Intangible heritage

Abstract

It is a common phenomenon in many developments that the old cannot coexist with

the new especially when our city is under rapidly development pressure for elevating

the city competitiveness. Many decayed urban districts have neglected the importance

of urban redevelopment. As a result, many featured streetscapes are disappearing.

There are many discussions and a huge public noise on protecting some

commemorative old districts because those unique streets are our local identities and

living cultures. There are two well known urban renewal projects recently - Lee Tung

Street and Wing Lee Street. The first one is completely demolished while the second

one has escaped from bulldozer thanks for an award-wining film. These two cases

exactly indicate that the fate of all decayed districts are either completely demolished

or completely preserved. Frankly, it is sad to witness our local identities losing bit by

bit, but the decayed urban districts are definitely needed to be regenerated to enhance

better living qualities. This thesis aims to examine a landscape approach to reimage a

streetscape for Lee Tung Street renewal project, exploring in a new way to sustain the

unique street culture. Intangible value is significant in streetscape. It is an image of a

city and a section of a city development history. The demolition of Lee Tung Street has

destroyed part of the development history and has erased a section of the city memory.

The proposed model aims to reframe the missing link in urban content and to sustain

the intangible heritage of Lee Tung Street.