ABSTRACT
A historic city, with its complex webs of relations and stories past, is often a bafflingly complicated system, and as such any attempt to summarise its identity becomes questionable. However, such efforts offer us an opportunity to better understand the role cities play in shaping our lives through their urban landscapes.
The author has been working on the practical solutions for Beijing’s urban conservation and regeneration. This paper attempts to step back and look at the city in its historical and spatial totality in order to expand our vision of the possibilities for the conservation and rehabilitation of Beijing’s unique architectural heritage. By looking at the city as a complex, contradictory organism, this study seeks to redefine our general approach to urban conservation and development.
