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Slicker City

Experts from EU cities such as Rome are lending Beijing a hand in deciding how to protect its old city quarters

“Especially in the younger generations, we found a thirst for rediscovering the roots of a glorious civilization and culture, and a fear of having nothing but anonymous vertical containers”

In a rush to prosperity, many of Beijing's old buildings are being razed; many of the city’s traditional hutong alleyways are already buried beneath shiny glass and steel skyscrapers, new broad boulevards or even parks.

But some question this version of urban development and assert there is another way.

Salvation for the old city’s courtyards and laneways may be at hand in the form of a European Union (EU) cultural preservation programme that provides initial funding for projects involving cooperation between ancient European and Chinese cities whose residents want to conserve and rehabilitate old-inner-city neighbourhoods. Established by the EU in 1998, with an emphasis on cooperation between local authorities in Europe and Asia, the Asia Urbs Programme has come up with an effective model that can be used to better plan and preserve old city quarters.

Operating in China since January 2004, Asia Urbs wants to show that it’s possible for cities to engage in economic development without destroying valuable old—often historic—structures or without displacing local communities. Elisabetta G. Mapelli, PhD, an Italian architect with Asia Urbs who runs the organization’s Beijing programme, said local heritage must be considered a valuable resource that can be used to promote sustainable local development. In Beijing, Asia Urbs is most concerned with the Houhai area north of the Forbidden City. Programme experts are also conducting research, planning and architectural studies of structures in other local communities such as Qufu, the hometown of China’s most famous sage, Confucius, in Xingcheng, an ancient town in Liaoning Province, and in at least nine other local communities across China.

Many of Beijing’s older buildings have suffered great damage, according to Mapelli, who has worked on new buildings and restorations in historic Italian cities. Damage has occurred with recent urban redevelopment, but it has also resulted from too many people living in too small spaces, especially in Beijing’s siheyuan (courtyard homes) that were originally designed for fewer people.

Mapelli said: “What we see today is a rush toward a new status symbol, substituting the old messy and ruined horizontal city with a vertical city, which is seen as a symbol of success. It is a common belief that it is easier to substitute than to repair, and ‘old,’ for many years, was synonymous with underdevelopment.”

Learning from Europe’s ruins

Planners and architects from old European cities such as Mapelli’s hometown, Rome, have much to share with Chinese cities when it comes to the challenges facing conservationists.

“The destruction of the Second World War and a subsequent economic boom holds parallels with Chinese cities of today,” Mapelli said. “In Rome, as in Paris, there are still many rundown areas with interesting heritages that have social problems and undersized infrastructures. In the past 60 years, many parts of our historic centres were ruined by unruly development.”

Adapting a model that the Municipality of Rome has used to protect its buildings, the Beijing Asian Urbs staff has been conducting a feasibility study, gathering locals’ opinions, using surveys and focus groups. To overcome the “massive scale and cost” of restoration, the programme, Mapelli said, is trying to develop a formula that would involve private and public financing that would rely upon a possible transfer of development rights or other means.

But, it will not be easy to implement models from Europe in Chinese cities, Mapelli said. “It’s taken too much for granted that European cities work in the same way. To define a common line of action from Europe to Asia is difficult. At a conceptual level we are on the same line of thought, but things differ when dealing with ways of implementing laws and the gap becomes even bigger when trying to understand the economic factors involved in pursuing urban redevelopment with a particular attention to heritage and social issues.”

While attempting to bridge cultures, the Asia Urbs team has been trying to share European practises with Chinese planners. Though faced with problems, Europe has a “longer tradition of preservation” and stricter implementation of conservation laws, said Mapelli. “In Beijing there are general reference laws, quite correct in their concepts, but no policy for implementation to regulate development.”

Listening to local communities

Welcoming a chance to improve their living conditions, local residents of Houhai responded enthusiastically to Asia Urbs, which stresses local involvement in planning and, where local skills exist, in renovations. The programme’s staff are currently studying how to house as many low-income people as possible within the limits of the buildings’ original sizes, based on feasible renovation concepts. The possibility of providing incentives for locals to buy or lease their houses is considered.

Combining rabid economic development with protection of heritage and communities is tough in Beijing, which is rapidly being modernized in just about every way imaginable.

But “to a certain extent,” it’s possible, Mapelli said. Solutions must respect the original urban pattern though. That could mean restoring buildings to the numbers of inhabitants they were originally built for. “Currently people are living in spaces of less than ten square metres per person—the minimum should be between 15 and 20. Most of the families share basic facilities (especially water and toilets). It’s clear that it is not possible to keep all the people living in one area.”

But planners must try to understand who wants or needs to stay. Social change, argues Mapelli, needs to be taken into account, but planning can also help maintain a desired social mix and check a “strong and rapid gentrification process” which is causing “a great loss in the social heritage, which we believe is as important as the urban one.”

Preserving local communities, however, also depends on economic opportunities. Neighbourhoods located in tourist areas do better, but it’s also possible to offer “social or working activities that may attract people,” suggests Mapelli.

The Asia Urbs Beijing project is scheduled to end in December 2005, and it’s unclear if the programme will be extended. Aside from the publications and DVDs produced by the programme, the success of Asia Urbs may be gauged by how municipalities continue with the implementation of suggested projects. While accepting that financing from the EU or other similar international organisms could cover such a huge project, Mapelli hopes to see local financing for design and monitoring activities. She’d also like to see Asia Urbs recommendations adopted by local municipal governments.

But, being a realist, Mapelli said: “If truly enforced, it would be a great success. It won’t happen in the short-term, for it implies political decisions at many levels, as well sorting out issues such as that of property ownership and value.”

Hope for old homes

A continuation of the project, suggests Mapelli, could see the links formed between planning bureaus and universities of partner cities in training and exchanges on policies for preservation. Whatever the outcome, the involvement of young European architects and academics in the programme has already proved to be a great success, and “has opened many doors for international exchange both at a working level as an academic level.”

As Asia Urbs enters its final phase in Beijing, its staff has been encouraged by a new respect among locals for urban heritage, “especially in the younger generations, we found a thirst for rediscovering the roots of a glorious civilization and culture, and a fear of having nothing but anonymous vertical containers.” International pressure is also starting to focus local attention on the quality and community spirit of the old hutong neighbourhoods being destroyed.

Mapelli said, “Hopefully, the lesson that ‘fast’ is not always ‘good’ will take root in time to avoid further damage and loss and help in preserving the quality of something that cannot be reproduced once destroyed.”