2005 International Symposium-Urban Renovation in Asia I

Date: 8, Oct. 2005 (Sat) 13：00-17：00
Place: Large/medium meeting rooms, '80 Building, Ichigaya Campus of Hosei Univ.

"Renovation of Public Spaces in Historic Center of Macau"
Engineer, Instituto Para Os Assuntos Civicos e Municipais, Macao
Francisco Vizeu Pinheiro
Macau has a long history of relationship with Portugal, as a meeting point of western and eastern cultures and races, where the prosperity and decline were repeatedly observed. This report focused on the following themes.
１．Formation process of Macau as a trade city
２．Urban development and problems resulted from recent highly-dense city and gambling business
３．Regeneration of squares and conservation of historic center
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Macau had been a small fishing place for a few fishermen before Lusitanian came to the place. In the period when Lusitanian began to reside, many Chinese peoples including Indigenous Taiwanese and Hakka (KeJia) also began to live in Macau. Macau is composed of a peninsula and two islands; however in Ming and Qing dynasties, only the current peninsula area was referred to as Macau. The maps of the peninsula in the 17th to 18th centuries show that a town came to existence along with irregular city blocks based on the difference of elevation. However, the city area was limited within a castle wall. Lusitanian built the city within the wall, taking over various elements of Iberian Peninsula. Outside of the castle wall, Chinese villages and paddle fields spread. On the other hand, the city area within the wall was called a Christian City with many churches. In the later periods, a Chinatown was formulated along the inner bay within the wall. In the 19th and 20th centuries, city blocks were found outside of the castle wall, and streets were built both in the grid and the radial patterns in the old paddy fields based on the city planning. The castle wall had been already destroyed before that time. The city development conducted in 1914 lead to the construction of Almeida Ribeiro（新馬路）street in the old city area within the wall. The long history of mixture of Western and Eastern elements affects Macau as we can see in western fa_ade and eastern room plans. As described above, the old city of Macau was built by Lusitanian, and the Chinatown was formed along the sea. The present city was built through modernization processes such as urban planning and city development.
Macau is suffering from rapid increase of population. The reclamation and high-rise buildings have provided the solution for the problem until now; however, such urban developments put the pressure to the narrow land, as well as to the conservation of the historic area. The regalization of gambling business in the modern period, and tourists for casino in recent years, are exacerbating traffic jam. As parking lots are always insufficient, vehicles are parked in the square in front of the church.
The historic center of Macau has been recently named to the UNESCO list of world heritage. The renovation plan includes the solution to various problems, and the planning for old streets lined with historic buildings as gathering places. Although the Senado square along the old street and St. Domingo square were once the place for the communication such as gambling and commerce, they have been transformed into roadways or parking areas in the modernization process. For renovation of the square, waterworks were built so as to limit the area only for pedestrians by blocking the vehicle traffic. In addition, sidewalks and roadways were distinguished by cobbled with cobblestones (traditional Portuguese stone). The renovation led to the 4-times increase of the land price around the squares, bringing about good effects on the businesses. It is worth noting that the appropriate use of 3Rs (Renewal, Rehabilitation and Revival) according to each site is important, instead of simply restoring the old condition.
The urban development such as reclamation is going on even today in Macau. The waterfront area is experiencing a rush to build casinos and hotels, including the project of complex building, designed by Paul Andreu. On the other hand, it is important for us to recognize the risks of such development, and seek to renovate the city based on 3Rs. In addition, although the historic center is traditional residential area of Western people, I expect the future renovation will combining Western and Eastern elements.

