HERITAGE ACTIVATION

Changping, China

2011-2012

The proposal seeks to find a balanced way of urban growth where the availability of plots it’s based not only on the land value but in the relationship between the natural scape and the urban scape and how the former is able to supply the basic resources to the new neighbourhoods.

The strategy utilized to structure the whole proposal is the water system since it is the basic element needed for any human development and its scarcity in the region will become and it is already an important issue.

Within this system two different sources can be recognized, one from the natural system through mountains (clean fresh water), and other one from the urban system, through the water used by industry and domestic activities (waste water).

Historical heritage was the reason for all this urban area to be developed, at the beginning as the sacred meaning of the tombs for the emperors, and nowadays as the prominent touristic attractions that comprises the thirteen Ming Dynasty tombs and the Spirits Way.The control proposed by the international institutions in order to protect this area is based on a restrictive – passive – approach that define a boundary that cannot be touched and some areas of “controlled development”. As this kind of approach has demonstrate to be non-practical and that not take into account the existing urban life of the place. We propose an active protection of the area, defining the way that the site can work as a whole balanced system, without voids that allows developer’s hunger to put their eyes on.

Landscape becomes a fertile field for new ways of development. Its intrinsic holistic features allow integrating multiple factors into the equation, relocating them all under a same common ground. Heritage preservation seems to be a relevant subject in forthcoming urban and architectural projects. First, because of the augment of preserved sites, and secondly because of the enormous increase of urban development. The project propose a different ways of interaction with the landscape, setting the bases for these new steps to happen. And to ensure that what we are preserving is not just an inanimate substance but indeed our historical heritage.