Since Deng Xiaoping’s economic reform and liberalization policies in the 1980s, China has experienced accelerated economic development, and consequently, a high intensity of road planning and construction in many cities. Nevertheless, the protection of heritage site is not integrated as a component in road planning. As a result, many heritage buildings and structures have been demolished to make way for the roads, causing damage or destruction to those heritage sites. The lack of consideration for heritage buildings and structures in road planning, which leads to the destruction of these built heritages, is not unique to China in modern times. The examples cited in this dissertation illustrate that the development of road network has intensified after W.W.II, as such infrastructural development is critical to modern economic development. My home city, Anyang is experiencing the same “Road to Destruction”. As a prefecture-level city (地級市), Anyang is just starting to experience the intense economic and urban development that has already taken place in China’s first-tier cities (such as Beijing and Shanghai). The downside to this is that Anyang is repeating the “Road to Destruction” mistakes that have already been made (and sometimes corrected) by the first-tier cities. In this dissertation, I will elaborate on the case of Wenfeng Pagoda and Tianning Temple in my hometown to highlight such a mistake, which is on-going and, unfortunately, not likely to be corrected, with the aim of demonstrating the importance and urgent need for integrating heritage conservation with city planning. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

The aim of this dissertation is to test the feasibility of setting up a heritage trail on a non-historic campus as an effective educational tool to facilitate cultural identification among students. The ELCHK Lutheran Secondary School is used as a case study. Since understanding the place is fundamental to value-based conservation, heritage education for students should start from their acquainted environment with a sense of belonging. Existing external heritage resources provided to schools are not sufficient to meet the mounting needs for cultural heritage education. One’s own campus should be incorporated into the design of teaching and learning activities. In this dissertation, an in-house, on-campus heritage trail is set up on a non-historic campus, with neither declared monuments nor graded historic buildings, through a stakeholder participation approach. Major visiting points are determined according to an opinion survey of the stakeholders. The proposed trail can also be used for docent service for visitors and other orientation programs. The proposed campus heritage trail may only be operated on a pilot scale in view of its inherent limitations of small campus size and low degree of attractiveness. Its non-historic nature also implies lack of adequate funding for management and impetus for conservation. Nonetheless, implementation and evaluation of the proposed learning activities should still be tried out. If review proves that utilization of the trail is an effective tool to cultivate a sense of identity, continuity and belongings among students, the feasibility of the proposal can be verified. An ordinary school, as long as it is loved and has its own identity and individuality, deserves recognition and conservation. Regardless of age, non-historic places have to be taken care of with passion and enthusiasm before they can gradually evolve into more historic and precious jewels. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

Heritage conservation has become the hot issue since the well known public participated protection movement of Star Ferry Pier and Queen Pier. It made her to rethink her planning strategy related to heritage conservation issue. In 2007, the government announced the public participated heritage revitalization scheme. It allow public to participate into the revitalization program of the enlisted building heritage. In view of such change, this dissertation aimed to evaluate whether the revitalization scheme before and after 2007 is part of town planning strategy or just a compromise to the planning aspect. By the comparison of the revitalization projects of Wancahi Blue House Cluster, Tsim Sha Tsui Former Police Headquarter and Kom Tong Hall, the new town planning strategy could be better illustrated. Lastly, the paper would describe the British experience of building heritage regeneration. It set a good example for the Hong Kong Government in the improvement of town planning and heritage conservation issue. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

 The group cave-temples in Dunguang, Gansu Province of north-western China offer an unparalleled display of grotto art of over a thousand years from the fourth century to the fourteenth century. They represent a microcosm of ancient and medieval civilizations, providing us with enormous opportunities of heritage experience and understanding. However, these grotto treasures are extremely fragile. Over the centuries they have been suffering from serious deterioration and damage due to human and natural causes, and in recent decades the ever-increasing visitor load has posed even greater threat to the murals. The emerging trend of using advanced technology in the preservation and the interpretation of the grotto art offers new possibilities of remote access and interpretation which shall enhance understanding and enjoyment of the cultural treasures. This dissertation sets out to examine such trend of digital interpretation of heritage in off-site scenarios. The research includes a background of the study, the significance of the Dunhuang Caves, the application of new technology, followed by a case study of re-presenting and interpreting one of the Dunhuang caves in Hong Kong. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

