Conversation on saving a historical community : a participatory renewal and preservation platform

CONVERSATION

ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

by

XU ZHANG

A Participatory Renewal and Preservation Platform

Bachelor of Engineering

South China University of Technology, 2013

SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS

FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE

AT THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY FEBRUARY 2017

0 2017 Xu Zhang. All rights reserved.

The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic

copies of this thesis document in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter created.

Signature of Author: Certified by:

S

MAR

09 2017

LIBRARIES

ARCHI~VES

Signature redacted

ignature redacted

I

gnature redacted

V Sheila Kennedy

Professor of Architecture

Chair of the D artment Committee on Graduate Students

CONVERSATION

ON

SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

by

XUZHANG

THESIS COMMITEE

Advisor

Takehiko Nagakura

Associate Professor of Design and Computation

Reader Caroline A Jones Professor Reader Skylar Tibbits Assistant Professor

CONVERSATION

ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY A Participatory Renewal and Preservation Platform

by

XU ZHANG

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to sincerely thank:

Takehiko: for guiding me throughout the whole process and encouraging me

to try out new thoughts. My thesis is a new challenge for me as an architec-tural student, and you supported me greatly while doing it and telling me the possibilities for different alternatives.

Skylar: for your innovation, thoughts, and bold ideas. Your enthusiasm and

vitality bring me the energy to move forward. Every time we met, I felt re-charged and full of interesting ideas.

Caroline: for your special kindness and patience in helping me make

my thesis more like a real thesis. I would have never thought about my thesis so critically without your critique. Your support from history, theory, and criti-cism perspectives benefitted my thesis greatly.

Yihan Xie, Runjia Tian, Danni Dong, and students from HIT: for helping me

crowdsource the materials on site.

Friends and families: in Cambridge and back in China, for your unconditional

CONVERSATION

ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY A Participatory Renewal and Preservation Platform

by

XU ZHANG

SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE ON JANUARY 19, 2017

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE

ABSTRACT

What if stakeholders, architects, and developers/bureaucrats could be in a conversation about preservation?

Community heritage in China is in great danger because of the lack of author-ity, financial support, knowledge of preservation, and requests for develop-ment. Local residents, students, and citizens want to preserve the history and living environment of the community but bureaucrats want to demolish entire communities and rebuild for economic development. Architects do not often have enough input and rarely collaborate, while preservationists try to save every piece of historical heritage.

Thus, a platform is proposed, here, to bring together voices from all the relevant participants, to democratically communicate between politicians and ordinary people, to create multiple architectural proposals for development reference based on crowd sourced materials. Furthermore, to establish also an experienceable digital world, archived from the evidence uploaded by stake-holders of heritages that are marked by bureaucrats for demolition.

In the end, win or lose, the stakeholders will have a digital archive and explor-ing tool of the former buildexplor-ing.

Thesis Advisor: Takehiko Nagakura Title: Associate Professor

CONVERSATION

ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY A Participatory Renewal and Preservation Platform

by XU ZHANG TABLE OF CONTENTS 1RESEARCH Preservation is Overtaking Us 12 Layers of Paradoxes 16

The Ongoing Preservation in China 26

Site Study 34 2. TECHNOLOGY Photogrammetry Modeling 44 Game Engine 48 Virtual Reality 52 3. PROPOSAL Persona Analysis 58

Process of a Crowdsourcing Platform 64

Scenarios 106

Virtual Reality Demo 116

4. APPENDIX

Interfaces 126

Final Presentation 140

5. BIBLIOGRAPHY

PRESERVATION IS OVERTAKING US

Every year, UNESCO announces increased cultural heritage, eroding our living space among these areas of nostalgia. The politi-cal aspect of UNESCO heritage is indiffer-ence and inhuman. It almost isolates space and turns a site into a place of "nobody." There are, however, many heritage sites,

e.g. buildings or spaces, still in danger that are not on the UNESCO or local govern-ment preservation lists. Although they may not be as famous as the Forbidden City, for the people who lived and continue living in such places, they are worth preserving. There needs to be a way of engaging with the occupants. These conditions need to be resolved in an integrated way of re-thinking preservation.

