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\begin{document}

\title{A Culture Sustainable Tool for Regeneration of Chinese Historical
Cities: the rehabilitation of Xi'an Walled City}



\author[1]{xu.lu}%
\affil[1]{Dipartimento ABC. Politecnico di Milano}%


\vspace{-1em}



  
  \date{May 20, 2024}


\begingroup
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\sloppy


Xu LU ,

Email: xu.lu@polimi.it

\section*{ABSTRACT}

{\label{380623}}

Since the economic reform in 1978 and then the vastly expansion of the
real estate sector re-orientation of urban governance in the 1990s',
property-led urban redevelopment in contemporary Chinese cities results
in the large scale demolition and reconstruction in a certain short
period. It was not only a process of damaging the physical environment
of a historical city's fabric, but also damaging the matrix of urban
culture formed by local residents and communities with social
consequences. A close study on the practices and policies currently in
Xi'an reveals some of the sharpest urban redevelopment problems Chinese
cities is facing in the historical cities, such as the old city core are
experiencing the urban decline and gentrification. By stating the stages
and methodology of urban design and planning for China each period with
literature and data, to identify the what is the cause of urban fabric
of the Xi'an Walled City (XWC) and further how it can be transformed in
the future with a culture sustainable urban design tool.

keywords: Urban regeneration, Inner city rehabilitation, culture
sustainable,

This paper is based on the conference paper presented on LIVING AND
SUSTAINABILITY: AN ENVIRONMENTAL CRITIQUE OF DESIGN AND BUILDING
PRACTICES, LOCALLY AND GLOBALLY held by AMPS in London South Bank
University 2017.

\section*{1. INTRODUCTION}

{\label{493882}}

Cities with historical center core are facing real challenges now, for
one thing, they should carry the identity and represent the culture of
the city, for another, some of the old city core are experiencing the
decline and urban gentrification: The private housing in downtown area
is converting to rental housing for either tourists or low-income class
in private rental market, and the old housing are often left over to be
disrepair and in the most of the cases in historical centers, either
way, it losing it's local residents. Since the historical center with
walls overlap with contemporary city of Xi'an, city wall become the
natural limit of the urban sprawl, the demand for more living space will
lead inhabitants to seek more space out of the inner city region. This
centrifugal movement took on massive proportions starts when families
entered a period of social ascension to move into a higher standard
living condition while the central part of the city suffers from a
general lack of both economic and residential attractiveness. Facing
this, Smith\cite{2006} proposing that recreation of feelings of
community or neighbourhood can be achieved within the urban context by
reuse of the existing housing stock while Haberer's {[}22{[}{]} Haberer,
P., G. De Kleyn, and W. De Wit. 1980. The Neighborhood Approach:
Improvement of Old Neighborhoods By and On Behalf of Their Inhabitants.
Netherlands: Ministry of Housing and Physical Planning.{]}strategy is
the ``neighborhood approach'', which addresses urban renewal as a
social, financial, and organizational issue. In China, inner city
rehabilitation has always be hot debated especially in the historical
cities, given the rapidly expanding demand for housing in built up area,
and economic benefits generated by real estate market, it's easy fall
into a large scale regeneration with no regards on the heritage of local
culture and demolish the old housing which could be seen as the identity
and cultural milieu for the city. With the lost of original urban fabric
and local residents, a historical city is actually losing the roots of
local culture and urban feature at the same time.

This paper aimed at first, by going though the housing development in
use in the past decades of China, it discussed the top-down planning
approach is widely used and the property-led approach might be the
causes of large scale demolition and damages for the traditional housing
and local culture.

Second, it also argues by the specific case of an historical city of
Xi'an, concerning the housing development and planning methods
specifically, from which it reveals the physical, social, economic
challenges related to revitalization and rehabilitation of historical
center in Xi'an.

Third, to meet the needs of regenerate dilapidated inner city,
protecting the local history and culture matrix of the inner city, the
paper proposing a culture sustainable approach which can be identify as
a combination of bottom-up and top-down methodology with the involvement
of addressing recent socio-economic and spatial considerations in the
process of inner city rehabilitation.

\section*{2. URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN
CHINA}

{\label{588632}}\par\null

\subsection*{2.1 China Urban Development after
Modernity}

{\label{893203}}

China's urban development is tied with several crucial points after the
modernity. The first significant threshold points, is obviously the
foundation of the central governor (Communist Party of China) in 1949.
The most influenced issue on the urban space is that It has change from
private land ownership to state-owned. Influenced by the Soviet Union,
theory of urban planning and management in China had a strong state led
feature. The so-called ``Soviet model'' applied all over cities by
series clusters of state work-units. State work-units are more than just
economic entities but, rather, are a special form of `social
organization'.\cite{1989}Every work-units works a integrated
small scale city and society with all the urban functions including
residential, commercial, education, business and so
on\cite{Perry1998The}.(Fig.1)\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{figure}[h!]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=0.70\columnwidth]{figures/image1/image1}
\caption{{~~~ Figure 1. Two typical work-unit housing projects: Beijing
Baiwanzhuang and Xi'an Fangzhicheng\protect\cite{Junhua2001Modern}%
}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