Bats are always found in heritage buildings in Hong Kong, especially the vernacular Chinese-style buildings. This is because the natural environment which suitable for bat roosting is reducing and the structure and low disturbance of the heritage buildings are suitable for bats to roost. As conservation of heritage buildings arouse more and more attention in recent years, there are more and more conservation work projects in heritage buildings too. When planning conservation work in a heritage building with the existence of bats, what are the issues to be concerned? Since bats are protected by the Wild Animals Protection Ordinance (Cap.170), it will be an offence if works to be carried out which will hurt bats and destroy their roosts. However, sometimes conservationists seem face a difficult choice in keeping the bats or carry out the conservation work. The work may impose adverse impacts to bats such as destroying their roost and disturbing them. But keeping the btas in the heritage buildings without the conservation work, the building may become dilapidated or even collapse. As there is no comprehensive bat mitigation guideline for conservation work for heritage buildings in Hong Kong. Although there are some guidelines available in Europe and USA, are they applicable in Hong Kong? The aim of this dissertation is to provide a preliminary guide for building professionals/ conservationists to handle the bat issue when planning conservation work to heritage buildings with bat existence. The facts of bats in Hong Kong is studied then followed by the examination of mitigation measures proposed by Natural England with assessments and adjustments to fit the use in Hong Kong. Two local cases are studied and evaluation of the bat mitigation has been carried out. Finally, some points to note when carrying out conservation work in heritage buildings in Hong Kong have been discussed. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

In contemporary society with a rapid high-rise development, a growing number of tangible and intangible heritages are suffered from serious threats of destruction with changes in social, environmental and economic conditions. Despite heritage conservation and tourism development have been controversial issues in recent years; it seems that heritage conservation and sustainable tourism are always losing in economic or new developments. In this study, it aims to explore the relationship between heritage conservation and sustainable tourism, and identify local needs and aspirations on regenerating the area through data collection, and suggest three factors which shall be concerned and are effective to guide the future planning process of heritage conservation how to promote culturally sustainable tourism. There are two assets of heritage, tangible and intangible assets, both are significant for conservation, meanwhile, sustainability reflects to social, economic and environmental elements. That is to say, social and cultural issues are both importance of heritage conservation and sustainable development. However, social and intangible aspects, such as customs, lifestyle, culture, arts, are rarely concerned through heritage conservation as a part of urban regeneration in Guangzhou. Through theoretical investment and overseas experiences, this study suggests promoting culturally sustainable tourism. The recommendation emphasizes advocating sustainable tourism in a holistic view. Taking as a case study, En Ning Lu is an urban regeneration project which combine concept of the heritage conservation and urban regeneration, meanwhile, it has great potential to retain and promote local and Lingnan culture by enhancing sustainable tourism. Therefore, it emphasizes that the significance of the incorporation between heritage conservation, urban regeneration and sustainability, and through the three factors, namely politic, management of cultural landscapes and compatibility between new development and old town, to provide a workable suggestion for sustainable tourism, particularly in terms of cultural aspect. The proposed formulation for developing En Ning Lu serves as a sample for other urban regeneration projects in Guangzhou. And it is hope to guide Guangzhou forwards heritage conservation, urban regeneration and sustainable development via these recommendations that summarized in the study. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

Sustainable Development is one of the most important arguments now a day. How we can make our world more sustainable in nature is the most significant phenomena for all of us. It is very difficult to transform the old, traditional and historically significant places to a more sustainable and modern in nature without hampering their values and historic resources. Cultural significances of old historic places represent the sense of connectivity and provide a continuation of past experience to the present and future generations (ICOMOS, 1999). These are the old urban characters which shapes the modern urban culture and identity over the time. They should treat as the most important belongings of history to go forward towards more advanced future. Future is always shaped by the past. Hence if we forget our history; it would be very difficult to get proper guidelines for future development. It is necessary for us to preserve our deteriorating heritage resources to develop our own future. However, globalization, rapid and uncontrolled urbanization and technological advancement make these attempt challenging. Urban heritage conservation in a very integrated way would be one of the solutions for conserving old values and ideas with their own traditional nature. Conservation with sustainable manner should be taken as the top priority in all development planning agendas. Moreover, proper urban heritage conservation can help to transform historical places as the source of history, culture and socio-economic advancement for the local community and can change unsustainable community into more sustainable in nature. Dhaka is one of the major old cities in South Asia. It has a various combination of historic places and communities which give Dhaka a unique urban character. It has long history of urbanization and this urban growth pattern has influenced mainly by the topography, socio-economic and socio-cultural characteristics along with inherent morphological quality. However over population growth, uncontrolled urbanization, poor infrastructure facilities and weak urban management contribute to deteriorating these urban heritages rapidly. There are several discussions about urban heritage conservation of developing countries but little discussions have found which has focused on the conservation with empowering local traditional economy to develop the sustainable community. By enhancing local economy through proper planning and policy and promote sustainable tourism can contribute to conserve heritage resources of Dhaka and support sustainable community development. Two historically significant communities are chosen for representing Dhaka‟s heritage which is unique in nature for their traditional professions, significant local arts, handmade crafts, life style, religious and social festivals, urban fabric and built heritage. These are Benarashi Palli at Mirpur and Shakhari Bazaar at old Dhaka. They had a self-sustained economy in the past which becomes declining day by day due to rapid and poor urban development management and ignorance of historical values and ideas. However, still these two communities are trying to survive with their own efforts and make them represented of the glorious past to us. The main focus of this study is to revive their past well-sustained economic conditions with proper conservation of heritage resources and community participation. At the same time explore several guidelines of comprehensive conservation for sustainable urban community in Dhaka. The research identifies that there is a severe lacking of integrated conservation policies in Dhaka. In fact, the importance of heritage conservation is still very far away from national planning policies in Bangladesh. Dhaka has several development control agencies however; they are not so well-integrated and well-organized to provide a comprehensive heritage planning policies for Dhaka as well as Bangladesh. Moreover, incompetent rules and regulations with scattered organizations make this problem more severe. The study has tried to incorporate all these issues and formulate a comprehensive conservation planning for Benarashi Palli and Shakhari Bazaar as well as Dhaka. Furthermore, the study tries to accommodate sustainable tourism for providing a sustainable urban economy which has always ignored in Bangladesh context. However, tourism could be a strong way of promoting heritage conservation in Dhaka which has already followed by many developing countries in South Asia. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