In contrast to Rem Koolhaas's

"Preserva-tion is overtaking us," Liang Ssu-Cheng

ar-gued that "the whole of Beijing City needs to be preserved." Because of political pow-er the benefits of economic growth, evpow-er more countries are now supporting the cri-teria of preservation provided by either lo-cal governments or UNESCO. Thus, an in-creasing amount of land, from a small-scale monuments to a large-scale sites, such as entire regions, are occupied, leaving less and less land for development. Neverthe-less, the preservation of old cities is im-portant. So, is there a way to consolidate and reconcile the two contradicting ideas?

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

Is there a place where this con-tradiction can be reconciled?

Preservation is overtaking us!

Rem koolhaas

The two contradict opinions toward preservation by Rem Koolhaas and Liang Ssu-Cheng

World Heritage Convention

4

1972-1980

Atnen-, C )a, tr for th P, oltin y, f HIistork c i ce ChaItr for the Conselvaion nd Nxa ConW ion Com ning th; Prit tiVn W lkd H i, '1'

Mon nk,' Returation of Monum)"nts andl it Of thei Wa i t uel W: I ,l Nait, Ik 1, /Veuus !)It; , tL,

World Heritage Convention

1991-2000

World Heritage Convention

5

4,

2001-2016

The dramatical growth of countries that support the various criteria of preservation

13 % League of Nations

1931

Add on

Southeast Facade 1799

Plan 1801

Southeast Facade Today

Extension

Plan 1806

Demolition

Barrack 1810 Barrack Today

Demolition

I I

Courtyard 1923 Courtyard Today

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

WHAT CAN WE SEE TODAY?

Castelvecchio Museum historical change: It has undergone several phases of restoration. Today, we can only see the final three stages.

When we discuss Castelvecchio Museum, we only know the version designed by Carlo Scarpa. But before his design, there were many design changes made throughout its history.

Regrettably, people only focus on the "famous," "well-designed" features of the museum but neglect the truth of its history.

15 XU ZHANG

LAYERS OF PARADOXES

As the scale of preservation expanded from objects such as monuments in 1790 following the French Revolution, to today's heritage of a cultural landscapes, the time span of preservation dramatically changed also, from more than 2,000 years ago to the present, or even ahead of a building's construction, preservation is overtaking us. Few architects, however, consider preser-vation an issue or of importance when they design. The globally increasing number of applications to UNESCO for

world cultural heritage status and its related tourist economy, however, should remind architects of the importance of consider-ing preservation, and design driven force is increasing. Furthermore, the categories of preservation continue to grow, such as factories, national stadia, concert halls, and so on. Preservation is now even being con-sidered before a building's construction. If, according to Rem Koolhaas, what should be preserved, exceptional or mediocre? Old or new? Prospectively or retrospectively? The dilemma is listed, below.

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

DESIGN VS STANDARD

The standard of preservation is ambiguous. Sometimes it is scale, sometimes it is the event, and sometimes it is the architecture. Most times, design and standard only differ a little. This small difference defines the unreasonable pres-ervation target.

XU ZHANG OXX

PROSPECTIVE VS RETROSPECTIVE

People have been preserving heritages for at least one hundred years, but now people pre-determine whether a piece of architecture should be preserved even prior to its construction.

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OLD VS NEW

Should all heritage of a certain age be preserved? Should all newly built buildings not be preserved? Defining the re-lationship between old and new is a key question.

19

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TEMPORARY VS PERMANENT

Sometimes, temporality means changeable. Therefore, should preservation be based on temporality to create al-ternatives, or should preservation be permanent?

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CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY ww

2

PRESERVATION VS DEVELOPMENT

The conflicts of land use caused by preservoion and de-velopment is difficult to negotiate. Because of increas-ing territory occupation by preservation, development is forced to proceed vertically, and the speed of development is slowing down.

XU ZHANG

-1

PERIPHERY VS CENTER

The typical model of Beijing preservation is based on its center and radiates to the periphery. But why could the center not be in another location? Why could the position of center and periphery not be exchanged?

P RIP

RY

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

CHANGE VS STASIS

The boundary is constantly in a state of change. Relatively, the center is usually static. Therefore, how can the chang-ing part be preserved?

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ALL VS NOTHING

All or nothing ore two attitudes toward preservation.

