Transformation of Built Environments and Gentrification in Historic Districts: Case Studies of Bakklandet (Trondheim) and Dashilar (Beijing)
Creators: name: Li, Xin
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2023
Subjects: Community planning
History and theory of the built environment (excl. architecture)
Public participation and community engagement
Land use and environmental planning
Architectural heritage and conservation
Social and cultural anthropology
Cultural geography
Political economy and social change
Poverty, inclusivity and wellbeing
Urban community development
Socio-economic development

description: This thesis investigates the transformation of built environments in historic districts, the gentrification causations, and subsequent impacts. The comparison of case studies with a motive to make practical proposals was conducted to mitigate the negative gentrification impacts. The impulse was to understand the studied states and developments of selected historic districts, and followed by a research question: How does gentrification impact the communities and cultural heritage in Bakklandet and Dashilar? These historic districts in Trondheim and Beijing are both typical cases for studying the significant urban transition through policy changes and the transformation in their physical, socio-economic, and cultural characteristics. The importance of cultural heritage conservation has been gradually acknowledged by decision-makers, the value of preserved tangible cultural heritage has nonetheless triggered more investments, further transformed the built environment, and made negative gentrification impacts within the areas. While the concept and research topic of gentrification have been largely expanded in developed countries, the relevant community- based empirical study in China is still insufficient, especially for the discipline of urban planning and architecture. The three-theme theoretical model was hence generated by this author to connect the theory to research design, and a qualitative methodological approach was utilized for data collection and analysis. Throughout an exploration of similarities and differences on the causations and impacts of gentrification in case study areas, this thesis argues that gentrification can result in unsatisfactory cultural heritage conservation in historic districts by displacing the residents who are vital contributors to community and identity buildings; gentrification and inequality are results of class differences and capitalist nature of urban environments; negative gentrification impacts can sustain the imbalanced sharp urban development. On account of the overall diversified gentrification causations regarding different levels of citizen participation in the decision-making during transformations, the identified impacts on the communities and cultural heritage are similar in terms of the displaced low-status residents, preserved tangible cultural heritage, and overlooked intangible cultural heritage. Therefore, this study proposes addressing the common and different challenges of gentrification in case study areas concerning the housing policy, urban governance, and intangible cultural heritage conservation accordingly by the means of policy improvement, community building, and place-making.