"Historic and Natural Environments and Urban Development-Examples from Hsinchu (新竹) Station of Taiwan High Speed Rail and Settlements of Hakka"
Huang Jun Ming, Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, Chung Yuan Christian University
This report aims to clarify the conservation of farmland where land belief has been strongly rooted, from the viewpoint of urban planning relating Hsinchu Station of Taiwan High Speed Rail. LiuJia (六家) in Hsinchu was originally a land of Taiwanese aborigine called the GaoSha race (高砂族) until the 1730's, and was cultivated by Lin House (林家) of Hakka; the settlements were conserved named to cultural property. Lin House also cultivated farmlands, where buildings for worship ancestor remain. The self-sufficient farmlands have been formulated in the rich natural environment between rivers and mountains. These rich farmlands were watered by Tau Qian Xi (頭前渓) river for which a dike had been built in 1938.
The plan of Taiwan High Speed Rail proposed that in Hsinchu Station, the railway would be built near the district of the residential area for the people working in Silicon Valley, an important industrial area in Taiwan. In 1998, a corporation established for the railway construction concluded the contract with High Speed Rail Department of Taiwan government; the construction was being realized based on plans including the ones proposed by foreign planners.
Public facilities including a high speed rail, are typically built in peripheral areas such as farmlands with low land price, rather than existing urban areas. Therefore, LiuJia was selected because it was appropriate from the viewpoint of land price. However, because LiuJia was the farmland retaining the culture of Hakka, part of government officials and researchers started a movement to conserve its natural and historical landscape.
Farmers still cultivate the field beside the agricultural water, and inherited know-how concerning agricultural water can be found all over the town. However, it is regrettable that surplus clay from infrastructure development was left in parks, and stone monuments for land worship were stored in a place.
For the first place, specialists of landscape, architecture, ecology, and media, and government officials gathered and discussed the way to conserve historical landscape and natural environment. Then, workshops were held among future and present inhabitants based on the traditional settlement of Rinka in LiuJia district, aiming to obtain inhabitants' participation and information concerning living experiences for town renovation.
As a basic policy, it is agreed that urban planning and landscape conservation should be based on blue belt (river and irrigation water) and green finger (forest). It is important to conserve historical architecture and city with specialists of environment in conservation movement of Taiwan.
History and landscape of Shinchu are well retained by durable management and control systems among inhabitant organizations, and local governments.

"Early-modern and Modern Periods in Vietnamese Cities"
Assistant Professor, Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo
Shoichi Ota
The lecture focused on pre-modern and modern periods of Vietnamese cities, especially two major cities: center of northern Vietnam and the capital, Hanoi, and the largest city in the country, Saigon.
Both have developed based on water culture as the core city of delta areas; Hanoi developed around the Yellow River and Saigon around the Mekong River. However in the colonial days of France, these cities developed differently.
Hanoi had flourished as a capital of the dynasty until the 19th century. The city developed using a Miyako(city) in China as a model, comparing Chinese concept concerning soil, with water transportation in Vietnam. After the colonial epoch, the grid plan typical in France was introduced in the land with swamps still remained. In the next place, urban structure in Hanoi will be analyzed focused on the streets in the 36th Street district. The French government developed the old city core to improve sanitary conditions. This policy characterized the flat Hang Bac Street with sidewalks, and gas lights, and with water supply and sewerage systems underground. Before the colonial days, the Hang Bac Street was organized around silver; guilds of silver shops, ateliers, and money exchangers composed the Hang Bac Street as a core.
When reading the Hang Bac Street by a boundary line, we can find that the line was drawn in the center between the old streets. In the colonial times, road plan was implemented onto the existing town houses, causing the changes in boundary lines. In response to the growth in value of new streets grows as a commercial space, the city blocks also developed based on the formation of town houses along the newly built streets.
On the other hand, Saigon has been gradually formed in contrast to Hanoi. French engineer prepared grid and radial urban planning for half a million inhabitants for Saigon. The formation of city blocks is important for understanding the development process. The town houses are lined side by side In the Chinatown, Cholon. There are branches from alleys, and each alley separated the residence areas. The similar structure with riron (里弄) house can be found. A riron house is appropriate for horizontal development. Cholon is formed as a complex of riron houses. It is considered that Chinese residents and Vietnamese had large-scale landholdings following this system.
The urban renovation in Vietnam is in stage of development. Because of the intricate land ownership, most part of city center remains untouched. Large-scale development is realized in the suburban areas, where traffic jam caused by bikes are serious. SEA GAME (Olympics in SE asia) has been attracted and SEA GAME areas are planned, to prime the suburban development. The vacant lot of the SEA GAME are planned to be used as residential areas among the green belt. The castle ruin in the city core lagged behind the development because the site was military land; after the evacuation, National Assembly building was planned. However, many monuments of the dynasty were found in the empty lot. For their conservation by the archaeological committee, the site has become designated as monumental park. Therefore the National Assembly building was built in the suburban area.
On the other hand, similar horizontal development has been conducted in the suburbs of Saigon. Because pre-modern commercial and logistical networks are still working in the city core, town houses are still utilized. Conservation project of those houses are under examination. It is important to develop the area retaining the spatial characteristics of the town houses.