Heritage | 10 years after UNESCO listing | Urban planners say city should be seen as a whole

Arcades at the Inner Harbor

Residents have a closer attachment to heritage sites that have “a social role” – like the post office and the several modernist markets – than they have with emblematic monuments like the St Paul’s Ruins and the A-Ma Temple, which they think are mainly for tourists, according to two urban planners.
Lam Iek Chip and Inês Lei consider themselves “communal urbanists” and they have been trying to make the locals aware of the crucial importance of urban planning and heritage conservation through an association called Root Planning.
“People are more connected to buildings like the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau headquarters, the post office and some schools and markets. Those buildings have a social connection to the community,” Inês Lei pointed out.
“The link between the population and the World Heritage sites is diminishing. People think that places like the A-Ma Temple and St Paul’s Ruins are only for tourists,” Lam Iek Chip, also a member of the Urban Planning Committee, told Lusa.
Ten years after UNESCO’s World Heritage listing, Lam Iek Chip and Inês Lei argue that some of the buildings that have a higher emotional value for the population are not part of the international organization’s list and risk being demolished, considering the strong real-estate pressure in Macau.
The region has its own protection list that includes 128 buildings, but those sites are not subject to the same rules that apply to the areas recognized by UNESCO.
Both the interviewees consider public awareness of heritage and identity issues to be increasing, but point out that they need to address their concerns to those in power: “If the government and society don’t do more, in ten years’ time the heritage sites that are not included in buffer zones will be demolished. If that happens, the classified sites will be like a museum. (…) The city, and not only the so called historic center, must be seen as a whole and the urban development should be illustrated by keeping buildings from several eras.”
Root Planning Association has thus created an architectonic map that includes 32 buildings that are not on UNESCO’s list, among them the Cinema Alegria and the Portuguese School.
The urban planers think that the speedy pace of development has hindered heritage conservation, and they bemoan the fact that works being done now weren’t begun ten years ago.
“We already lost the momentum to protect the buildings,” Inês Lai says. Lam Iek Chip identifies the Inner Harbour as the area where that loss of momentum is most pronounced. “There are many buildings there that should be preserved, like the sidewalks with arcades and the buildings related to the port’s activity, which trace the development of the costal line,” he says. “The government has showed interest in preserving those arcades, but, in fact, many of them are gone, they are not part of a whole anymore, and when we discuss heritage conservation, we must see the whole picture.” MDT/Lusa