Living urban heritage: Defining living heritage within rapidly urbanising context, China

Heritage is defined as “our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations” by UNESCO. Due to its outstanding universal value, heritage conservation and management is becoming a global attraction among international institutes, national governments, professionals, practitioners, tourists, and local communities.

Modern approaches to urban conservation and heritage planning are promoting heritage as living, to be integrated in planning processes and contribute to the quality of life of their communities. Depending on the city, living heritage can embrace different aspects of continuity such as functions and communities, uses and users. Thus, the role of cultural heritage and its conservation is to promote wellbeing of both communities and their identities.

This proposed PhD research concentrates on understanding and measuring the evolution of living urban heritage, including its attributes conservation and community migration, using a World Heritage Site case study. Findings of this research will help us better understand living heritage and improve the way we manage cultural heritage in the modern world.

 

Ji Li (PhD)

Email: onebetterliji@gmail.com

Chair of Urbanism and Urban Architecture (UUA), Department of the Built Environment,  Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands