Professor at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning of Tongji University. Appointed Distinguished Professor of Shanghai Universities (2019-2022). For the period 2023-2024 will hold a position as Distinguished Researcher at the University of Seville (María Zambrano Fellowship).

Architect and urban planner by training, my current research and scholarship focus on built heritage conservation in China, with a special interest on theoretical discussions on authenticity, applied to the study of heritage-led urban redevelopment and the heritagization of infrastructures. I have published my research on these topics in journals like Cities; International Journal of Heritage Studies; Habitat International; and Tunnelling and Underground Technology.

Previously I also worked in the field 20th century heritage: I am drafter of the Spanish National Plan of Conservation of 20th Century Heritage for the Spanish Ministry of Culture, and served as member of the Advisory Board of the same Plan (2011-2016). I served as member of the Scientific Committee of the Iberian DOCOMOMO Foundation (2006-2016). Since 2010 I am a founding member of the GAMUC Research Team, based in the University of Seville, which studies Spanish colonial architecture and urbanism in Africa.

My interest on modern architecture from the perspective of exile led me to study the work of the German urban planner Ludwig Hilberseimer. As a result of this research, I published the the book A la luz de Hilberseimer (Vibok Works, 2016) (English version: In light of Hilberseimer, Vibok Works, 2015), which was awarded the Research Prize of the 14th Spanish Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism in 2018.

Since 2016 I serve as Executive Editor of the Built Heritage journal, published by Springer Nature and Tongji University Press, and belong to the Editorial Board of the journals Loggia. Arquitectura & Restauración; Progreso, Proyecto y Arquitectura; VLC Arquitectura; and Boletín Académico.

I have supervised one doctoral thesis (shortlisted in the 10th Iberoamerican Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism). I have also been member of 6 Ph.D. dissertation boards, and supervised 9 Master Theses both from Spanish and international Universities.

Peer-reviewed Articles:

● GONZÁLEZ MARTÍNEZ, Plácido. 2023. ‘Minding the gap’: The heritagization of metro stations and its perception by users in the Shanghai Metro. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 131, 104772. – JCR (Q1 Construction and Building Technology, Q1 Civil Engineering), SSCI

● DEN HARTOG, Harry, and Plácido GONZÁLEZ MARTÍNEZ. 2022. ‘Integrating heritage assets in large commercial complexes: de-contextualization and re-signification of memory in Shanghai’, in Habitat International 126, 102601, DOI: 10.1016/j.habitatint.2022.102601 – JCR (Q1 Development Studies, Q1 Environmental Studies, Q1 Regional & Urban Planning, Q1 Urban Studies), SSCI 

● ZHU, Yujie, and Plácido GONZÁLEZ MARTÍNEZ. 2022. ‘Heritage, values and gentrification: the redevelopment of historical areas in China’, in International Journal of Heritage Studies 28 (4), 476-494, DOI: 10.1080/13527258.2021.2010791 – JCR (Q2 Social Sciences), SSCI, A&HCI

● GONZÁLEZ MARTÍNEZ, Plácido. 2022. ‘The ‘preservation by relocation’ of Huizhou vernacular architecture: shifting notions on the authenticity of rural heritage in China’, International Journal of Heritage Studies 28 (2), 200-215, DOI: 10.1080/13527258.2021.1955728 JCR (Q2 Social Sciences), SSCI, A&HCI 

● GONZÁLEZ MARTÍNEZ, Plácido. 2021. ‘Echo from the underground: The heritage customization of subway infrastructures in Shanghai’s listed areas’, in Built Heritage 5, 5 DOI https://doi.org/10.1186/s43238-021-00024-y – SCOPUS 

Books:

●WAKEMAN, Rosemary; Yingchun LI and Plácido GONZÁLEZ MARTÍNEZ (Eds.). 2023. Re-creating Shanghai. Heritage Conservation and Urban Regeneration. New York: Springer. (in press)

● GONZALEZ MARTINEZ, P. In Light of Hilberseimer: The Genesis and Legacy of The New City. Seville: Vibok Works, 2015. 

● GONZALEZ MARTINEZ, P. A la luz de Hilberseimer: La genesis y el legado de The New City. Seville: Vibok Works, 2015 (2nd Edition, 2016). 