At a time when the world is becoming more monotonous under the effect of globalization, diversity has become precious. To retain the different colours of culture, cultural heritage conservation has been widely practiced in many countries. Starting from the 1970s, international conservation organizations have been advocating for area-based conservation. They believe that the goal of heritage conservation, which includes the conservation of both tangible and intangible assets, can be better achieved by conserving areas at an urban scale. In order to facilitate area-based conservation, many countries have integrated conservation with town planning. In Hong Kong, heritage conservation does not protect areas at an urban scale. It only serves an advisory function to town planning and fails to protect the landscape around historic buildings/sites. Under the fast pace of development, this building-based conservation approach has created a fragmented cityscape of Hong Kong as bits and bobs of historic structures are surrounded by incompatible features such as parking garage, flyovers, highways and skyscrapers. This ruins the spirit of the place, decreases the heritage value of the site and consequently diminishes the character of the city. This study attempts to improve heritage conservation in Hong Kong by finding out the feasibility of setting up conservation areas in the city. It explores the importance of heritage conservation, the significance of area-based conservation, and the success factors for setting conservation areas in Singapore, which has shown successful in preserving historic districts and areas of special character by area-based conservation. By reviewing Hong Kong‟s current practice in heritage conservation and town planning against these success factors, several recommendations are conducted at the end. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

It has been a long debating topic in Hong Kong for the controversy of heritage conservation and development. For so long, heritage conservation has been sacrificed for economic development in urban renewal and development. However, the society of Hong Kong began to be aware of the importance of heritage in recent years. The heritage conservation topic has became focus of the society, and a task for the government to deal with carefully. As part of the new conservation policy, the Revitalizing Historic Buildings Through Partnership Scheme has come to the scene as a possible remedy to the complicated matter by focusing on social values, public engagement and heritage conservation. The goal of this study is to assess if the Scheme is effective and efficient in handling the dilemma between development and heritage conservation. A project of the Scheme, Tai O Heritage Hotel, is being examined. By overseeing the result of this project, we could determine to what extent this new initiative has achieved in conserving heritage and social benefit. With extensive review on the conservation policy and relevant document, together with the interview result with stakeholders of the project, we could assess if the project is competent enough to make a new way for future development strategy in Hong Kong. The findings in this research reflect that the new initiative has been able to put more attention to the root cause of heritage conservation problem, such as preserving social values, engaging public participation, incorporating the doctrines of heritage conservation into business running. The Tai O Heritage is viable in operation and could stand a model for later projects. However, it is also noted that even the Government has aimed high in the Scheme, the public participation is still limited. The effort of the Government to put up a conservation policy is never to be minimized as it lines out the future practice of urban development. to a right track and put emphasis on social value, more attention should be put on the public engagement and its future course. The Government is suggested to learn from the result of this project in order to work out a more efficient long term strategy to keep the conservation policy sustainable. Social values, public engagement and heritage conservation should be run out on a balanced base with more practical measures such as education, public-private consolidation and heritage trust. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management