People, place and space : investigating spatial heritage as a key determinant of spirit of place : the case of Pingjiang Road in Suzhou city

Abstract

As a native of Suzhou city, the author is particularly interested in his home city’s many “water-town communities,” which are traditional communities that have been developed over time along the banks of historical canals that can be found through the city. For his research, the author would like to use on a case-study example of a water-town community that the author is familiar with and very fond of. This water-town community is built along the two banks of a historical canal, and the banks are collectively named Pingjiang Road. The focus of the research is the space of this “road,” which is in fact a continuous linear community space that is traditionally used by the community for all kinds of activities related to their traditional way of living. However, in recent times, because of the demand in tourism and other modern conveniences, the space has been invaded by tourists and gradually undergoing commercial gentrification, resulting in taking over the use of the community space and replacing local businesses from the local community. The scope of this research is to find out what is the “Spatial Heritage” of the place, by cultural mapping the tangible and intangible heritage elements related to the community’s traditional way of living. The significance of the research is not so much about the result, as the scope can only be limited to sampling a section of this long canal-street, but it is about the methodological process of carrying out the research, so that it can be applied by others to complete the research. Through the confirm of “Spatial Heritage”, people will be aware of it and come up with more ideas about conservation of “Spatial Heritage”. It will contribute to the more comprehensive preservation methods of Pingjiang Historic District and provide a new view of historic community heritage conservation for the world conservation field in the future.