Harnessing the Tension from Context-duality in Historic Urban Environment


  •  Ejeng Ukabi    

Abstract

The quest for improvement and upgrading of the historic urban environment through coexisting historical context and new context had introduced tension over the previous years. The resultant flows have jeopardized the harmonious layers of historical settings. The concept of conservation that provides the needed bridge between the forces in many cases implemented exhibits a no consideration of the three polarities that controls historic areas. The aftermath shows up in two ways. At one end is convergence and divergence at the other but the emphasis of this paper focuses on investigating what happens in historic urban environments when annex developments exceed historic limits? Historic Limit (HL) is the hidden benchmark and maximum point of the historic urban environment at which the forces produced by the two contexts coexist elastically. In order to answer the generated question, a literature review of the keywords that constitutes the topic is explored. The ideas of Warren John on ‘interaction’ and that of Getty Conservation Institute on ‘relationship’ that happens in the built above environment will buttress the argument. A model that represents the correlation of the two contexts is developed to simplify the overall intentions of the essay. Another technique is the selection of two composite annex cases to validate the targeted objectives. The article is concluded by recommending that conservation schemes in historic urban landscapes should adopt consensus design strategy for tackling context tension. As a sure way of sustainably welcoming the voices of the community in the process before implementation of the development.


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