Regenerating the Tradition - Research on BaiTaSi

Contemporary attempts to modernize and rehabilitate inner cities immediately
confront several important issues.
The adequate provision of dwellings for urban inhabitants is no longer simply
a matter of housing but of the much more complicated task of community
development and of building coherent, useful, and pleasant pieces of a city in which
to live, work and play.
A second issue of importance is the manner in which older parts of well established
cities are to be regarded as being either more or less useful in their present state.
Today, in most parts of the world, it is clear that traditional urban patterns of
settlement are to be valued not only for their strict historical significance, but also
for their aura. Therefore, the concerns about appropriate expression must inevitably
acknowledge this tension between ‘old’ and ‘new’ for an appropriate balance.
The third issue is what types of urban strategy to employ within a broad
rehabilitation project. The idea of ‘Project and not plans’ emerged in urban planning
that many different well make and locally determined building projects, with some
coordination, was a better alternative than grand schemes and master plans.
Located just across Beijing’s Financial Street District on the west second Ring Road
and within the old Fuchengmen Gate in Xicheng District, with an area of around 37
hectares. It is a district with dramatic contrast between modern and old, rich and
poor, vertical and horizontal, which is the typical image of contemporary Beijing.
The area is famous for the mix of architecture in different historical periods,
including the White Pagoda Temple, which is constructed in Jin Dynasty (1115-1234),
Socialism Mansion in 1950s and plenty of traditional Hutong and courtyard houses.
In Spring Semester 2016, leading by Professor Xu Tiantian, 10 MArch students from
the Department of Architecture, the University of Hong Kong, tried to explore the
methods and possibilities on the regeneration in Baitasi historical district. Facing
to one of the most rich traditional and modern culture, this studio will seek to
incubate the possibility of architecture design based on urban design strategy in a
mixed community to root its way through the future life-scape by comprehensive
understanding across various scales of design. The studio will focus on critical but
practical thinking and methodologies that deal with the urban scale aspects of a
typical neighborhood in the Old City of Beijing and critically engage with problems,
challenges and issues concerning contemporary rehabilitation and renewal for
traditional community based on series of neighborhood research, analysis and
architecture design.