Designing for Vulnerabilities. The Definition of Public Spaces as a Strategy for a Sustainable Renovation of Beijing Heritage Sites

The regeneration strategies for the hutong areas in Beijing need to address two main interrelated vulnerabilities. On the one hand, the fragility of the local communities that are continuously threatened (or tempted) by the relocation plans proposed by the local authorities, whose aim is to “rejuvenate” these neighborhoods into more consumer and tourist-oriented settings through radical sanitization and cosmetic processes. On the other hand, the physical integrity of the same heritage sites has been highly eroded and compromised by the abovementioned regeneration plans and by the massive speculative real estate operations that surround them. After a brief reconstruction of the urban milestones that impacted on downtown Beijing, the chapter elaborates on the research by design framework to define a conceptual model that addresses these vulnerabilities through the definition of public spaces and collective facilities in this historical area.