The society was tightly managed by the state system through workplace
affiliation. Housing during this period is mainly designed all together
with the work-unit more as a infrastructure for the workplace and
featured by the technical regulations design codes includes: Standard of
Basic Terms in Urban Planning, Standards for Urban Land Classification
and Planning of Construction Lands, Code of Urban Residential Area
Planning and Design, Code of Urban Road and Traffic Planning and Design,
Code for Comprehensive Planning of Urban Infrastructures, etc. Planning
idea is basically following the concept of ``Neighborhood Unit'' ~and
the 90\% investments for housing projects are from the
state.\protect\hyperlink{Junhua2001Modern}{(Junhua
2001)}\protect\hyperlink{Perry1998The}{(Perry 1998)}~

The Economic reforms in1978 have changed China from foundations to
various aspects. After 1978, the urbanization rate of China increased by
12.5 percent from 1978 to 1998 as compared to only 5.5 percent from 1952
to 1978\cite{Ho_2004}. Resources under the command system have been
dispersed to the hands outside the work-unit system. Urban private
businesses have emerged and created jobs that are not formally
affiliated to a work-unit.\cite{Wu_2002} The change in urban space
began after lased with state work-units to develop comprehensive
`planned' residential districts in the 1980s.
\protect\hyperlink{Wu_2002}{(Wu 2002)}The work-unit system start to milt
down, integration between workplace and residence has been transformed
by large residential development projects.

In the 1990s, the introduction of the central-local fiscal contract
effectively started the decentralization of state
power\cite{Tsang_1998}\cite{Zhang_1999}. Local government has gained
more discretion to arrange investment and to promote local growth: the
enactment of the City Planning Act in 1989 gives municipalities the
right to prepare urban plans, to issue land-use and building permits
(China State Council,1990), Transfer of State-owned Urban Land Use
Rights.{]} This is always considered to be the real catalyst for the
real estate market, and the driving force for the massive large scale
urban development\cite{He_2005}\cite{Shin_2009}. Urban development
in the Chinese cities has been driven to a high speed road to booming
since then. (Fig.2)\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{figure}[h!]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=0.70\columnwidth]{figures/image2/image2}
\caption{{Figure 2. Urban population and average living space for urban
inhabitants (Source from the National Bureau of Statistics of China)%
}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

\subsection*{2.2 Practice and administration Policies in
China}

{\label{715909}}

With this massive development constantly happen in China, how the
authorities manage to discipline and design to face these urbanization?
In China, Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development (MOHURD), is
the urban planning administrative authority at the national level,
within which there is Urban and Rural Planning Department; at the
provincial (autonomous region and municipality) level, the urban
planning administrative authority is the provincial Construction
Department or the Housing and Urban Rural Development Department, or
Planning Bureau of Municipalities. China's urban planning system is
composed of planning legislation, planning administrative system,
planning technical system and planning supervision and urban planning is
a legally authorized by government. (Fig.3)\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{figure}[h!]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=0.70\columnwidth]{figures/image3/image3}
\caption{{Figure 3. Authorities at the different level in China's planning system%
}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

Normally, it consists of two tiers: the master plan (zong ti gui hua)
and the detailed plan (xiang xi gui hua). The top tier is the master
plan that outlines the general land use pattern of a city. Another tier,
below the master plan, is the detailed plan, which deals with areas that
face immediate development or are specified in the master plan. The
detailed plan is composed of the detailed development control plan (kong
zhi xing xiang xi gui hua) and the urban design and parcel-based
detailed construction plan (xiu jian xing xiang xi gui hua). A master
plan usually has a planning horizon of 20 years and should consider
long-range development strategies. The main content of master plans
includes the city's development direction, the function of each
district, land use layout, comprehensive transportation planning,
construction forbidden areas, construction-constrained areas, and
construction suitable areas, green land planning, tourism planning, etc.
With respect to the compilation of urban comprehensive plans, the Rules
for Modification of Urban Comprehensive Plan issued by the
Administrative Office of the State Council set out stricter procedures
for the modification and adjustment of approved plans, stress on the
assessment of implementation of urban comprehensive plans.

More specifically in Xi'an, the city has it's own planning bureau and
office to work on the general master plan for the city. The authority at
lower level which actually has more knowledge on the district or even
community level often has little influence on the master plan.\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{figure}[h!]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=0.70\columnwidth]{figures/image4/image4}
\caption{{Fig. 4 Urban districts, Urban Sub-district Office, Neighbourhood
Committee in Xi'an Walled City%
}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

\section*{3. URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND REHABILITATION IN
XI'AN}