● GONZALEZ MARTINEZ, P. (Ed.). Factories of Knowledge. The Architectural Heritage of the University of Seville. Seville: University of Seville, 2014. 

● GONZALEZ MARTINEZ, P. (Ed.). 100 years of Architecture in Andalusia. Seville: Andalusian Institute of Historic Heritage, 2012. 

Book Chapters:

● GONZÁLEZ MARTÍNEZ, Plácido. 2022. ‘Through the lens of colonization. Revisiting Hilberseimer’s The New City as a heritage of Modernism’. In Strob, F. (Ed.). Infrastructures of Modernity (WT) Edition Bauhaus Nr. 59. Basel: Birkhäuser, 43-54.

● GONZÁLEZ MARTÍNEZ, Plácido. 2022. ‘Culture brought to the core: re-reading Shanghai as a cultural landscape’, in JONES, David S.; SILVA, Kapila D.; TAYLOR, Ken (eds). The Routledge Handbook on Cultural Landscape Heritage in the Asia-Pacific. Oxford: Routledge, 314-328. DOI: 10.4324/9781003099994-23

● GONZÁLEZ MARTÍNEZ, Plácido. 2022. ‘El patrimonio del futuro en Shanghái: narrativas, discurso patrimonial autorizado y autenticidad en la ciudad global china del siglo XXI’, in LOREN MÉNDEZ, Mar (ed.). Arquitectura y patrimonio contemporáneos. Sevilla: Universidad de Sevilla, 170-196 (in Spanish)

● GONZÁLEZ MARTÍNEZ, Plácido; Iñaki ÁBALOS; Renata SENTKIEWICZ. 2021. ‘Documentar la cultura material. Ábalos + Sentkiewicz entrevistados por Plácido González’, in ÁBALOS, Iñaki; Renata SENTKIEWICZ; José de Andrés MONCAYO. Nuevo primitivismo. Ábalos + Sentkiewicz., p.159-163. Mexico City: Arquine (in Spanish) 

● GONZÁLEZ MARTÍNEZ, Plácido. 2020. ‘Prólogo a la biografía ilustrada de Rubiño García Márquez’, in VENTURA, Ferrán (Ed.). Rubiño García Márquez Arquitectos. Una Biografía Ilustrada, p.14-20. Sevilla: Recolectores Urbanos (in Spanish)

● Eastern Scholar (2020-2022), Shanghai Municipal Education Commission. Researching on heritage-led urban redevelopment and heritagization of infrastructures.

● Member of the project ‘Modern Company Towns. Company Towns and Urban Planning, from the Second Industrial Revolution to the Second De-Industrialization’. Coordinated by the University of Quebec. Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, 2020-2023.

● Main researcher, Iberian DOCOMOMO Registers. Funded by the by the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Andalusia, Spain, 2008-2018.

● Main researcher, Iberian Documentation of Architectural Heritage of the University of Seville. Funded by the University of Seville, Spain, 2013-2014.

● Member of the Architecture and Urbanism in Former Spanish Colonies in Africa. The Development of a Modern Habitat: a Postcolonial Definition. Funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, 2012-2015.

● Main researcher, Register of 20th Century Heritage in Andalusia. Funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Andalusia, Spain, 2006-2009.

● 1st Prize of Research, 14th Spanish Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, for the book:

● A la luz de Hilberseimer. La génesis y el legado de The New City (Vibok Works, 2016)

● Spanish Ministry of Public Works and Spanish Council of Architects, 2018

● Best Paper Award. 2nd International Conference on Heritage of China: Continuity and Celebration of Living Heritage of China. Suzhou University, China, 2018

● Shortlisted in the 2017 FAD International Prize for Architectural Theory and Criticism, for the book: A la luz de Hilberseimer. La génesis y el legado de The New City (Vibok Works, 2016), 2017

● Honorable mention, Research Prize of the 9th International Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism BIAU 2014 for the project ‘Atributos urbanos (Urban attributes)’, with M. Pelegrín Rodríguez, F. Pérez Blanco and C. García Vázquez, 2014.

● Awarded Best Ph.D. Thesis in the Year 2010 by the University of Seville, 2012.