• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.45-54
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• 2021

The adaptive reuse of 20th-century high-rise architecture poses important questions about the prevalence of authorized discourses in the heritage conservation field. Based on a two-year teaching experience at Tongji University about the adaptive reuse of the Metropolo Hotel (Palmer and Turner, 1934), an iconic historic high-rise building in the Shanghai Bund area, this paper will show the extent to which disciplinary and urban authorized heritage discourses are present in the development of design and representation strategies in adaptive reuse. Using discourse analysis as a method, this paper will make the argument that disciplinary discourses have a limited effect in the practice of adaptive reuse, which is perceived as a fundamentally creative activity. At the same time, the paper reveals how urban discourses have a much more lasting effect, confirming the intimate links between adaptive reuse and the wider phenomena of beautification and gentrification of high-rise listed areas.