{\label{781114}}

Xi'an has a history of more than 3,000 years as a city and had
functioned as China's capital(Since the Zhou dynasty (1046 B.C.-771
B.C.). The inner city of Xi'an, also called Xi'an Walled City, is
located inside contemporary city of Xi'an where the former city of Han
Chang'an and Tang Chang'an once stood in Han dynasty (202 B.C.- 220 )
and Tang Dynasty (618-907)) and it was the announced on the first batch
list of ``National Historical and Cultural City''(NHCC) in 1982, indeed
because of it's numerous historical milieus in the city. Even a city
with such historical context has experienced extensive and fast
constructions and demolitions. Along with infrastructure development,
real estate and housing has been the growth generating sector in China
after the land and national housing reforms in the
mid-1980s\cite{Wang_1999}. (Fig.5) We must noted that for an
historical city center, it not only the monuments that make the city
historical, but among of all, the residential architecture is apparently
the decisive factor for the urban morphology and fabric. Italian scholar
Alvise Cornaro said: ''Venice is not only composed of great monuments,
it is a myriad of housing and residential architectures which make the
city of Venice.'' The spatial typology and distribution in the
historical center determines the urban fabric of the old city core,
which needs to be carefully and thoroughly studied. As Peter Row writes:
There are three important issues in the contemporary modernize and
rehabilitation inner city\cite{Heikkila_2001}\cite{Liangyong_1991}First, the
adequate provision of dwellings for urban inhabitants is no longer
simply a matter of housing but, rather, of the much more complicated
task of community development and ultimately of building coherent,
useful, and pleasant pieces of a city in which to live, work and play.
Second, the manners in which older parts of well-established cities are
to be regarded as being either more or less useful in their present
state. Today, in most part of the world, it is clear that traditional
urban patterns of settlement are to be valued not only for their strict
historical significance, but also for their aura. Last, there is what
types of urban strategy to employ within a broad rehabilitation project.
It's urgent to develop reliable strategies to guide city regeneration
especially the rehabilitation of the residential housing projects which
has most impact on the urban fabric. As Wu Liangyong asserts, ``Compared
with public buildings, I'm more concerned with dwellings because human
habitation is the core of architecture.'' Unfortunately, we didn't have
the chance to apply these ideas. Property-led regeneration in the early
1990s which was driven by the economic profits has dominated the urban
development in Xi'an after the economical boom period. Many low-rise,
densely populated inner city neighborhoods have been transformed into
high-rise residential, or collective homogeneous compounds with standard
design code in Xi'an.(Fig.4)\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{figure}[h!]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=0.70\columnwidth]{figures/image5/image5}
\caption{{~~~ Figure 5. XWC residential architectures in 2015%
}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

\subsection*{3.1 Urban development and living conditions in
Xi'an}

{\label{945236}}

From the end of Qing dynasty to the mid 20th century, the Xi'an Walled
City (XWC) equal to the city of Xi'an on the physical sense. The housing
inside the city is traditional courtyard house with wooden and brick
materials with private ownership. After the Republican Revolution of
1911, the total floor area of housing is 1500,000 sq.m. Since 1931,
Xi'an was stepping into a high-speed road on the urban development point
of view\begin{CJK}{UTF8}{gbsn}\cite{西安市档案局1995筹建西京陪都档案史料选辑}. \end{CJK}\selectlanguage{english}(Central government started to consider
alternatives for the capital city in 1937 while Republic of China
officially declared war with Japan. Xi'an was planned to be the
secondary capital of China. They initiate an auxiliary capital project
in 1937, and a master plan in 1934).According to the data in 1949, the
housing in total has reached to 2315000 sq.m, the average floor area per
capital is 3.32 sq.m. We could see that each land plot size is rather
small around 500 sq.m, with a average coverage of the land around 70\%.\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{figure}[h!]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=1.00\columnwidth]{figures/image6/image6}
\caption{{~~Fig. 6~ Private housing landownership and relationship with land plot
in XWC.%
}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

\subsubsection*{1953-1978}

{\label{333375}}

From 1953, central government launched the ``First Five Year Plan'' at
national level, Xi'an stepped into ``socialist construction period'',
``Work-unit'' concept was applied every where. The planned population in
Xi'an is 1.2 million on the urban region of 131 sq.km in 1953-1972's
master plan. This edition settled the main structure for Xi'an, which is
cross axis base on the walled city area. Walled city was designed as
mainly residential and commercial and to develop the city on the base of
the Xi'an Walled City. The population growth brings the urgent need for
urban housing, meanwhile, modern housing with state-ownership start to
replacing the private ones with the typology the figure shows.(Fig.7)
Until 1955, in Xi'an the housing which are private ownership in total
have reduced to 35.2\% from 82.3\%, and it's continue to shrink down to
14.23\%\begin{CJK}{UTF8}{gbsn}\cite{Liu2014西安城市化的住房建设响应}. \end{CJK}\selectlanguage{english}With this background of transformation,
296000 sq.m housing was built in total. As we can see from the data,
generally this kind of plot is twice or more times larger than the
traditional land plot with a built coverage around 50\%.\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{figure}[h!]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=1.00\columnwidth]{figures/image7/image7}
\caption{{Fig. 7 land plot changes in XWC.%
}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

\subsubsection*{1978-1990}

{\label{203913}}

Xi'an announce 2nd edition master plan 1980-2000 in this period. The
planned population in Xi'an is 1.8 million on the urban region of 162
sq.km. The whole country focuses on the development again and it's a
period of breaking down the work-unit system. In the 1980, the land
ownership has changed in to state-ownership in the urban area of Xi'an
mostly, inner city has no private land left. (China adopts two land
ownership systems, i.e. state-owned land ownership and collective land
ownership. In China, the land ownership is separate from the land use
right, the term of land use rights vary with different land usages.)
From 1980-1990, there are 13000000 sq.m housing built in 10 years, the
average of living area has increased to 6.19 sq.m which is twice larger
than 1950s in general. Nonetheless, registrations shows that there
around 30000 people with no housing at all, and 13000 inhabitants with
the living area less than 2 sq.m, and 45\% of total housing are
temporally structure urban slums. This could be considered as the
foreshadowing the demand of the regeneration the inner city.

