Space-consciousness layered model as a regeneration approach for rural industrial heritage integrating local planning: a case study on Shecun village in Nanjing, china

Abstract

ABSTRACT Rural industrial heritage reflects the ongoing changes in natural environmental, socio-economic, and cultural historical processes in the countryside. In the context of urbanization, the study, conservation, and reuse of rural industrial heritage have become necessary to consolidate the local community identity and promote rural development. This study aims at establishing an intervention tool with general applicability to regenerate rural industrial heritage while integrating local sustainable development. Through a diagrammatic analysis of the natural and artificial environment, this paper combines three aspects via a layered approach: landscape analysis, urban morphology, and spatial cognition. A layered model of rural industrial heritage regeneration is established, with space and consciousness as its core. The empirical study, using the example of the Shecun lime kiln, demonstrates that the spatial-consciousness layered model (SCLM) clearly explains the core roles of transforming material elements as spatial power and the evolution of cognitive elements as consciousness power in the regeneration of rural industrial heritage. It is a systemic model with adaptable and sustainable analysis. SCLM not only provides indicative strategies but serves as a management tool for the regeneration practices of rural industrial heritage.