Ev-erything is well regulated and restored, meaning literally nothing is done to help the heritage protection. But it re-habilitates the neglected context.

NOTHING

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24 _{CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY}

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VS MEDIOCRE

What is exceptional and who dehnes that? If preservation protects things regarded as exceptional, should mediocre be preserved also? If not, what is the destiny of the me-diocre?

XU ZHANG 25 \ \\

THE ONGOING PRESERVATION IN CHINA

In China, because of colonization, political movements, and economic change, many historical cultural heritages have been de-stroyed. The preservation process and method, and how people treat these, is unique due to its complex context. The bu-reaucrat system always "renovates" histori-cal communities arbitrarily, without collect-ing ideas and voices from relevant people. In this section, several typical preservation methods in China are introduced. "Copy" is a way to reduce tourist pressure on the original site. Art installation illustratively gives visitors more information about the exhibited object. Faking ancient downs at completely irrelevant locations have

re-cently become very popular among tour-ists. Tourism development of existing cul-tural heritage maximizes the benefits from local government for better maintenance. Newspaper debates are the only way that ordinary people's voices can be heard to-day. Online digital tools could permanently

preserve vulnerable heritage.

No matter which method, there is a prob-lem with a lack of democracy. Stakehold-ers, professionals, and politicians never have the chance to hold a conversation about the preservation process. This is the current state of preservation of historical heritage in China.

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

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POLITICAL BACKGROUND OF CHINA

The deconstruction and damaging of Chinese cultural heritage has suffered four main time periods.

Commission for Art and Monuments

Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings Second Opium War National Revolution 1790 1877 1860 1916 WAR WAR

TIME PERIOD OF CHINA

colonizaton, war, cultural revolution, economic bloom etc.

27 XU ZHANG Second World War 1940 0 WAR the Reform and Opening Cultural Revolution 1963 0 POLITICAL

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COPY

FAKE EIFFELTOWER IN HANGZHOU, CHINA

Agricultural land surrounds this fake Eiffel Tower. Farmers work on their crops. This is fake "heritage," but how would one value it re-garding preservation? Should we not say that it is reducing the

pres-sure on the original site, thus "preserving" the original Eiffel Tower?

Source http://www.businessinsider.com/tianducheng-o-paris-replica-in-china-2013-8

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

2

ART

Al WEIWEI

REASSEMBLY OF A MING DYNASTY TEMPLE

Dramatic political change in the past destroyed the "order" of ancient Chinese buildings, including this one. Unlike the Western world system of industrialization and standardization, ancient Chinese architecture was more emotional and empirical. Therefore, what is preserved here, the physicality of this ancient structure, or the soft, visual, and psycho-logical intangibility?

Source http://chuansong.me/n/1455988

XU ZHANG

IMITATION

GU BEI WATERTOWN, BEIJING, CHINA

Gu Bei Water Town is a newly built, fake ancient town imitating the

water towns in southern China. It is fancy, heavenly looking, and ex-tremely popular. Ordinary people do not care whether it is an ancient town or not. It appears to "preserve" something that never existed. More likely, this is a "utopian" enclave around a metropolitan area that is only visually similar to what we call "antiquity."

Source http://www.360doc.com/content/16/0711/13/594424_574695811.shtml

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

3 30

TOURISM

WU ZHEN, ZHEJIANG, CHINA

Wu Zhen is a historical heritage site well known for its Qing dynas-ty dwellings. The so-called "success" way of "preserving" this historical town has been to commercially develop and manage the town via gov-ernment and large tourism companies. Because of the mass tourism, the soft heritages, such as sounds of street sellers, neighborhood relation-ships, and local resident life has all disappeared. Did they ask the local people for ideas on how to develop?

