Real Estate and Marketing Rhetorics. The Rise of Heritage in the Face of Global Financialization

Abstract

The contribution proposes to observe the inclusion of symbolic elements linked to the notion of heritage within the images used to promote domestic interiors in regeneration projects. This operation is conducted in two of the most important cities at the forefront of the housing crisis: London and Shanghai, and reveals remarkable parallels between Eastern and Western modes of communication and representation. The financialization of space, which had profoundly transformed the way we value, perceive and desire domestic intimacy opens up issues of space falsification, and distortion of the social models of reference. What these projects present us with are fictitious narratives that select
not only materials, but also inhabitants, ambitions and social projections. What is new is the aggressiveness of the process linking the construction of spaces and the shaping of the subject, and the enhanced use of references to cultural elements able to secure economic returns. Their reassuring character stabilizes the perception of investment, forcing us to reflect on how we shape a specific idea of the city through images, and for whom we do so.