Week 6: Preserving Older Cities

There are several reasons to preserve older cities:
- social (value that communities associate with them);
- economic (e.g. tourism – seen as authentic, branding);
- environmental (no demolition, no new materials, no new energy).
Older cities encompass landmarks, historic districts, palaces, churches, ordinary homes, warehouses, factories, power stations etc.
The strongest impetus for preserving older cities may very well be cultural e.g. rebuilding Warsaw after WWII so that there is identity and meaning.
Key challenge: adapting older cities to today’s needs of the present without destroying authenticity.

Historic preservation as a discipline started mid-19th century, and all cities have a movement of one sort or another.
The activities range from studying older structures’/settlements’:
- history;
- evolution;
- value;
- change and regulations;
- investment;
- re-use.
Preservation done usually in two ways:
- Curatorial (i.e. monuments), which treat buildings as works of art;
- Urbanistic (large territories), which hopes to create great urban environments.
Preservation differs from typical design and planning considerations in that it:
- takes specific interest in what has been inherited;
- accords priority to the cultural values of what is inherited.
Preservation practice has two parts:
- recognizing and listing historic buildings (e.g. in national registers; depends on significance and integrity of buildings);
- public policy (e.g. regulation and zoning) and design tools (e.g. design guidelines).
In the U.S., it has become clear that preservation movement have to leverage markets by spelling out the economic case for preveseration (e.g. tax credits).
One issue with preservation is its potential to be mis-used to oppose change or development.
Next lesson: adaptive reuse of old buildings.

In the same way that reduce, reuse and recycle waste, buildings can be re-used.
This is called adaptive reuse: giving an old/older building a new use to extend its lifespan instead demolishing it.
Adaptive reuse has many benefits:
- Environmental: buildings retain the energy embodied in them;
- Density: older buildings are on existing sites instead of building even further out;
- Economic: cheaper than building new;
- Social: preserves history and meaning to the community.
How not to do adaptive re-use: facadism i.e. keeps the front but demolishes what is behind.
How to do adaptive re-use:
- integrity and authenticity are key;
- ensure what is new is contemporary and recognisable and not just an imitation;
- layered i.e. old and new are distinct, reflecting their times (e.g. The Louvre in Paris)
- new is compatible with the old (e.g. Selexyz Bookshop in Maastricht)
Case studies: developments/buildings in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Amsterdam.
Adaptive reuse has to delicately balance development and the retention of authenticity and the examples/case studies show it is not always easy.
Next lesson: preserving industrial heritage.

As an economy changes, some industrial developments become redundant.
Instead of demolition, they can be adapted for a new purpose.
Older industrial developments are typically unique e.g.
- they are large and take a lot of weight;
- they also have a look that is now very fashionable;
- they have economic and social meaning to the community.
Examples: Tate Modern in London, Caixia Forum in Madrid, Museum of Steel in Mexico, Meatpacking District, New York City, 798 Art District in Beijing etc.
Environmental remediation i.e. cleaning up the industrial waste and chemicals from the site is often needed.
However, today, many factories are built to be demolished later, and there may not be much industrial heritage to be preserved.