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Landscape crisis of the Guia Fortress
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The landscape crisis of the Guia Fortress refers to the landscape conservation crisis of the Guia Fortress, a part of the Historic Centre of Macau and a symbol of the city. This current crisis represents a threat to Macau's World Cultural Heritage.
In 2005, the Guia Fortress was inscribed on the World Heritage Site as part of the Historic Centre of Macau. In the same year, the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) of the People's Republic of China repealed "The Outer Harbor and New Land Reclamation Urban Planning Charter" and "The Bylaws of South Bay Reorganization", two ordinances for the protection of the local World Heritage Site, which designate the area around the Penha Hill as free land for development and approve the construction of tall buildings around the Guia Fortress causing damage to the landscape, some of which will be much taller than Penha Hill when completed, undermining the Fortress' World Heritage status.[1][2] The incident has aroused concern from all walks of life, and some civil groups have initiated a series of activities to stop the construction of super-tall buildings around Penha Hill. As of 2018, except for the Macau Liaison Office building, which was completed, other controversial projects are either in the planning stage, under construction, or on hold.[3][4]
The Government of Macau has been criticized for its handling of the issue, and the incident has drawn the attention of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, which has intervened in the investigation and issued a warning to the Macau authorities, while some voices in the community have criticized the Liaison Office for taking the lead in destroying the world's cultural heritage. In 2007, Macau residents sent a letter to UNESCO, pointing out that the construction of the Liaison Office building, among other projects, was damaging the view of the Guia Fortress, a World Heritage Site.[5][6][7] UNESCO subsequently issued a warning to the Macau government, and the former Macau Chief Executive Edmund Ho later signed the Chief Executive's Instruction No. 83/2008 (commonly known as the "Height Restriction Instruction") which restricted the height of the buildings around the Guia Fortress.[8][9] However, compared to the Macau-Portugal period before "The Outer Harbor and New Land Reclamation Urban Planning Charter" and "The Bylaws of South Bay Reorganization" were repealed by the MSAR, the height restriction was actually expanded.[10][11] It was criticized that the height of buildings within the 2.8 square kilometers of the fortress area was enlarged,[12] with more than half of the height restriction area covered by buildings above the 75-meter height.[13] In addition, although the Liaison Office conceded to lower the planned height of 99.9 meters to 88 meters, the view of the fortress was also severely damaged (according to the "height restriction instructions", the height restriction of the Liaison Office building is 90 meters), which led the property developers to follow and do the same.[14]
With the rapid economic development and the exuberant real property market in Macau, many new buildings have been constructed, which have damaged the environment and landscape of the World Heritage Site to varying degrees. The Guia Fortress on Penha Hill is now surrounded by many high-rise buildings below the hill, and if various uncompleted high-rise projects are completed in the future, the view of the Guia Fortress will be further damaged. In contrast to many scenic spots outside of Macau that have adopted building height restrictions to preserve the original landscape of the area, the Macau government has been criticized for doing the opposite, violating the public's expectation of preserving the scenic beauty of the World Heritage Site, and making people question the Macau Cultural Affairs Bureau for being afraid to speak up for fear of the powerful.[15][16] The case of Guia Fortress is proof that the Government of Macau has neglected the protection of cultural heritage in urban planning, as commented by Chen Mingkou, a professor at Stanford University, and Yu Yong Yi, a professor at the University of Macau.[17]