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During this summer, I interned at Tsinghua Urban Planning & Design Institute (THUPDI) in Beijing, China. I participated in the Preservation and Utilization Planning of the Ancient City of Xiangyang as a research assistant. It was a great opportunity to work with Professor Zhang Jie, a leading expert in the field of historic district preservation planning in China. Professor Zhang and his team in THUPDI have given me meaningful suggestions on my thesis topic and future study plan and shared with me the present development of the Chinese preservation field.
This project aims to integrate and optimize the previous preservation plan of Xiangyang, improve the living quality of citizens, and boost the local tourism industry. The project team was divided into three task groups, namely historic research, planning design, and management planning. As a member of the planning group, my major tasks include planning and preservation policy analysis, current planning assessment, drafting design guidelines, developing market strategies for intangible heritage, and reference case studies.
The project was at initial stage when I took part in it. Our first step was to identify the preservation and development vision of the city according to policy and regulatory planning so that we could organize our work accordingly. Since I have learnt about US preservation policy in HSPV 572 Preservation Policy, this is a chance to achieve a more in-depth understand the difference between different systems. Our group worked together to assess current planning conditions and other proposals, providing me with a thorough view of multiple aspects that urban planners consider in design.
The Ancient City of Xiangyang was a designated historic city in China, which has a well-preserved historic urban spatial structure. However, only a small amount of built heritage survived. Therefore, it is very challenging to preserve and present the unique character of the city. A design guideline will help to regulate the building appearance of new construction around historic districts. To identify the local architecture style, I studied the local dwelling houses of Hubei Province and compared houses of different regions, finally concluding with the most iconic design of houses in Xiangyang. The final product include a photo collection and a form of descriptions. I referred to the practice of making design guideline in HSPV 572 in my work.
Although Xiangyang has many intangible heritage, they do not receive public attention. By referring to successful practices, we developed an operating process for marketization that includes major kinds of intangible heritage, in order to meet the need for local tourism development. I also applied some knowledge I learnt in HSPV 625 Preservation Economics when developing a market strategy.
Because the ancient city wall of Xiangyang survives partially, the project team decide to restore the whole structure through monuments and landscape design. I was responsible for reviewing the condition of the city wall and searching for design references. By studying cases of preservation design in different countries, I not only applied ideas about cultural landscape, which I studied in HSPV 538 but also got to know how planners and designers work together in preservation.
Overall, I not only practiced skills and knowledge that I learned from the HSPV program but also explored more about the opportunity and challenges in the field of preservation planning in China.