\subsubsection*{1990-Present}

{\label{786171}}

With the decentralization of fiscal authority, local government of Xi'an
have gained increasing autonomy over the economic development within
their jurisdictions\cite{Yan2003Politics}. In 1990, the state leased the
``Leasing and Transfer of the Right to the Use of the State-Owned Land''
and `` Ordinance of Foreign Investments and State-Owned
Land''\href{http://http://www.mlr.gov.cn/zwgk/flfg/tdglflfg/200601/t20060119_642175.htm}{Ministry
of Land and Resources, PRC, 1990} which remarks the total opening real
estate market and the beginning of property-led regeneration process. In
1995, 3rd edition master plan was announced for 1995-2010. The planned
population in Xi'an is 3.1 million on the central urban region of 175
sq.km. In year of 2000, the ownership transformation has complete to
private owned/leased (China State Council. Notification on Public
Housing Ownership Reform, 1999. In accordance with the Interim
Regulations Concerning the Leasing and Transfer of the Right to the Use
of the State-Owned Land in the Urban Areas, the maximum term for the
leased right to use the land is determined respectively in the light of
the purposes: 70 years for residential purposes; 50 years for industrial
purposes; 50 years for the purposes of education, science, culture,
public health and physical education; 40 years for commercial, tourist
and recreational purposes; and 50 years for mixed utilization or other
purposes.) in Xi'an urban area, the average living space for each
inhabitants increase to 12.05 sq.m from 6.04 sq.m in 1995.\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{figure}[h!]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=1.00\columnwidth]{figures/image8/image8}
\caption{{~~~ Figure 8. Xi'an urbanization and Urban period though the decades.%
}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

\subsection*{3.2 Critiques on inner city rehabilitation practice
Xi'an}

{\label{969176}}

As a municipality, urban planning and master plan is made by Xi'an
Municipality Planning Bureau and legally authorized by MOHURD. Above
this, the historical cities is boned with all kinds of guidelines and
ordinance. In 1984, ``The City Planning Ordinance'', China's first urban
planning regulation, was promulgated and enacted, creating a legal
framework for the implementation of urban planning and management and so
a fundamental change of the absence of guidance of urban
planning\cite{Bennett_2013}. In 1990, MOHURD initiated the Old and
Dilapidated Housing Redevelopment (ODHR) program in Beijing, aiming to
``accelerate old and dilapidated housing renewal and provide adequate
dwellings for inner-city residents''
.\cite{Abramson1998Neighborhood}\cite{Leaf_1995} It's a test trail before start
housing redevelopment program country wide. Xi'an, among many historical
cities in China, follows this movement. In the reality, driven by the
property-led approach on the municipality level in Xi'an and the
amphibious ordinance on the national level, the ODHR program basically
swept out the plots of which most contains the traditional courtyard
houses with wooden and bricks structure from Qing dynasty with 200-300
year history or even earlier. Instead, new built standard collective
compounds stands in raw on the site and there is no clue to trace back.
It was a disaster for local residence as well as the historical and
culture sustainability for the historical city, especially inside the
Xi'an Walled City.(Fig.9) (From 1990-1995 in 5 years, Xi'an House
Management Bureau has housing in total 2181700 sq.m housing in
registration, 5 years later, in the end of 1995, this figure has grown
to 30420000 sq.m).\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{figure}[h!]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=1.00\columnwidth]{figures/image9/image9}
\caption{{~~~ Figure 9. A comparison between the 1950s and 2015 in Xi'an Walled
City and construction though years%
}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

