Dear Uma, 

New built forms are often criticised being ignorant to local, social and cultural values of the traditional forms. As you and other researchers clearly stated earlier, the main reason for this is the rapid urban transformation in many cities causing the loss of place identities, a lack of sense of place and the homogenisation of cultures. My particular stress is on “Sense of Place” (SoP), because changes and the transformation in the built environment is inevitable and sustaining SoP is the only way to protect the character of the neighbourhood. 

For this purpose, the design of new developments in line with traditions is a well-promoted strategical approach. However, the challenge is to find how to bridge between the new and the old. I am not sure, if you are only focusing on facades/visual appearance/aesthetic pleasantness, but currently, typo-morphology based design approaches are gathering momentum in developing new design guidelines and strategies to sustain the place identities in the new developments at different levels of resolution from a building level to urban level.

For the theoretical background, I’d suggest you read the following papers. Amongst these, you can check out Peter Larkham’s works since he is currently focusing on the heritage conservation in reconstructed areas.

Hope this is somewhat helpful for you.

Best wishes,

Duygu

This paper brings together the answers to your topic provided by three different constituencies: laymen, professionals, and policy makers:

Yung, E.H. and Chan, E.H., 2013. Evaluation for the conservation of historic buildings: Differences between the laymen, professionals and policy makers. Facilities, 31(11/12), pp.542-564.

Article Evaluation for the conservation of historic buildings: Diffe...

Thank you Dragos Simandan, the research seems to be very interesting - I have requested for the full text and would love to go through the full paper. 

Thank you Edwin H W Chan, I would love to read the entire paper. Thanks for sharing PDF. 

Thank you José C. Vázquez-Hisado, Yes Le Corbusier has stated that 'Cities are like living organism'.

Change is inevitable and must be accepted. But in most of the cases today,  these changes are away from the value systems (like passive and active techniques in constructions) or considerations of Micro or Macro climate in Planning and design. 

Thank you Napoleon Ono Imaah!

Thank you so much José C. Vázquez-Hisado for the references!

Dear Uma,

My colleagues have offered very compelling answers and to that I'd like to add mine if possible.

While it is understandable that cities are living organisms and are not meant to be preserved as relics, we must also respect the fact that every culture has a tradition of building and it is the character of these cultures that must be preserved. The reason we travel is to experience new places, and the developments you mentioned with steel and glass facades are beginning to lost the identity of place. Basically, every place is beginning to look like every other place we visit.

Thus, while we all agree that change is a necessity, we must apply change in a prudent manner and never disregard the building/architectural culture that gives any place its inherent identity.

I hope my answer is somewhat helpful.

Sincerely,

Nana

Thank you Nana-Yaw Andoh!

Dear Uma, 

New built forms are often criticised being ignorant to local, social and cultural values of the traditional forms. As you and other researchers clearly stated earlier, the main reason for this is the rapid urban transformation in many cities causing the loss of place identities, a lack of sense of place and the homogenisation of cultures. My particular stress is on “Sense of Place” (SoP), because changes and the transformation in the built environment is inevitable and sustaining SoP is the only way to protect the character of the neighbourhood. 

For this purpose, the design of new developments in line with traditions is a well-promoted strategical approach. However, the challenge is to find how to bridge between the new and the old. I am not sure, if you are only focusing on facades/visual appearance/aesthetic pleasantness, but currently, typo-morphology based design approaches are gathering momentum in developing new design guidelines and strategies to sustain the place identities in the new developments at different levels of resolution from a building level to urban level.

For the theoretical background, I’d suggest you read the following papers. Amongst these, you can check out Peter Larkham’s works since he is currently focusing on the heritage conservation in reconstructed areas.

Hope this is somewhat helpful for you.

Best wishes,

Duygu

Thank you so much Duygu Gokce for the insights on the subject and the papers!

hi, Uma! I liked very much your questions and to see very differents opinions from others researchers. We face this problem in Brazil, and I guess in many different developing countries. We don´t have a culture to value the past. And at the same time it was a issue that involves cultural mentality and the real state. And the key is to meet a balance between the change and the conservation, and that new buildings projects must respect this local character. Aldo Rossi in Architettura della città mentioned something about local character or genius loci. I recommend this charter of ICOMOS as well. 

I don´t know if I was helpful...

http://www.icomos.org/Paris2011/GA2011_CIVVIH_text_EN_FR_final_20120110.pdf 

Thank you Luciana Inoue - indeed every comment / opinion and paper is a great contribution!! Thank you for the paper. 

Thank you so much Vladimir Karadzhov for the valuable insights! While reading through I remember Art Deco movement which was a try to break through the ongoing practices that time.... But it was not as popular/accepted as current practices in architecture (on global scale). 

Dear Uma,

I hope this article: Rebecca C. Chan, Old Buildings, New Ideas: Historic Preservation and Creative Industry Development as Complementary Urban Revitalization Strategies will be useful, http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1165&context=hp_theses.

Best Regards

Barbara

 Dear Ulma:

Reflecting a little on the dissatisfaction of the new residential complexes, let me provide my point of view on the indirect causes of the problem:

The demographic increase of the cities is determined, as we all know, by the internal migrations in the countries, from rural to urban and small cities to metropolis, but also from less developed nations to richer countries. The regional imbalance that is produced by the emptying of some areas in relation to the superconcentration of others, generates problems in both. The expectations of finding work in the city are not materialized and the price of housing rises speculatively so the urban area extends to the peripheries. As a counterweight, to avoid the problems of the dispersed city, public policies tend to increase densities in land-use planning, with high-rise buildings that in turn generate concentration of vehicles and a type of neighborhood relations with excessive anonymity and unsatisfactory individuality.

Among the developments of low-density single-family dwellings in the suburbs and the concentration of high-rise multifamily buildings, there is an intermediate solution of medium density residential complexes with 4, 5 or 6-storey buildings with terraces, common green spaces, close to urban facilities and services, taking advantage of vacant soils and existing precarious areas, as well as rehabilitating existing buildings in the centers.

In any case, the provision of services to rural areas or small cities, along with development aid, fair trade measures, etc., to poorer countries, which allow their inhabitants to live voluntarily in their areas of origin, is the best solution to this problem. Although, obviously this issue comes out of the specific issue raised.