Architect calls for suitable urban renewal policies

In search of urban spaces that both embody optimum conditions for business and values for heritage conservation, local architects have noticed that there is big potential waiting to be unlocked in the revamping of the city’s old neighborhood .
Explaining why many old buildings have been left idle, veteran architect Joy Choi pointed to the absence of suitable laws and policies as something that is hindering urban renovation. The lack of a clear list of valuable architecture to protect and the inadequate education on cultural awareness are other factors.
“Buildings that are over thirty years old account for about 60 percent of those in Macau, and they are mainly for residential purposes,” she told the Times, in light of the old streets’ potential for urban transformation and activating economic planning.
“As the buildings are mostly private properties, the Kai Fong (General Union of the Neighborhood Associations) holds a key role there, in terms of finding out about utilization situations and contacting the owners,” she explained. “Another key party is the charitable societies, as a lot of the historical properties belong to them.”
Ms Choi indicated that “the government must be proactive, as it holds the key to several gates in the process.” Apart from reaching out to those associations, she urged the authorities to experiment by setting a pilot site for feasibility testing.
“If the planning is done with the participation of the area’s residents, investors, the government and the academia, the chance of success would be very high. It would be a tailor-made reconstruction and development plan,” she stressed.
Macau’s old buildings and alleys – due to their distinctive
features – request suitable laws and regulations, from alignment approving and business licensing, to reconstruction guidelines and fire safety.
Furthermore, neighborhood revitalization also depends on incentive policies such as affordable rent, tax reductions, tourism publicity, as well as traffic control and planning, she suggested.
Ms Choi stressed that all those aspects could be attended to through a tailor-made planning process. “We have all kinds of means to solve the technical problems. For instance, a staircase inside a house might be too narrow to meet the general requirements on fire safety, but we can build a ‘crawling channel’ for escape like how it’s done in Japan,” she explained.
Speaking at yesterday’s France Macau Business Association (FMBA) breakfast meeting, Ms Choi reviewed the city’s architecture preservation measures through reference to her own architectural practice and others, drawing from the time before Macau’s historical center was inscribed on the world heritage list.
The urban planning advisor further recognized the Cultural Institute’s efforts in preserving the region’s inscribed heritage. However, she also acknowledged a lack of protection for buildings with historical values that are not on the relics list.
“If the developers decide to demolish those buildings, they’ll just be gone. The last update on the relics list was from 1992, but it should have been updated every ten years,” she argued, adding that the bureau should also be granted more power so that it can extend protection to more historical architecture.
Ms Choi emphasized that a set of hierarchical lists classifying old buildings must be established, while another crucial step is in carrying out education among the younger generations, so that eventually the developers and the markets would take more of an interest in heritage conservation.
During the speech, she introduced to the audience a series of reconstructed buildings for commercial use, some of them located in the Old Taipa Town. “They are a success in business, whilst also enhancing the historical site,” she said.
The architect further emphasized that “conservation of built heritage is inseparable from humanistic culture.” “Those old neighborhoods are attractive because there are people living there; they are alive. Visitors are not there only to see the building itself. If they just want to see the architecture, they could just go to Fisherman’s Wharf – there are various styles, but why aren’t there many visitors?”