Project description

My background from undergraduate is social science especially focuses on economics for cultural heritage. My current interest is strategies for balancing conservation of local identity and development in order to sustain the living environment with changing society. 

Urban Project was conducted in the second semester of my program. The course provided us to explore one theme in the first half of the semester as a group work (Urban Project A) and one specific issue which is identified in the Project A as Urban Project B in the later half of the semester. As my Project A, I explored heritage and culture and I focused on intangible aspect of heritage in my Project B. 

Through the semester, I found diverse identity of Edinburgh. Since Granton and North Edinburgh area have strong identity with community-led activities, a toolkit of cultural memory for community organizations is proposed as the final strategy. The proposal intends to empower residents in terms of heritage understanding and practice. In addition, from academic perspective, the proposal aims to bring heritage practice to civic works rather than authorized projects.

Map of memories

This map illustrates the locations of memories which are identifies by residents of North Edinburgh area through the analysis. These places include where 

(1) are historic buildings 

(2) are community activity spaces 

(3) related to daily landscape that remind people to be in their hometown 

(4) used to be iconic sites for residents such as pubs and theaters

Places of memories that identified through the project analysis 2 expand

Mako Tanaka

Urban Project B: Memories and Identity in North Edinburgh