In 2004, ``Ordinance Regarding the Preservation of Historical and
Cultural Cities, Towns and Villages (ORPHCC) as liased as a remedy which
including the key planning guidelines instructions as follows: (1)
preservation of the overall style and featured townscape of conservation
areas; (2) preservation of authentic historical features and heritage;
(3) incremental renovation; (4) improvement of environmental quality and
infrastructure as well as residents' living standard; (5) encouragement
of public participation in conservation\ldots{} fall short of clarity
and specification of how, this illegibility will certainly lead to a
uneven consequences. For example, Xi'an municipality promulgated and
implemented the ORPHCC program'', which regards the heights, FAR,
restoration styles (material, color, elevations) and so on for
regeneration in depilated housing districts. Under the slogan
``reestablish the old as ancient (xiu jiu ru jiu) '' as a vividly
description. It in a way emphasizes the architectural language only, but
neglects the local residents and business as the matrix of
culture\cite{Zhang2008}. At the same time, regulations the ordinances
transformed from the national level are rather general literal
instructions, when they are interpreted by the comprehensive plan in the
local level, it creates the real gap between the general goal to the
actually result. (According to incomplete statistics, in China, there
are 83 kinds of statutory planning compiled by the governments at
various levels as authorized by law, of which the economic and social
development planning (National Development and Reform Commission is the
competent authority at national level), overall land use planning
(Ministry of Land Resources is competent authority at national level)
have the closest relationship with the urban planning.) (Fig.10)\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{figure}[h!]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=1.00\columnwidth]{figures/image10/image10}
\caption{\selectlanguage{ngerman}{Figure 10. In the 2000s, the Xi'an Municipality implemented another
round of urban restoration inside the XWC, guided by the ORPHCC, the
tool and outcome are rather superficial and uneven. This one is the
façade renew%
}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}\selectlanguage{ngerman}

\subsection*{3.3 Challenges for Xi'an}

{\label{277000}}

Inner city revitalization is being defined widely to include economic,
social and physical development and aims to promote cultural aspects and
historic preservation\cite{2002}. The speculative property
investment and its detrimental impact on historic city centers have been
recognized and are being addressed. A number of charters like the
European Charter of the Architectural Heritage 1975, UNESCO Charter
1976, and ICOMOS Washington Charter 1987 specifically highlight the need
to protect and conserve the built and social composition in urban areas
against threat posed by neglect, deliberate demolition and incongruous
new construction\cite{2000}. which are inherent in the
revitalization strategies. The emphasis is not only on visual
management\cite{Pendlebury_1999} but on the need for coherent economic and
social development policies at the urban and regional levels through
partnership initiatives\cite{Forsberg_1999} , good governance and the
proactive role of the state\cite{Schuster1997Preserving} and the
community~\cite{Davidoff_1973}'' in\cite{Reade_1973}. Since the early
1990s, the expansion of the real estate sector as well as the
entrepreneurial re-orientation of urban governance in Chinese cities has
led to the prevalence of property-led urban
redevelopment\cite{He_2009}.This large scale regeneration implies
major physical, social and economic changes often at the cost of the
traditional culture and local inhabitants' living environment.

\subsubsection*{Economic}

{\label{917001}}

As we mentioned before, A large scale regeneration is easier to operate
from the authority point of view, which tends to benefit the local
government and the developers. This is why the local authorities have
not given much attention to alternative proposals suggested by prominent
planners and academics in the city. Proposals include small scale
organic renewal or in situ up gradation projects, which means less cost
to the overall heritage of the city and also less relocation
costs.\cite{Acharya_2005} Very often, the deteriorating environmental
condition of the traditional neighborhood is cited as the reason for
large scale redevelopment despite the fact that there has been no effort
to improve the environment or for that matter to ascertain the cause of
deterioration. Is the urban regeneration on dilapidated courtyard houses
enabled local state to a facilitate revalorization and bring the bigger
economical benefits than the large scale of redevelopment? It can be.
For example, efforts are usually conducted on a small scale and often
focus on the most profitable projects, such as those portions of
historic areas with tourist potential\cite{Steinberg2015Revitalization}. Mostly inner
city regeneration process has led to the relocation of a large number of
people most of whom are from the low socio economic groups. They consist
of elderly people as well as low income, low skill and less educated
families working in small enterprises of local governments, there is a
urgent needs financing and creating jobs for these people . How to seek
way to combine the cultural and economical development together, how to
be the sum of various developments whereby the area is (re-)appropriated
by groups that are economically more advantaged than their prior
residents or users. In this process, manage to connect the social and
economical networks among the housing areas, is very challenging.

