FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Revitalization of Historical Buildings of Shantang Street of Suzhou City in World Heritage Sites

1. Current ConditionShantang Street is a cultural street with a history of 1200 years. It has a rich history, while today the neighbourhood is dilapidated, overgrown with weeds, with few people and lack of vitality. The project is an overall renovation and renewal of the fourth phase of Shantang Street. By the renewal of the old buildings, implanting new commercial activities and designing public spaces, the neighbourhood will be revitalized, injected with vitality and confidence, while retaining its historical traces. Shantang River and Shantang Street in Suzhou are important parts of the Grand Canal as a World Heritage Site, located in a historically sensitive area. As early as the Qing Dynasty, Shantang Phase IV was depicted in the painting, Prosperous Suzhou, as a busy commercial street, with the beautiful and dynamic waterfront. However, today, the lively scene of Shantang Street no longer exists. There are few residents or tourists staying on the street. The neighbourhood lacks vitality. It’s hard for people to experience the traditional charm of the historic streets and alleys.2. Respecting Histoy, Restoring Historical StyleShantang Phase IV starts from Bantang Bridge and ends at Juzhuan Bridge. The section has the best natural scenery throughout the whole Shantang Street. The project includes four parcels (Parcel A, Parcel B, Tao’s Ancestral Hall Parcel, and Bao’en Temple Parcel). The project involves planning and positioning, architectural design and landscape design. Through the renewal of these four parcels, implanting new commercial activities, and the unified redesign of the 400-meter landscape of Shantang Street, this historic neighbourhood will represent the beautiful scenery of the past, having new vitality, and will enable people to have a complete historical experience when walking on the street. Inside each parcel, due to years of illegal constructions, the current site is overcrowded and messy. It’s hard for people to experience the traditional charm of the historic streets and alleys. Through carefully screening, removing the illegal structures and preserving the historic buildings, we sort through the current space and make it reappear its original spatial organization. The unique neighbourhood texture of “street, alley, patio” of Suzhou is revealed through the renovation. We are very cautious when designing the frontage of Shantang Street, continuing the traditional residence elements and retaining the mottled exterior walls. Even for the renewed windows and the roofs, they are also designed with traditional details of Suzhou. 3. Injecting new vitality into historic buildings and streets According to the location and historical background of each parcel, we planned the corresponding commercial activities through on-site investigation. For example, Parcel A includes a group of Suzhou cultural relic buildings (Li’s Yizhuang) are renovated as a hotel. Parcel B, Qu’s House, is composed of two buildings built in Qing Dynasty, and implanted exhibition, meeting, and communication spaces in Qu's House. Due to the lack of public space in the neighbourhood, we provide some spaces in the renewal design where people can stay and participate for free. We use the open space in front of each parcel as four landscape nodes, and create multiple dynamic gathering spaces based on the size of the land and the programs of the parcels . 4. Social SignificanceWith the rapid development of modern transportation, many historic streets are gradually replaced by new towns. In China, some historic streets and neighbourhoods are either facing the hollowing phenomenon and becoming dilapidated, or the historical and cultural features disappear due to excessive commercial development. These historic streets witness the development of local culture, and themselves are valuable historical carriers. However, due to the lack of proper maintenance and operation, their historical context cannot be read, and their historical value is not cherished. How to keep a good balance between "preservation" and "renew"? How to improve the living conditions of residents while respecting and protecting the history? How to bring the historic street with new vitality, and pass on its historical memory to people in a modern way? These are the questions faced by many conservators. This project is an attempt to renew the historic street and is a banner of historic neighbourhood revival. In the dialogues between the new and the old, the historic street provides public spaces for local residents to stay and talk, attracts tourists to read the local cultural background, and brings vitality and confidence to the community

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