A case study on the role of St. James’ Settlement (SJS) in facilitating community participation towards a heritage revitalization project : the Blue House Cluster (BHC)

Abstract

There always have strong tension between preservation and conservation of historic heritage especially in a fast gentrifying metropolitan city like Hong Kong. The Blue House Cluster awarded the highest recognition -Award of Excellence in The UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation in 2017 has ignited the hope of new emerging concept for both tangible and intangible heritage. The ten years long revitalization project with people-centred approach and bottom-up approach by St. James’ Settlement has received both positive and adverse comments in different stages. The community members – residents and neighbours are the focal point of Viva Blue House Project. How St. James’ Settlement gets involved and empowers the community members are critical to be reviewed. At the same time, the relationship between community members and St. James’ Settlement will be studied. Being the first case to execute the concept of “Retain Houses and Tenants” and as a community-led project, whether the operation strategies adopted by St. James’ Settlement for the Viva Blue House project can be a reference case for future revitalization project will be investigated.