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Sean
Chiao
Principal and Regional Director, AIA, EDAW
Award winning project:
Qiaonan Village Historic Preservation Scheme
Qiaonan Village: A Sustainable Success
EDAW's goal for Qiaonan Village was to preserve
and breathe new life into a storied community and village that once
served as the starting point - the dragon's head - of China's sea
silk-road. A parallel aim was to embrace the surrounding township
of Quanzhou by giving it a new cultural and commercial jewel. Our
plan was based largely on an economic analysis which informed the
landscape and architectural guidelines. The objectives were to revitalize
and enhance Qiaonan Village by using its own history and context,
so it could flourish on cultural, economic and social terms. Central
to this was a sustainable regeneration: cleaning up and enhancing
the Village's estuary and natural environment, restoring typologies,
and creating opportunities for visitors while introducing economic
opportunities for the local community.
EDAW's strategy thus fuses cultural preservation
with economic development, serving stakeholders such as the local
community, the greater township, and tourists. By linking the restoration
of architecture and the creation of open spaces systems to economic
incentives, we would breathe new life into the village, helping
it avoid becoming a glorious, but faded memory. We would change
the image of Qiaonan in a way that preserves and transforms a culture,
by honoring a heritage and introducing incentives that change how
people think about the future potential of that heritage, in commercial,
social and cultural terms. The enduring nature of these opportunities
will be the ultimate measure of success for this unique project.
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