Source http://bbs.zol.com.cn/dcbbs/d321_ 7252.html

31 XU ZHANG

DEBATE

EN NING ROAD RENOVATION, GUANGZHOU, CHINA

En Ning Road is an ancient street in Guangzhou, China. There are many families who have lived on the historical site for decades. It is the center of Cantonese Opera also. Currently, there a huge debate and protest between the government and residents. The renovation is ignoring the rights of the residents, such as blocking the view of some dwellings. Both the government and residents want to develop and preserve. So, is there a better way to achieve this, rather than arguing in the newspapers? bxtr lIl .. .. U.1 . smagsgk0rn SouRce (lf)htp/ w 1 n qI umanesass01 *H.E.C.,~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ P I4 K Ik X0%193 C.arg pgnh 8'if.KW$"T$~~11 *1 r1~sy te T -* a usegENU flUam9U es ftfl

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Source (right) http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2O11-06-29/034922723118.shtml

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY 32

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DIGITAL

DIGITAL DUNHUANG, GANSU, CHINA

Mogao Cave is the largest Buddhist art gallery in China. Although this world heritage site is well preserved in many ways, it is still decaying and will eventually disappear. Online digital galleries consisting of a virtual reality cave, panoramic cave viewer, and high-resolution imag-es are available. This multimedia platform providimag-es both rimag-esearchers and the public free and simple access to the valuable cave.

;A i d l *iN ! -35 FEg 7 Source http://www.e-dunhuang.com/section.htm? XU ZHANG -E 3 3 206 1) 1FPRI

SITE STUDY

Harbin, Jingyu District

Many historical communities have been demolished in the pursuit of economic de-velopment due to local government. Many of these communities have much valuable heritage, not only meaningful to the lo-cal residents, but also precious to a city's memory.

The site selected for this study is in North-east China, which is deeply affected by Rus-sian culture. The community is now mostly a residential block, partial commercial. The major influence of Russian culture is appar-ent in the architectural style. Following the invasion of the Russian Empire in the early 20th century, Russian merchants built

Ba-roque style buildings in the area. Later,

this Baroque style gradually developed as it combined with the local Chinese archi-tectural style, becoming the so-called "Chi-nese-Baroque style." Furthermore, most of the city's famous food originates from this area. Citizens, visitors, and local residents

buy food there.

The local government decided to renovate the area commercially, however, (the ren-ovation is half complete) disregarding the opinions of local residents, citizens, and other relevant people. The other half is now in the process of demolition. So, what could be done to save this community as well as thousands of similar communities in China?

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

Authority

Democracy

Preserved Demolished

I~ZIA

Preserved as Authority and Demolished as Democracy

The Completed Commercial Redevelopment and the Ongoing Demolition

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BASIC INFORMATION ON SITE SURVEY Blocks Good Condition Medium Condition Poor Condition Not Relevant LQ Preserved by Authority

Historical Building with Some Historical Value Historical Architecture with Traditional Layout and Form

[I Historical Architecture without Traditional Layout and Form Irreconcilable Modern Architecture

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FAMOUS OLD FOOD SHOPS ON SITE

Historical Food Shops that Attract both Citizens and Tourists

XU ZHANG

I

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

THE INTENSITY OF PRESERVATION GROWTH IN HISTORY

Commission des Monuments (France)

I I 1 8 0

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1790 1880

Herman Hollerith develops a punch system used with the 1890 Census

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card

Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (UK)

1890 1900

US F deral Records Act of 19 iO expands the c efiniti >n of a record to ir clude

"mac ine-rmadable materials." The irst commercial co nputer,

UNIVAC 1, is introduce . I

Grace Hopper de velops the first conpiler, laying the foundations fj)r programming la ,guages.

Advanced Research Prcjects Agenc' (ARPA) is created by US Departrrnt of Defer se to ensure military leadership in sc ence and te hnology.

Inter-unive'sity Consortium for Polilical and Social Reserch (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan i established as a data arc hive.

IBM's Cambridge Resei CP-40 project to build t

machine) timesharing s)

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IBM introduces RAMAC, the first commer ial disk drive. It used 50 hefty aluminum disk:, stored 5Mb, occL pied the space of two refrigerators, and weighed a ton.

1960 C FTI #C, I UNI 4lALO -ETHI ,FLO- -RNEU TCP GUI BAS rch Lab begins th? ie first VM (virtual stem. ad in brint.

The term "microc:>mpul 6

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CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

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thur Scherbius begins m nigma machine, capable

I information. Enigma is erman forces in WWII.

inufacturing A committee at the US National Archives

>f transcribing determines that federal agencies (rather thai ater used by archivists) can determine whether records st in punch cards have historical value and sho

preserved.

Hollerith's "Computer ~bulating Recording Company" is renamed " nternational Business Machines Corporation" (IBM).

