STITCHING MACAU'S POST-COLONIAL LANDSCAPE : RENEWING HISTORIES WITH THEIR PEOPLE

Abstract

At present, Macau’s Urban Planning Bureau’s attitude towards heritage conservation is skewed towards the idea of a staged authenticity, targeted at a higher-educated level of tourists and audiences. This bags the question as to how do the common people relate to it? The thesis objective is to make people, which in this project are the Macanese and their local communities, to value their heritage and let it be part of their personal memories. The thesis site is in the former Portuguese colony in the Macau Peninsula, a UNESCO World Heritage site, inscribed for its rich heritage and history. This is a site specific project where grounds for investigation look into the declining connection and relevance between heritage and the local Macau people. The project essentially approaches the site from the Macau’s local community’s position, which investigates into an alternative methodology from the top-down urban-tourism related gentrification of heritage sites.