This series of posts are taken from a paper I wrote earlier this year about the practical aspect of historic preservation of Chinese vernacular architecture. It takes the city of Suzhou as a case study, and focuses specifically on Professor Ruan Yisan’s work on the city.
Ruan Yisan (b. 1934) is former Professor of Urban Planning & Design with the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at Tongji University of Shanghai, and Director of the National Research Center for Historic Cities of China. He is renowned for his preservation work throughout China on ancient cities such as Pingyao, Suzhou, and historic water towns on the Yangtze River region, all of which mentioned here are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. For more information on Professor Ruan and his work, see online sources on conservation of historic and cultural cities of China at http://www.mingcheng.org/chinese/rys/index.html and The 2004 Almanac of China’s World Heritage Sites. Through examining Ruan’s approaches and methods, I try to formulate an applicable general principle for studies on Chinese vernacular architecture, from a historic preservation point of view as is characteristic of Professor Ruan’s work.
The city of Suzhou serves as a perfect example of studies on Chinese vernacular architecture for two reasons. First, it is a city famous for its architectural heritage. Second, the awareness of this heritage and its cultural, historic, social and economic value among the various levels of government, residents, scholars, and others interested in the conservation and regeneration of the ancient city in the face of China’s unprecedented “modernization” process is considerably high and their achievements thus far unparalleled elsewhere in China.