\subsubsection*{Social}

{\label{138010}}

The first challenge on social point of view, is property rights and
compensations. The Chinese policy on resettlement is set out in
national, provincial and municipal laws and the government has evolved a
system to pay compensation to the families which are relocated by the
urban regeneration projects. Compensation varies, ``ranging from more
than 6 million Yuan (\$75,000) for a high ranking official's home, to \$
10,000 to \$ 50,000 for some affected families, to \$ 0 if the residents
do not cooperate with the developer in the relocation process''.
\cite{Zhang_2004} In Xi'an Old and Dilapidated Housing Redevelopment
(ODHR) program, the policy for the local residents is ``get what you
had'' (chai yi huan yi), which means that government will compensate the
same amount of the living space before the renewed projects or you can
cash it with money according the current real estate market price. Most
of the residents would rather take the renewed apartments in a
collective compounds since the relocated sites are normally where they
lived before. Some will have to leave because of the high value land
inside the wall, if they want to stay at same place before
redevelopment, market pricing of the relocated space is unaffordable for
the original residents. (According to the Hong Kong based Information
Center for Human Rights and Democracy, residents in Xi'an mounted
hundreds of demonstrations against relocation practices during the five
years following that city's initiation of old neighborhood redevelopment
in 1993, including one involving more than 200 protesters in the week
before U.S. President Bill Clinton's June 1998 visit. See S. Liu,
``Xi'an Shimin Zhunbei zai Kelindun Fangwen Qijian Da Guimo Shiwei
{[}Citizens of Xi'an Prepare Large-Scale Demonstration for Clinton's
Visit{]},'' Wire Report, Taiwan Central News Agency, 1998 (cited Monday,
June 22, 1998).) This process is actually a destroy of the social
connections which was built by the tradition residential spaces, and the
internal and external linkage in the neighborhoods will also has to be
reestablished. In the 1990s, land ownership is still not allowed to be
traded {[}1313{[}{]} China State Council, 1990, Ordnance for
State-owned{]}. However, during renovation of old neighborhoods, the
land use rights of many private proprietors has not been recognized and
duly compensated. This has led to a gap between the actual market value
of the houses to be dismantled and the compensation to their owners. In
many instances, real estate developers cheat the people by following the
old rule which does not compensate for the land use right of private
houses but when selling, they follow the new rule of market value by
including the land use right. Compensation is very often for the built
up area and not the plot area, which considerably undervalues the
property{[}1414{[}{]} Li J. 2004. ``Constitution Helps Man Fight for
Home.'' China Daily, April 6, 2004, p.3.{]}. The problem gets worse
because the current property evaluating institutes are part of the
government departments closely related to government and real estate
developers. The number of such institutes is also limited, leaving
people with few alternative property evaluation
opportunities.\protect\hyperlink{Acharya_2005}{(Acharya 2005)}~

The second one, is the involvement of participation from stakeholders.
Normally, the principal actors involved in redevelopment are the
following: (1) government departments at different levels; (2) property
owners; (3) renters; and (4) the developers. Municipal and District
governments are important actors. Despite large scale demolition and
relocation, the involvement of the civil society institution is very
margina. In China's urban contexts, the limits of residents'
participation in planning and decision-making processes make it
difficult for residents to `voice out' collectively. The absence of
intermediate civic organizations aggravates this
situation\cite{Tomba_2005}. Participation in the community level needs
to be strengthened in a way, the grassroots' voice need to be heard by
the decision makers. Actually, community participation and resistance to
redevelopment is high in places like Xi'an, it's expensive to demolish
and compensate, and where the citizens and officials proactively
participate in protecting the heritage\cite{Abramson_2000}.

\subsubsection*{Physical}

{\label{597921}}

On the physical aspect, the first challenge is needs for upgrade the
living condition, both interior and urban environment. As we mentioned
before the compensation for the depilated housing policy is ``get what
you had''. Originally the housing before the ODHR project is rather
small (average living area of 6.19 sq.m). This fact led to the relocated
housing from ODHR is accordingly small. (From the incomplete data from
housing rental website and company, most of housing is blew 50 sq.m.)
However, the living standard has improved constantly, by the new version
of Design Code for Residential Buildings (MOHURD, 2014, Design Code for
Residential Buildings\& Code for Urban Residential Areas Planning\&
Design)\cite{Abramson_2000}, the average housing space per capital should
be at least 28 sq.m.(According to the Sixth Census in 2011, and China
Social Science Research Center in Beijing University, China Family Panel
Studies, CFPS, 2012, Beijing University Press.) The gap between current
condition and standard is obvious. (Fig.11)\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{figure}[h!]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=0.70\columnwidth]{figures/image11/image11}
\caption{{Figure 11. Housing floor area in average sq.m/capital in Xi'an%
}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

{[}11{[}{]} Xi'an local chronicles office compile committee, 2001, Year
Book of Xi'an (Xi'an Nianjian), Xi'an Press{]}

The second one is how to shape up for appearances city feature after
revitalize the dilapidated housing as a historical ancient city, we have
already lost the vastly featured courtyard housing in the ODHR program
once in Xi'an, now is time to facing another challenge to rehabilitated
again the inner city, to preserve it's features as the townscape. Since
the land use rights have been transferred to private,{[}22{[}{]} In
accordance with the Interim Regulations Concerning the Leasing and
Transfer of the Right to the Use of the State-Owned Land in the Urban
Areas, the maximum term for the leased right to use the land is
determined respectively in the light of the purposes: 70 years for
residential purposes; 50 years for industrial purposes; 50 years for the
purposes of education, science, culture, public health and physical
education; 40 years for commercial, tourist and recreational purposes;
and 50 years for mixed utilization or other purposes.{]} in order to
improve the physical environment, inhabitants start to revalorize
facilitate by their own. It is now interesting to note that some
self-built practice in quietly undertaking in some potential area from
the dilapidated house. The original plan is not considered the
possibility, yet the local inhabitants start the regeneration base on
the physical precondition. This urban transformation, officially, is
actually a violation on the comprehensive master plan in a sense, yet it
brings the feature to the site. (Fig.12)\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{figure}[h!]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=1.00\columnwidth]{figures/image12/image12}
\caption{{~~~ Figure 12. Self-build practice and urban function transformation%
}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

Nonetheless, the physical environments of the old housing is limited and
mostly revitalized by the private owner which the outcome can be very
much uneven from the architecture point of view. How to guide this
process without ruining the positive urban phenomenon during the
regeneration, is also very challenging.

