Construction of a Sustainability-Based Building Attribute Conservation Assessment Model in Historic Areas

Abstract

As important locations that carry the spirit and culture of the city, the conservation and regeneration of historic areas should be a sustainable process. However, in the current Chinese urban historical and cultural heritage conservation system, there is a certain degree of discontinuity in the management of the two-level division between historic districts and heritage protection units, resulting in a lack of control over the renewal of other buildings in the district. The fragmented conservation of historic districts eventually leads to the loss of the historical culture and urban spirit they are supposed to carry, which is not in line with the requirements of sustainable conservation. This study aims to combine sustainability theories with the essential properties of buildings to construct an assessment model to address this issue. Through integrating the discussion on the nature of building and the sustainability assessment dimensions, three aspects of common concern can be identified as economic, cultural, and social. As the ontology for transmitting and preserving culture for future generations, building should take on the three major responsibilities of presenting and inheriting regional culture, improving regional conservation and developing economic functions. Therefore, the three dimensions of sustainability-based building attributes are “Economy of construction, Cultural of form, and Social of benefit”. A sustainable assessment model is constructed based on the three dimensions, which can help to dynamically monitor changes in building attributes during implementation. Finally, a case study was analyzed using the proposed model, and the feasibility and applicability of the assessment model were proved. The model provides effective guidance for comparative evaluation before and after the implementation of protecting plans, and corrects deviations to sustainable conservation goals in a timely manner.