Pu Yi no longer lives here: travel and works notes in China (abstract) — Rivista IBC - Istituto per i beni culturali della Regione Emilia-Romagna

Rivista "IBC" XIII, 2005, 3

Dossier: Destinazione Cina - Proposte italiane per la riqualificazione urbana

territorio e beni architettonici-ambientali, dossier /

Pu Yi no longer lives here: travel and works notes in China (abstract)

Piero Orlandi
[in charge of the "Asia Urbs Chn5-06" project for the urban revitalisation in Tianjin, on behalf of the Emilia-Romagna Region]

China's recent extensive development has brought about some very meaningful urban changes. The image of city that the visitors come across appears as the result of a project that basically sets aside the balance with the pre-existing urban, architectural and social aspects. While in Europe, despite wartime destruction, the centuries have left their mark in the artistic and architectural monuments, what is so striking in China is the "monumental absence of the past". As a consequence, the western world considers the negative effects of the Chinese development as a serious damage to the cultural heritage of humankind as a whole.

Some projects, including those described here, aim at reverting this trend. One of them is being developed by the Region of Emilia-Romagna with the support of the European Commission (http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/projects/asia-urbs/china.htm). The project named "Urban Revitalisation in the Former European Concession Areas in Tianjin (China)", that falls within the "Asia Urbs" European project, focuses on the urban re-qualification of the former French concession in the city of Tianjin (http://tjre.org). The author of this text (Piero Orlandi) is in charge of the project, to which collaborate Michele Zanelli, Franca Gasperoni, Sauro Mezzetti, Lodovico Gherardi, Lucia Giraldi, with the advice of Giampiero Cuppini, Pippo Corra, Roberto D'Agostino and "Ecuba", a company based in Bologna (Andrea Claser, Carlo Venturi, Marcello Antinucci, Duccio Pierazzi, Maria Grazia Mazza).

Currently, Tianjin is the third most densely populated city in a country that for some time has enjoyed a growth rate of nearly 10% a year. According to the data provided by Tianjin's Urban Planning and Design Institute, the city stretches on over seven hundred square kilometres, with a population exceeding nine millions. About ten square kilometres new buildings are erected every year. The infrastructures go hand in hand with this expansion: the connections with Beijing are being improved, thanks to the building of a high-speed expressway, and the course of the river Hai He up to the sea is the object of a development project proper: in the new harbour of Tanggu, one of China's most important free-trade, industrial and technological areas is being created.

In 2003 the sixth centenary of the city's foundation was celebrated and, also thanks to the pressure exercised by the national government, more careful attention is now being devoted to the historic architectural heritage left by the former European concessions which, until recently, had been considered as the disturbing legacy of the colonial times that ought to be erased rather than preserved. The European zone had been declared 'area of national interest' back in 1986, but until 2004, when we started collaborating with the local urban planning authorities, only 62 buildings had been considered of historical interest in the former French concession.

The pilot area selected for the project implemented by the Emilia-Romagna Region extends over 15 hectares. At its centre is the intersection between two streets that cross the river with two bridges one of which, situated north, is an old iron uplifting bridge. The main problem consists in matching physical and social conservation. Today, in China there are many cases similar to that of Beijing's hutongs (the historic alleys): in these very densely populated areas characterized by one-storey buildings, the inhabitants cannot be accommodated in the same neighbourhood after the conservative interventions have taken place, simply because the living standards do not permit to do so. Therefore, either some of the inhabitants are moved elsewhere, or the district is more densely built, causing the pre-existing building typologies to be radically changed. Both solutions are painful for architectural and social reasons. However, the situation in Tianjin is very different from that in Beijing, as typologies here are normally of little or no interest and can, therefore, be demolished and replaced with new buildings without compromising the image of the historic city, that was dramatically altered after World War II and greatly damaged by the 1976 earthquake.

In the other parts of this dossier, Pippo Ciorra and Michele Zanelli go into the Tianjin project; Elisabetta G. Mapelli and Alberto Sansi describe yet another project, called "Asia Urbs", aimed at the conservation of Beijing's hutongs; Augusto Cagnardi focuses on the work done in China by the Gregotti Associati International architectural design firm.

Andrea Claser - Tianjin, 2005