\section*{4. PROPOSING DESIGN APPROACH}

{\label{135600}}

Culture and historical cities like Xi'an, must be a collective joint of
all historic layers in the contemporary urban spaces. Regarding to inner
city regeneration, a culture sustainable design approach need to be
adopted to guarantee the diversity and compactness of the city. Culture
sustainable design approach can involve the promotion of culture-based
events and attractions along with encouraging the development of higher
quality housing and retail, and the attraction of professional
businesses to the area. It is highlighting the value of the matrix of
local cultural, and actors to improve the physical environment and
reconstruction of local cultural network\cite{Miles_2004}.We count on
the cooperation of multi-aspects will form a solid foundation in
participation and fulfillment of urban design and planning. (Fig.13)\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{figure}[h!]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=0.70\columnwidth]{figures/image13/image13}
\caption{{~~~ Figure 13. Concept framework of culture sustainable urban
regeneration%
}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

Through the micro level of the linkage between the variety of player and
actors in the process, eventually could achieve the social interactions
in the macro level. Any interventions should be the implemented from the
neighborhood level, given awareness of local culture, then materialize
into architecture and urban spaces based on the self- transformation
occurs in the district. To achieve the urban transformation in the meso
level, and finally urban transformation as culture featured city. Here
it needed to point out that a vision from top-down administration is a
must. On this point, many researches suggests that the less attention is
being paid to this `bottom-up' consciousness of inhabitants which has
been formulated over many decades, the more chance culture sustainable
approaches end with failure\cite{Doucet2007}. So the real key is how
well the intervention projects are connected to the local residents'
activities and culture facilities and a open minded vision. (Fig.14) In
general, the rehabilitation of the inner city area economic impacts
direct refers to the financial benefits from the projects in the local
region. These include the rise of employment and increases in property
value and revenues.\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{figure}[h!]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=1.00\columnwidth]{figures/image14/image14}
\caption{{~~~ Figure. 14 Illustrating the intervention process%
}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

In the process, there are several crucial points needs to be
highlighted.

The first one is to fill the knowledge gap on the specific site before
any urban innovations. For the inner city inhabitants, the knowledge
related to the place and local culture awareness, is far more crucial
than any other design and planning aspects to shape up the features of
city, especially in the historical cities. Obtain and pass on these set
of knowledge from one generation to another brings the identity and
sense of belonging in a specific urban context. Survey, qualitative
research design and observation techniques are required to identify key
indicators in field work survey and specific case study site with solid
data and information.(Fig.15) A complete knowledge of multi-aspects from
the target is the key to provide a successful site rooted interventions.\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{figure}[h!]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=1.00\columnwidth]{figures/image15/image15}
\caption{{~~~ Figure. 15 Pilot site mapping on building ages, techniques,
landownership, stores and sites questionnaires%
}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

Second one is evaluation and assessments before the intervention
projects. In the debate over what precisely is worth preserving in the
phase of redevelopment in the historical cities. The dilapidated housing
neighborhoods are the most recent battleground. That is, while towers,
temples, and other monumental features are broadly accepted as worthy of
preservation, the historic value of, for instance, the vernacular
residential environment as a whole is still being hotly
debated.\href{https://www.authorea.com/users/158939/articles/177959-unnamed-article\#Abramson_2000}{(Abramson
2000)} (Fig.16)\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{figure}[h!]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=0.70\columnwidth]{figures/image16/image16}
\caption{{~~~ Figure 16. Dilapidated house inner city Xi'an%
}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

In the past the evaluation system is rather simple which implies a
simply solution when the dilapidated house need to be regenerated. An
intact marking system need to be introduced instead of the simply
classified the architecture with qualities. For instance, in the ORPHCC,
preservation are only for traditional courtyard houses which marked as
heritage. What about the rest dilapidated houses which are not listed as
the heritage? They are not architecture in good condition for sure, but
are they of no value at all? When we give the assessment for the inner
city, here at least 5 dimensions should be examined to answer this
question(Fig. 17):

(1) Historical: this means the architectures with great importance and
authentic as historical heritage.

(2) Culture value: this represents a important aspect of culture and the
spaces that support it.

(3) Scientific and technique value: this means that architecture could
represent a build technology of a certain time period, or material,
structure of the time.