IBM introduces a rectangular hole punch card that becomes the industry standard.

First use of the term digital applied to a computer that operates on data in the form of digits or similar discrete elements.

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Yale Jniver sity's Projecd Oper Book begin ; a

com-rehersive feasibili-y stucy on the dig tal convrsion of mi rofilm d libra ry materiali

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The 4rst nrtional Preservation Week is cele rate,. eme to wins the 2010 Digital Pres rvatit Aw ,rd

Tenth anniversary of the Digital Preservation Management Workshop, Tenth anniversary of the Internationa! Internet Preservation Consortium

IETS wins the DPC Award for rch and Innovation for ananently changing the digital .rvation landscape nal D1gital Stewardship ce e blished.

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PHOTOGRAMMETRY MODELING

Photogrammetry modeling is a technology that can convert massive overlayed photo-graphs of an object into a 3D mesh model. Unlike a regular digital model of a set of 2D drawings, it is much easier and less expen-sive to record complex site information. With excellent data collection, very use-ful geographical and texture information can be established as the photogrammetry

model is built.

In this particular case, there are many his-torical buildings on the site. Many of these buildings are half demolished or damaged.

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Most of them have an interesting but com-plicated texture. Thus, one way of collect-ing the site information is photogrammetry modeling. The other benefit of using this technology is that it is easy to use and a camera phone can easily capture intricate site information.

Areol Site Model and Photo Positions

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Photogrammetry Modeling of an Object

Created Mesh from Photos and Texture

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

P hoogrammetry Model

Comparison of Photogrammetry Model and Regular Model

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GAME ENGINE

A game engine is a software framework

designed to create and develop video games (Wikipedia.) The Unity game en-gine is a powerful platform with complex functionalities, such as a rendering engine, a physics engine, sound, and scripting. A multifunctional crowdsource platform that could collect media, such as

photogram-metry models, images, videos, audios, and comments, could be created using the Uni-ty game engine.

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

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Unity Gome Test with Photogrammetry Model

Unity Game Test with Entire Site Model

THE CROWD SOURCE PLATFORM INTERFACE IN UNITY

Unity 5.5.0f3 Personal (64bit) -participate.unity -Sir

File Edit Assets GameObject Component Window Help

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

jildingClient - PC, Mac & Linux Standalone <DX11> - 59

VIRTUAL REALITY

VIR-TUAL RE-AL-1-TY

noun COMPUTING

the computer-generated simulation of a three-dimensional image or environment that can be interacted with in a seemingly real or physical way by a person using spe-cial electronic equipment, such as a helmet with a screen inside or gloves fitted with

sensors.

Virtual reality is an immersive method of experiencing a virtual world that is difficult to reach physically. In this case, the advan-tage of virtual reality, especially the pos-sibility of showing geolocated multilayers of crowdsourced information in the virtual world, is highly significant. It is an excellent way to represent the history of an old or demolished building.

The combination of photogrammetry, game engine, and virtual reality could cre-ate a comprehensive experience for debat-ing and explordebat-ing the community.

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

XU ZHANG

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Using HTC Vive to Show the Demo

The Virtual World Inside

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

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COMBINATION OF THREE TECHNOLOGIES

PHOTOGRAMMETRY

MODELING

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PERSONA ANALYSIS

To make the platform more reasonable and real, a persona analysis is implemented. Users are divided into eight categories: "Bureaucrats" have the power to make cisions about whether to preserve or de-molish a site or building block; "Architects" are the most professional users, and gen-erally provide advice to other stakeholders about whether to preserve or demolish; "Citizens" have concerns about the city and spend at least some time in the com-munity; "Visitors" do not have strong ideas about preserving or demolishing; most just wish to experience the original life scene; "Students" at the university in city accept new technology quickly, and thus are able to handle the photogrammetry modeling easily and quickly to use it to record the 58

buildings on site; "Preservationists" want to preserve as much as possible, which might not be accepted by the bureaucrats, but presevationists can provide professional evaluation of a historical building; "Local residents" know the community the best. Their comments and uploads will signifi-cantly affect other stakeholders' opinions; "Community service people" work in the community, unlike local resident and cit-izens, they can provide another perspec-tive.

