title: Study of structural elements of an Urban regeneration in historic histricts -the case of the ward road gaol
Creators: name: Hernandez Murcia, Lenith Bibiana
Publisher: name: TU Wien
Year: 2019
Subjects: subject: Architektur
subject: Stadtgeschichte
subject: Architecture
subject: FOS: Civil engineering
subject: Urban Heritage

description: In order to know a society, one should read its cities, each chapter in history leaves marks in the city and urban landscapes are passive retainers of ideologies, manifestations and changes in ideas through the time. Since time and change exist in a dependent relationship, our cities may not look like they did 100 years ago and probably will look different in 100 years from now. Successive waves of development are reflected in the built environment, which has a remarkable capacity of adaption and redevelopment in response to the changing conditions. Meanwhile, people as the creators of space, accommodate themselves to their physical environment, in a reciprocal relationship where people create space but space also molds the people. As Palimpsests each city depending on its trajectory creates a distinctiveness that is directly connected to identity and sense of place. Historic preservation has failed to connect a concern for places with a commitment to people, preserving historic buildings more as art pieces in a museum than social fabrics in the city. Therefore, the aim of this work is to understand how urban heritage could be reintegrated into the cities as active elements of the urban social sustainability? With the strong conviction that the old and the new can work hand to hand in order to enrich and improve peoples life, and that urban heritage buildings are the perfect scenario holding key spatial and cultural characteristics to remember the past, live the present and improve the future. The international literature review aims to understand how to rebound the historic landscapes, the city and the people. Whit this purpose three main concepts are analyzed:- memory, heritage and scale, creating key parameters that a successful and integrative urban heritage transformation may present. Heritage buildings should be a good context where public memory occurs, evidence of the past is to be kept but also flexibility to the integration of new forms is to be considered and the attention to scale in order to produce a human-led result. These three parameters are the frame in which the case studies will be analyzed and are key tools for the final design as scope of this paper. This paper analyses the specific case of the Ward Road Gaol, a prison in Tilanqiao district, Shanghai, which have been present in the area for more that 100 years. From an historical view but also through a series of 9 graphics including urban elements as the green spaces, pedestrian network or the public transport infrastructure, its urban context will be explained. This analysis will highlight the position and relation of the site towards the city. The scope of this research is the reuse and reintegration of the Ward Road Gaol, a historical archipelago within the city. Taking in consideration the three resulting parameters of the literature review and the specific conditions of the site manifested in the analysis part. The complex will be conceived as a multi-used space that endures the urban social sustainability. Respecting the essence and the identity of the area but also allowing the integration of new radical interventions, achieving the coexistence of history and new social and urban development.
description: In order to know a society, one should read its cities, each chapter in history leaves marks in the city and urban landscapes are passive retainers of ideologies, manifestations and changes in ideas through the time. Since time and change exist in a dependent relationship, our cities may not look like they did 100 years ago and probably will look different in 100 years from now. Successive waves of development are reflected in the built environment, which has a remarkable capacity of adaption and redevelopment in response to the changing conditions. Meanwhile, people as the creators of space, accommodate themselves to their physical environment, in a reciprocal relationship where people create space but space also molds the people. As Palimpsests each city depending on its trajectory creates a distinctiveness that is directly connected to identity and sense of place.