Remaining Traditional Houses In Chinese Cities: Value, Preservation And Re-use, Based On The Situation In Chengdu

Old houses architecture is more and more disappearing from the ever developing Chinese cities. Most of the remaining houses are torn down one after one other, while high-rise buildings or fake ancient streets take their place.There are two main kinds of reasons for this. The first kind are economical reasons, the speed of development being very fast and the pressure from the housing market heavy; the second kind is due to the perception of this kind of architecture, which remains the symbol of a difficult past.After exposing the context of the situation, we will consider what laws and regulations countries in the West acquired in the past to protect the traditional architecture and to respond to the widening definition of heritage.An inventory of what is remaining now in Chengdu, China, and of what is threatened of destruction has been conducted. This has led to further results, like the analysis of the reasons of the non-acknowledgement of this architecture, its value elements and its absolute belonging to heritage. This not only allows the comparison with the Western present and past situation, it also suggests concrete ways to develop preservation projects adapted to Chinese cities, like moving projects or transformation.