The democratic process happens between these characteristics, and the results stem from the conversation between them. This democratic process could ultimately affect decision making in such a political context in China.

8 CATEGORIES OF PERSONAS

Community Service

Local Resident

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Student

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PROCESS OF A CROWDSOURCING PLATFORM

In China, bureaucrats are always influential when it comes to architectural projects. They initiate the entire process through identifying (tagging) buildings and areas they believe should be demolished, forc-ing the various stakeholders to support or oppose the demolition of a building block through uploading digital evidence, such as photo-scanned models, images, videos, and audios within a certain period of time. Designers then can begin to design the tagged building blocks based on the

mate-rials crowdsourced from stakeholders. All users can discuss and debate any ideas and pieces of evidence via the platform before the due date. When the due date arrives, bureaucrats will see how strongly people want to demolish or preserve the

building or site. The bureaucrats will con-sider the stakeholders' will and make the final decision. But, whether the site is demolished or preserved, all the crowd-sourced materials will be digitally archived and reorganized so they can be experi-enced by people from three different per-spectives: birds-eye view, street view, and virtual reality, creating a comprehensive relationship between preservation and all the people involved.

Through this platform, the democratic pro-cess is embedded in the system. And ulti-mately, win or lose, the stakeholders will have a digital archive and exploring tool of the former buildings.

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

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STEP 1: TAGGING

TAG ONE BLOCK AND PROVIDE A DUE DATE FOR DEMOLITION

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Bureaucrat Initiating the Process

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

Togging the Building for Demolition with a Certain Reason

Developer/Bureaucrat

Age: 42

Job: Govern ment Off oe Hobby: Social Activities

Goal: Develop the area to generate more income for government

Urgency by Giving a Limited Number of Days to Upload

67

XU ZHANG

Developer/Bureaucrat

Xu Li

Johb Governmen Offic (,I

Hobby: Social Activities

Goal: Develop the area to generate mote income for govemment

90

DAYS

TAGGING INTERFACE

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

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FROM STEP 1 [TAGGING] TO

STEP 2 [CROWDSOURCING]

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CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

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STAKEHOLDERS CHOOSE TO PRESERVE OR DEMOLISH

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Stakeholders Voting for Preservation or Demolition

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

Local

Resident

PRESERVE

DEMOLISH

Goal: Keep the community identity

STEP 2: CROWDSOURCING

STAKEHOLDERS CAN PLAY WITH THE DESIGNED SCHEMES

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Stakeholders Playing with the Platform

73 XU ZHANG

Citizen

Design

(Play)

lobby: Watch koiean dara Goal. Keep the neighboi hood as it is

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CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

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90

Design

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STEP 2: CROWDSOURCING

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Architects Participating Through the Design of the Tagged Block

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

Adaptive Reuse of the Tagged Building 7 7 00MN NEE XU ZHANG

Architect

CUSTOMIZE

Goal: Make a better community, improve people's life.

STEP 2: CROWDSOURCING

STAKEHOLDERS BROWSE AND TEST THE PREFABS CREATED BY ARCHITECTS

DESIGN

0

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A Student Test with the Prefab Designs

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

Student

Chenxue Wang

Age: 21 Job: College Student Hobby: Ar t exhibition

Goal: Help the local people make their voice heard and help them use new media

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STEP 2: CROWDSOURCING

STAKEHOLDERS SIMPLY RENEW AS ORIGINAL

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A Citizen Test with Simply Renew Option

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Citizen

REFURBISH

Hobbv Watch korean drama Goal Keep the neighborthood as it is

INTERFACE OF RENOVATING, PREFABS, AND COSTUMIZING

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

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Renovate

Prefabs

Customize

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Stakeholders Uploading Models to Support Preservation or Demolition

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

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Photogrammetry Model Made by Drone and Uploaded by Student XU ZHANG

Student

Job: College Student

Hobby Art exhibition

Goal: Help the local people make their voice beaid and help them use new media

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MODEL

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STAKEHOLDERS UPLOADING EVIDENCE---IMAGE

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Stakeholders Uploading Images to Support Preservation or Demolition

