commercial activities – and semi-public spaces – closed or semi-closed courtyards related to the inhabitants’ private activities. Briefly, the results of the intensive workshop suggest that as some houses are abandoned, they can be used as small hosting units. Actually, in our opinion, the main strategy for the village’s future is to maintain its current population working and developing local activities (such as artisanal ones). The proposal re-thinks the historical typology of the old buildings making some variation of the interiors while maintaining the same constructive techniques and materials present in Liantang (wood, bricks, glass...). As far as reorganizing the old village structures, the authors’ design indication would act on the morphological fabric of the village, reshaping the spaces and their relations, and developing again the relation between the commercial street and the public space present beside the river. Beijing Hutong (didactic research): With the emergence of Hutong, 3.000 years ago, the city life of Beijing changed gradually with the expansion of its typical quadrangles. The urban fabric of Beijing had been evolving into its modern appearance. On the one hand, the Hutong is highly related with the ideology of Chinese ancient imperial authority, which shaped the orthorhombic typology of Hutong in the early times keeping in consideration the climate conditions; on the other hand, the evolvement of Hutong also affected the development of the city. In the recent times, the Hutong in Beijing has changed dramatically. With the high-speed development of the city, the area of Hutong was encroached by new constructions. The existing Hutong was also suffering illegal addition and demolition, moreover, the traditional Hutong is not capable of carrying modern life. In order to preserve the fabric of Hutong and keep the sustainable development of the community, new intervention is urgently needed. This didactic work presents a project proposal that brings together temporality and permanence, creating the basis for a new community that aims to bring in new blood to Hutong improving the living quality of the neighborhood and activating the life of dwellers, meanwhile keeping the historical value of the Hutong, valorizing the old and adding new functions to the common open spaces. (Thesis work for the Master in Architecture by Zhaoyang Li and Wenjiun Zeng, supervisor Luca Maria Francesco Fabris, co-supervisor Gerardo Semprebon