THE INFLUENCE OF REGENERATION OF CITY HISTORICAL CORE ON URBAN SPATIAL STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION: CASE STUDY OF THE CITY OF

1JINGNAN ZUO, 2ZHONGMING SHI, 3WENBO GUO

1,2,3P.R.China, Southeast University, Tongjing University, Georgia Tech E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract—This paper aims to understand the influence of regeneration projects on the spatial structure and urban function of historical city. Nanjing is chosen as the case city. Syntactical analysis of space syntax for the urban space of Nanjing is carried out in three periods with the reference to the urban function. The study results shows that through construction of regeneration projects, Nanjing is increasingly global in its spatial structure and urban function. It also demonstrates that there is strong connection between spatial structure and urban function, therefore urban structure of historical zone should be improved in order to revive its function.

Index Terms—Syntactical Analysis, Spatial Structure, Urban Function, Regeneration Project.

I. INTRODUCTION scope in this paper. After 1949, when P.R. China was founded, the development of Nanjing was primarily Having recognized the great value of historical urban inside the city wall of Ming. The composition of zone for a city, many urban plans have been carried out Nanjing’s urban areas inside the city wall is composed by authorities, and a number of regeneration projects by three parts formed in different periods. As Fig. 1 have been constructed during the recent years in many shows: the south region is the oldest area that was historical cities. After several decades’ applications of formed in Nantang Dynasty (937-975). When the King the policies and projects, it is the time to examine the “Zhu Yuanzhang” established the “Ming” Empire and influence of regeneration on historical city. Does the took Nanjing as the capital, the old city boundary regeneration help the historical city to increase its formed in Nantang could not hold the grand capital productivity and harmony; meanwhile, does it help to plan of this new empire. Therefore, two new parts were preserve the historical features of urban space and added beside the south region. One palace region was people’s living mode? Inspired by these concerns, this built on the east of the south region. The other new paper aims to reveal the influence of regeneration part, functioning as the troops area, was built on the policies and projects on spatial structure and urban northwest of the south region. function of the historical city. Nanjing was chosen as the case city in this paper. The reasons are as follows. First, Nanjing has long been one of China's most important historical cities. Having been the capital city of six different dynasties since 3 A.D., it is recognized as one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China. It was the capital of (1368-1644), and the capital of the Republic of China (1927–1949). Second, the history of Nanjing identically demonstrates the contradiction between urban decline and regeneration, as well as the city development and preservation. In the end of (1644-1912), a series of wars destroyed a great number of buildings and infrastructures of this city, which led it almost economic bankruptcy. Until 1927, when National Government of KMT (, National Party) moved to Nanjing and made it the capital of China, this city begun to revive as the large-scale construction plan was made and implemented. However this building boom only lasted for ten years, which was terminated by anti-Japanese II. DATA AND METHODOLOGY wars and civil strife. From 1980s to 2007, Nanjing started its second regeneration with the emphasis on Submit your manuscript electronically for review. As economic development . the theory of space syntax could give accurate values The urban area inside the city wall of Ming is the for the arrangement of spaces and build strong historical core of Nanjing, which is the main research connections between spatial structure and the generic

Proceedings of 11th ISERD International Conference, Macau, People's Republic of China, 16th Sept. 2015, ISBN: 978-93-85465-90-1 39 The Influence Of Regeneration Of City Historical Core On Urban Spatial Structure And Function: Case Study Of The City Of Nanjing function of movement, syntactical analysis of space the mountain terrain. In the east region, the dominant syntax is the main methods in this research to examine direction of the axes is 5 degrees south by west. Urban the influence of regeneration of historical city on urban fabric of this area, as the historical site of Ming palace, structure and function. Maps of 1910, 1937, and 2007 demonstrates the rigorous geometrical nature. are transformed into axial maps for the syntactical analysis. Radius_n (global integration) and Radius_3(local integration), Intelligibility are the basic parameters for comparative study among axial maps of the three time nodes. Syntactical properties are analyzed to discover syntactic difference between systems in different years. Generally axial map analysis includes the global integration rad_n and the local integration rad_3. Rad_n represents the degree of convergence and dispersion of axial lines and other types of space in a system, while rad_3 is applied to comprehend the local grid. The syntactic analysis of different years has shown that there are some syntactic differences among the three periods. Having analyzed the historical spatial evolution of Nanjing city, the study focuses on mapping what is known as the functional pattern of the area inside the city wall. The administrative, the residential and the commercial functions are identified as major city functions, which are strongly connected with governmental policy and “natural movement”. Unlike the governmental policy, natural movement is driven by special environment, in other worlds by urban physical form. The theory of space syntax builds its syntactical parameters with the reference of natural movement. Hence, changes of urban function are related with not only the political policy but also the physical form. The latter is the focus in this research: the variations of urban function are examined in details by the result gained from syntactical analysis.