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

Images Uploaded by Tourists 85

Visitor

Goal: Too see the real CuIlture of the place

XU ZHANG

STEP 2: CROWDSOURCING

STAKEHOLDERS UPLOADING EVIDENCE---VIDEO

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Stakeholders Uploading Videos to Support Preservation or Demolition

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

Community Servive People Uploading a Video Where She Works 87 XU ZHANG

Community Service

Job: Community Sesvice

Hobby: Watch TV

Goal: Keep the building and environment clean

STEP 2: CROWDSOURCING

STAKEHOLDERS UPLOADING EVIDENCE---AUDIO

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Stakeholders Uploading Audio to Support Preservation or Demolition

Local Resident Uploading an Audio of Interview 89 XU ZHANG

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Resident

Interview with Local

Age: 55

Job: worker Hobby: Stroll

STEP 2: CROWDSOURCING

STAKEHOLDERS UPLOADING EVIDENCE---EVALUATION

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Preservationist Uploading Evaluation of a Tagged Building Block

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY 90

Preservation t

Juniiao Gan

he site has many historical buildings

hat were built over one hundred

ears ago. But some buildings on site ave no historical value and are now in

oor condition. They do not have the

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Age: 4

Job: Professor in University Hobby: Research on history related things Goal: Preserve heritages that have historyvalue

A Written Evaluation to a Buidling Block

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VIDEO UPLOADING AND DISCUSSION INTERFACE

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TO STEP 3 [DECISION]

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CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

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STEP 3: DECISION

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CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

STEP 3: DECISION

FINAL DECISION MADE BY BUREAUCRAT

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Developer/Bureaucrat

DAYS

RESERVE

DEMOLISH

Job: Government Officer

Hobby: Social Activities

Goal: Develop the area to genelate more income for government

The End of the Democratic Process

9 7 XU ZHANG

INTERFACE OF FINAL DECISION OF THE TAGGED BUILDING BLOCK

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

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FROM STEP 3 [DECISION] TO STEP 4 [EXPLORE]

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EXPERIENCE THE DIGITALLY ARCHIVED COMMUNITY THROUGH AN OVERALL VIEW

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Model Viewer and Attached Detailed Models Uploaded by Stakeholders

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

ModelT Switch Hide Show Oiinal Back 102

STEP 4: EXPLORE

IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE AND POP-UP MULTILAYER MEDIA

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Walking through the Building and Related Geolocated Multi-Media

103

INTERFACE OF IMMERSIVE EXPLORE EXPERIENCE

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SCENARIOS

On this platform, many different scenarios can happen. Two typical types are present-ed as follows:

SCENARIO 1: After the 90-day deadline,

although many people chose to preserve, and uploaded much evidence and reasons they believed the site should be preserved, the bureaucrats still demolished it, disre-garding the majority's will. Consequently, the digital materials are archived on the platform and people can view and experi-ence the site even after its demolition. The democratic process ceased at the point of decision-making, but survived in the col-lected valuable historical information, pre-serving the site digitally.

SCENARIO 2: After the 90 days passed,

more people had the firm intention to preserve the site. To begin with, some of the bureaucrats wanted to demolish the site, but some noticed there was a way to preserve the building by making minor changes. So, one of the bureaucrats pro-posed this adaptive reuse scheme to avoid complete demolition. The others accepted this, and the building is largely "preserved," and available for exploring what change is done.

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

SCENARIO 1: DEMOLISH

SCENARIO 2: PRESERVE

SCENARIO 1

Before due date, many people upload-ed many exotic materials. We've col-lected many valuable historical materi-als during this 90 days. These materimateri-als

Bureaucrat 0 will play a significant role in later devel

Wenli Zhane opment of our district.

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY d,

Interview with Local

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I didn't expect that so many people

disagree with the demolition, even

though the building is in bad condi-tion.

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But after a research of the revelopment plan, we decided to

de-molish this building block.

DEMOLISH.

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SCENARIO 1

Stakeholders View and Experience Digital Archived Materials after Demolition

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

Student 0 tCent Zh itudent 0 Ywen Ruan 0 Student e H a~g to Citizen

I uploaded videos, but

we can now view through the platform.

111 ~

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voice. I uploaded some delicated models.

