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Plácido González Martínez

TONGJI UNIVERSITY

Ph.D. Architect and Urban Planner, Professor at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning at Tongji University in Shanghai, and Distinguished Professor of Shanghai Universities (Eastern Scholar, 东方学者). Prof. González is Executive Editor of the journal Built Heritage, co-published by Springer Nature and Tongji University Press, and Vice President of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies.  

He is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Iberian Docomomo Foundation, founding member of the research collective GAMUC studying Spanish colonial architecture and urbanism in Africa, and former member of the Advisory Board of the Spanish National Plan for the Conservation of 20th Century Heritage, which he drafted in 2014. Since he moved to Shanghai in 2016, his research interests have extended to the challenges of built heritage conservation in China in the framework of globalization.  

He has published extensively on built heritage conservation and modern architectural history. His works include the book In Light of Hilberseimer (awarded the 1st Prize for Research of the 2018 Spanish Architecture Biennale) and articles in journals like Cities, International Journal of Heritage Studies, Journal of Urbanism, Space and Polity, Journal of Urban Design and Docomomo International Journal.  

Main publications:  

  • GONZÁLEZ MARTÍNEZ, Plácido. 2020. “Curating the selective memory of gentrification: The Wulixiang Shikumen Museum in Xintiandi, Shanghai”. International Journal of Heritage Studies, DOI: 10.1080/13527258.2020.1821237  
  • GONZÁLEZ MARTÍNEZ, Plácido. 2019. “From Verifiable Authenticity to Verisimilar Interventions: Xintiandi, Fuxing SOHO, and the Alternatives to Built Heritage Conservation in Shanghai”. International Journal of Heritage Studies 25 (10): 1075-1092. DOI: 10.1080/13527258.2018.1557235  
  • REY PÉREZ, Julia, and Plácido GONZÁLEZ MARTÍNEZ. 2018. “Lights and shadows over the Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape: "Managing change" in Ballarat and Cuenca through a radical approach focused on values and authenticity”. International Journal of Heritage Studies 24 (1): 101-116. DOI: 10.1080/13527258.2017.1362572  
  • GONZÁLEZ MARTÍNEZ, Plácido. 2017. “Urban authenticity at stake: a new framework for its definition from the heritage perspective at the Shanghai Music Valley”. Cities 70: 55-64. DOI: 10.1016/j.cities.2017.06.017  
  • GONZÁLEZ MARTÍNEZ, Plácido. 2016. ‘Authenticity as a challenge in the transformation of Beijing's urban heritage: the commercial gentrification of the Guozijian historic area’, Cities 59, pp. 48–56. DOI: 10.1016/j.cities.2016.05.026