Don’t lose the “conservability”! : formulating conservation guidelines to protect key architectural elements before and after the adaptive reuse of bamboo houses in Xiguan area of Guangzhou city

Abstract

This dissertation would like to propose the hypothesis that a heritage building’s adaptive reuse is one of the most fundamental for successful conservation, as adaptive changes to a heritage building are to consider the existing use and proposed use, except for the demolition of significant fabric or cultural significance of a place, which, once changed, cannot be reversed. This means that in order to safeguard the “conservability” of a heritage building, the building’s adaptive reuse must be understood in order to carry out their protection through proper changes. To demonstrate this hypothesis, the author will study the cases of a heritage building type found in Guangzhou city’s Liwan District, known as “Xiguan Bamboo House”, focusing on examples that have been changed for adaptive reuse, to find out how this heritage building type can be better conserved in terms of their adaptation. Surviving examples of the Xiguan Bamboo House are not many, and many of them have been, or are being planned for, adaptive reuse to repurpose them from residential to other uses. The issue is that the adaptative changes of this unique heritage building type have not been investigated, and may result in irreversible changes leading to the loss of their “conservability.” This research is about Xiguan Bamboo House in Guangzhou, and the author wishes to use accessible cases found in Guangzhou city’s Liwan District that have now been changed for adaptive reuse and an intact house of this type to find out how they can be better conserved as well as to formulate conservation guidelines limiting to the building’s adaptive reuse so that this building typology can be better conserved and maintained.