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SCENARIO 2

How the Architect's Scheme Affected the Decision

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CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

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PRESERVE

DEMOLISH

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" origyaJ. It cleans up thecur ard and

Srepaces the middle warehouse. other part wi remain. Architect Xu Zhang Senior Archtect. tPF

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SCENARIO 2

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

nm 4-U' m 115 a XU ZHANG -I, -i

VIRTUAL REALITY DEMO

The virtual reality demo is built using Uni-ty with HTC Vive. It is part of the Explore function. It is a simple test of how multiple layers of information could be implement-ed. It also informs the user what the expe-rience of immersively exploring the crowd-sourced digital archive would be like. The demo begins with a real view of the whole site, with a function allowing the rotation of the camera to view from dif-ferent angles. The user could then pop up the menu to choose to go to some detailed model or continue in street view. The pho-togrammetry model is supposed to be up-loaded

by stakeholders and could be placed in its

original position. After being on the street, the user can walk or fast teleport to a cer-tain point. When the user walks to cercer-tain specific spots, related media uploaded by stakeholders will pop up, including models, images, videos, and audios. The user could choose to view the multiple and massive crowdsourced memory of the place. If a site is preserved, then the scheme will ap-pear in this virtual world. The memories of the place still pop up as the user walks through the new space, reminding the user of the original space.

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

Platform on Left Screen, VR Demo Playing on Right Screen

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Walking on the Street with Photogrammetry Model

RP.

Longstro

Areal Model and Detailed Models Indication

LAP

Rotation of the Model and Menu Pop-Up

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

PFf

Street View Facing an Old Hair Cut Shop

Playing the Pop-Up Related Video

119

XU ZHANG

White Model Background

Textured Model Background

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY 120

An Old Grocery Store and its Pop-Up Information

Switch the Pop-Up Related Images

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Menu and Pop-Up Information in this Renovation Scheme

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

Standing in the Building on a Higher Level Looking Out

Ground Level and View from Exterior with Pop-Up Information

XU ZHANG

-1

THE END

In China, in the preservation process-par-ticularly with historical

communities-bu-reaucrats and developers always have the absolute power to make the final decision regarding preservation or demolition. The mechanism of this platform can, however, bring relevant people together to engage in a "conversation." Therefore, the orig-inal, exclusive decision-making process becomes negotiable and democratic. It is possible for professionals, ordinary peo-ple, and bureaucrats to meet and discuss the issues. Furthermore, compared with a single result made by bureaucrats and developers, the degree of freedom and flexibility of this platform can generate many alternative scenarios. Good or bad, the "conversation" involves all relevant stakeholders and embeds democracy into the process of preserving the community.

124

During the process, evidence for pres-ervation or demolition, and architectural schemes are crowdsourced. No matter the final decision, these digital archives pro-vide an important historical record for the community. Combining the crowdsourced data and virtual reality is a powerful and reliable method of creating an immersive experience of what is either lost or at risk. The advantage of multimedia and multi-layered information in the virtual world is that it can encompass users' experiences of inhabiting a much more comprehensive space compared with the physical world. Thus, community heritage can be perma-nently preserved and experienced in the digital world.

Ultimately, following a democratic conver-sation of a preservation process, whether a site is preserved or demolished, the community heritage remains digitally pre-served.

125 W O

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INTERFACES

Starting Interface

Register and Select Role

Bureaucrat Tagging

Support for Preservation

Preservationist Evaluation

Evaluation Posted

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

Stakeholders Commenting on Evaluation

Play with the Schemes

XU ZHANG 131 \ MRMN

Renovation

Use Prefobs

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

-- - ____ I

Reviewing the Prefabs Warehouse

Apply the Selected Prefab to the Community

Architect Uploads Customized Design

Reviewing the Design

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

Stakeholders Uploading Materials

Reviewing the Model

XU ZHANG 135 \

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Residents Play in Courtyard

Uploading Audios

Uploading Videos

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

Explore Mode

Explore Uploaded Model

137

View a Building Block

Switch Between Modes

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

- I

Go to the Uploaded Detailed Model

Explore Uploaded Images and Comments

Street View on Demolished Street

VR Mode with Geo-Reloted Informotion Pop Up

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

FINAL PRESENTATION

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FINAL REVIEW VIDEO

CONVERSATION ON SAVING A HISTORICAL COMMUNITY

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