(4) Usage value: this represents the possibility to transformation on
the function into others

(5) Environmental value: this is the condition on the energy consumption
point of view.\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{figure}[h!]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=1.00\columnwidth]{figures/image17/image17}
\caption{{~~~ Figure 17. Evaluation examples on the specific plots and
architecture.~For the methodology, American scientist Zadeh in 1965 in
fuzzy mathematics, which It simulates the human reasoning model when
quantifying and evaluating the uncertain indicators which sometime can
be subjective. This evaluation uses a single indicator grading
method(indicators as
\selectlanguage{greek}α\selectlanguage{english}\textsubscript{1}\selectlanguage{greek}α\selectlanguage{english}\textsubscript{2}\selectlanguage{greek}α\selectlanguage{english}\textsubscript{3}\selectlanguage{greek}α\selectlanguage{english}\textsubscript{4},
grades as
b\textsubscript{1}b\textsubscript{2}b\textsubscript{3}b\textsubscript{4}\ldots{})%
}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

\par\null

\textbf{Other practical tool used}

1. Literature and Historical transformation mapping tool

Historical maps and the writing documents in various periods can be
abstracted, transferred and represented into the urban-space system.
From the historic maps, the mountains, water, space form, streets,
walls, official palace, context and facilities can be traced. In Xijin
Dynasty, Geographer Pei Xiu (224-271) proposed ``Six Criteria of
Cartography'', including ratio, direction, distance, terrain, angle,
camber. Based on a comparative perspective and literature records, the
linguistics in ancient times can be applied into the modern graphic
(Dong, 2009).{}

There is another analytical method to identify the fabric physical
features based on the statistic analysis of a number of blocks in
particular morphological regions in each period. Through the
identification of the synchronic types of blocks, plots and building
fabric in various parts, taking the example of XWC, the later
intervention can have a more detailed guide. The space categories are
defined by several criteria, including size, height, location,
proportion, density, volume of physical forms and their relationship
with the surrounding environment, such as orientation and connection
with access routes.

2. Typo-morphology based analysis approach

Dated back to 1960s, morphology was firstly developed by European
geographers in morphogenetic research. Until now, the framework of
morphology can be classified into four areas: town plan, building form,
land use and furthermore, morphological region, referring to the
structure relationship between various urban units (Conzen, 1969) .
Until 1990s, typo-morphology emerged firstly as Korpf introduced
typology into the morphology to search for the intellectual differences
and similarities of morphology models.

Firstly, historic center is divided into different tissues, and several
sub-districts according to avenues and vital blocks' evolution, caring
for keeping correspondence with maps, Then to establish raw space bulks
based on various dimension. By coding and synthetic method, the bulk can
be fit in detail with some known porches, overhangs, roofs, windows,
decorative materials. (Jia, 2014)

Aim to fulfill the historic morphology and maintain historic feature,
the intervention, especially with new insertions, cares for original
space form and allocate new functions need consistent with the old
fabric. Besides the macro-level morphology analysis, the plan makes
detailed intervention proposals for the buildings to preserve. New
constructions and functions were inserted in some urban void with
careful constraints with regard to some acceptable types, consistent
with the surrounding urban landscape. In both cases, study to typology
is applied in the conservation and rebuilding.

\par\null

\section*{5. CONCLUSION}

{\label{165390}}

A culture sustainable regeneration approach with multi-dimensions
considerations provide a new vision and working tools to keep the local
residents stay in and effective involved throughout the whole process of
regeneration projects. The uniqueness on this working progress lays in
the combination of top-down and bottom up, and it requires good
governance and vision for the planners to play the proactive role, at
the same time the local residents strongly declaration of their own role
and participation actively to improve housing and living environment
with local culture from inhabitants. Secondly, it focus on how to
attract inhabitants to stay, and providing suitable and improved
environment for local residents. This requires the professional support
from the architects and planners, revitalization the dilapidated city
centre with out jeopardizing the original spatial characteristics, so as
to guarantee the cultural identity and diversity and to prevent culture
devolution and gentrification in the old city core. Thirdly, it means to
attract as much as possible stakeholders which implies investment and
keep the revitalization process to be self sufficient, every measures
could be implemented. Evaluation and even marketing of these projects
are carried out, even in the post stages of the projects. This process
needs to be designed and breed with multi-aspects disciplines with cross
referenced professions.\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{figure}[h!]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=0.70\columnwidth]{figures/image18/image18}
\caption{{Fig. 18 Assessment of different sites of XWC%
}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

This paper work is based on the solid quantitative and qualitative
research and questionnaires from each local site, it can be exam the
architecture from different indicators which are specifically set for
XWC (User's Manual on the Singapore Index on Cities' Biodiversity, 2014,
City Biodiversity Index 26 indicators are mentioned to define a
biodiversity city.) For the moment, we sent 5 indicators for XWC to
assessment(Fig. 18). On the top of this, we approach a starting point of
rehabilitation and set up a clear and integrity strategy to guide the
interventions.(Fig.19)\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{figure}[h!]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=0.70\columnwidth]{figures/image19/image19}
\caption{{~~~ Figure 19. Potential interventions after the evaluation%
}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

With the qualitative and literature research on the different historical
layers and specifically on residential development to illustrate how it
the determine the urban fabric. The archival survey is also performed
mainly in Xi'an and aimed at studying documents that collect records of
historical and current maps which illustrates the development of the
city. Statics and site survey data collection on the the different
examples of resilient inner cities on the key aspects such as population
density, housing spatial distributions, landownership, coverage on the
plot, has been another major part of the research, which could be the
vividly illustration on how the culture sustainable design approach
roots from the site.

\section*{ACKNOWLEDGMENTS}

{\label{997321}}

This paper and research work is fund by the China Scholarship Council
(CSC).

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{\label{888551}}

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