VIRTUAL Barcelona

Abstract

Each city possesses a unique cultural heritage, and the soul of a city lies in the place memory formed around its cultural essence. Place memory, as an irreplaceable resource, exists in the explicit material entities and implicit cultural entities, shaping the city’s identity across past, present, and future. It evolves and endures over time, serving as the fundamental thread for residents to perceive, experience, and understand themselves and their living environment. The paper takes Beijing’s Xisi District as a case study, systematically examining the evolution of spatial structure and the historical cultural development of Xisi by following the thread of chronological change. Starting from the material spatial level and the cultural context level, this research cognitively explores place memory anchored in cultural memory, analyzing the changes and impacts on place memory brought about by the activation of historical cultural heritage and the digital transformation of spatial scenes in urban renewal. Finally, this paper proposes a revitalization strategy for historic cultural preservation districts in urban renewal. It advocates for the use of the homogenization and reconstruction of historical buildings as a method to sustain spatial memory, while simultaneously suggesting the replication and planning of cultural contexts through the reconstruction of traditional elements as a method to connect cultural and historical memories. This strategy aims to explore an integrated design approach that combines material memory and contextual memory, providing new perspectives for the protection, development, and revitalization of historic cultural preservation districts in urban renewal.