Experiences Of The Historical Early-Modern Architecture And Conservation In Shanghai

The conservation of Shanghai historical early-modem architecture witnessed a history ofnearly 20 years, of which the attitude toward heritage conservation changed a lot, mainly in 3aspects: value system, institution, and practice. However, the development of its value system isthe most essential one and lays the foundation for the other two. This thesis looks back on theinstitution establishment and typical practice of Shanghai historical early-modem architectureconservation during 1988 to 2007 so as to examine and present the development of value systemand the idea of conservation behind the scene.According to main changes of problems with which the career of Shanghai historicalearly-modem architecture faces, this research split this 20-year history into 3 segments, which isdetailed stated in the first 3 chapters.The first chapter begins from 1988 to 1993, when the idea of Shanghai historicalearly-modem architecture conservation has just come out. Key problem during this segment is toestablish the conservation system and build up certain ideas. The landmark is the "Announcementfor research and conservation of outstanding historical early-modem architecture", released byMinistry of Construction of the People's Republic of China and Ministry of Culture of thePeople's Republic of China. Afterwards, the conservation of Shanghai historical early-modemarchitecture started in a large scale, which realized and strengthened the efforts and accumulationsfor the previous years. While the target of conservation is settled down, the system is establishedaccordingly.The second chapter begins from 1994 to 2000, when conservation of architecture anddevelopment of the city severely contradicted. The new-born conservation system was challenged,and conservation of architecture is faced with a complicated situation. After 1994, thedevelopment of Shanghai city has completely stepped into the period of old city reconstruction,which brought a big stress to the conservation of historical early-modem historical architecture,both in development and capital. This is a segment in the development of Shanghai historicalearly-modem architecture conservation, growing up in contradicts and struggles.The third chapter starts after 2002, when Shanghai wholly offered more appraisals andsupports to historical early-modem historical architecture. In the year 2002, the "Regulations ofconservation of Shanghai historical districts and outstanding historical early-modem historicalarchitecture" was released as a local law, which profoundly pushed the development of Shanghaihistorical early-modem architecture conservation. The conservation work witnessed an all-arounddevelopment in both ideas and practices, and in the same time, challenges.In the end, the fourth chapter briefly introduces the value system on the idea of "Monument"of Alois Riegl, the famous Austria scholar of art history, so as to bring a discussion on the valueclassification of historical architecture in the scope of social values, to understand the age-valuewhich accumulates along with the history, and to discuss the meaning and effect of value of timeon the conservation of historical early-modem architectures.