III. URBAN ANALYSIS FOR NANJING IN 1910

The urban form of the 1910 Nanjing retains the urban fabric of Ming and Qing Dynasties. In 1910 the South region was the most densely populated region in Nanjing, which leads the highest intensity of land using and smallest street block size. The northwest region was the troop area in Ming and Qing, and one third of the land is mountain area, while the east region had ever functioned as the imperial city of Ming, so most land of this region was used for the emperor's palace. Block size in northwest and east regions is bigger than the traditional urban block size showed in the south region. Another distinguishing feature is that there is no unified direction for the axial lines in the three regions. In the south region, Guyu Street The geometrical pattern of the layout in 1910 axial (Zhonghua Road) acted as the central axis of 14 map leads to some specific syntactical feature. The degrees south by west. The direction of central axis is rad_n integration analysis in 1910 (Fig.2) illustrates followed by most of the other axes in south region, that the global integration core (the bold lines in Fig.2) except in the area along Qinhuai River, where Qinhuai converges in the north part of south region, while other River becomes the master power of the street net areas surrounding this core render in low integration direction. In the north region, the dominant direction of value. On the contrast, in the rad_3 integration analysis the axes is 2 degrees south by east, except in the area of (Fig.3), each local part has its own integration core (the west edge, where the direction of axes has to adapt to bold lines in Fig.3), which shows little coincide with

Proceedings of 11th ISERD International Conference, Macau, People's Republic of China, 16th Sept. 2015, ISBN: 978-93-85465-90-1 40 The Influence Of Regeneration Of City Historical Core On Urban Spatial Structure And Function: Case Study Of The City Of Nanjing the distribution of global integration core. Both the Square was the intersection of the new main roads, and global and local integration analysis suggests that the its high global integrator value makes it the most physical space of Nanjing city was actually divided accessible place in Nanjing. In the 1930s’ the land into several parts rather than an entirety in 1910. price around Xinjiekou Square was the highest in The functional analysis of Nanjing has shown that the Nanjing. Only the banks，superstore and great theatre space of global integration core in 1910 acts the could afford the land price of this area. The dominant role in terms of unban functions and life administrative function was no longer to cluster around since Ming and Qing Dynasty. Street blocks around Daxinggong, but dispersed along the new dominant Daxinggong acted as the administrative area in the integrators. After 1927, the land along North Qing Dynasty after the east region declined as the state Zhongshan Road, Zhongshan Road, and East administrative center of Ming. The other areas except Zhongshan Road was collected to build administrative the core space in the south region were engaged in the buildings by the state departments. The residential residential function, accommodating the most areas in the south region became even more crowded population of Nanjing. (Fig.4) As one of the dominant because the population of Nanjing in 1937 was almost integrator of axial map, Taiping Road links two three times in 1910. important sites of the city, Daxinggong and Fuzi Temple, the former was the area clustering many V. URBAN ANALYSIS FOR NANJING IN 2007 political department buildings, while the latter accommodated the most important examination hall of The global special structure of 2007 keeps the south China (Gongyuan), and some markets that framework formed by main roads in 1937. With the provided daily use for the candidates of government secondary main roads being added in, the road system officer. Guyu Street (Zhonghua Road) is another in 2007 is more completed with full levels than in important trunk axis, where retail shops were located. 1937. On the contrary, the local special structure has The land along the Qinhuai River was in mixed use changed greatly, especially in the areas of the south with the function of handicraft industry and retail. Qinhuai River. The main reason is the residential Besides these global urban centers, there were some housing type changed after 1949. As the Heyuan local living centers dispersed in the local (Courtyard Houses) disappeared with small size street neighborhoods, which are also the local integrator in blocks, gated community in superblock became the rad_3 integration analysis. Hence, it is accordant with main residential mode in China. The gated community Hiller’s theory that syntactical axes with highest global stops pedestrians to enter for cutting-through. Even and local integrator value are of the strongest function some areas retain the old building type as the 1930s, of social activity in the city. since people's moving habit has changed greatly, the passage between buildings are not as preferable as they IV. URBAN ANALYSIS FOR NANJING IN 1937 used to be. The global integration core, as shown in the rad_n integration analysis (Fig.8), is distributed over Nanjing was changed greatly in 1937 because of the 10 the largest area during the three periods, which means years’ construction boom led by National Government. that the spatial structure of Nanjing in 2007 engages in The most important fruit is constructing the main road the highest integration, and the detached parts of urban system which forms a cross figure in the layout of area begin to unite as a whole. This phenomenon also historical core of Nanjing. As the key elements of the could be proved by the rad_3 integration analysis new capital image, this road system enjoyed the (Fig.9), in which the space reached by local integration priority in the construction process, which resulted in core coincides with the global integration core. It its deviation from the existing urban fabric of Nanjing. suggests that the local spatial structures are not Compared to the 1910 map, the global integration core detached with the separate local integration core, but in rad_n integration analysis in 1937 (Fig.5) is merged into the global spatial structure as the synergic distributed over a more larger urban area, which means parts. the spatial structure of Nanjing in 1937 is more integrated than 1910 since less steps of other areas away from the core in 1937. And the main roads of cross figure become the new dominant integrator besides the existing integrators in 1910. Compared rad_3 integration analysis with rad_n in 1937 (Fig.6), local integration cores still keep deviation of spatial distribution with global core. In 1937, the built-up area of Nanjing had expanded greatly along the new main roads. The old integration core of 1910 still acted as the urban center with strong function of social activity, while some new urban centers began to be formed as the construction carried out by the National government (Fig.7). Xinjiekou

Proceedings of 11th ISERD International Conference, Macau, People's Republic of China, 16th Sept. 2015, ISBN: 978-93-85465-90-1 41 The Influence Of Regeneration Of City Historical Core On Urban Spatial Structure And Function: Case Study Of The City Of Nanjing area along it functions as the markets of digital products. Another change of pattern of urban function is about the residential community in the local areas. Gated community in super block becomes the main residential mode, leading the ruin of fine fabric of traditional residential area. Because of lacking the local circulation of nature movement, the local living centers disappear. The local communities function singly in residence, other urban functions are almost wiped out with the disappearance of local living center.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

As the study result shows: after the regeneration of two periods (1927-1937; 1980-2007), Nanjing is increasingly global both in the spatial structure and urban function. In 1910, the spatial structure of the research area is split into several parts. As the evolution of space configuration caused by urban construction, the spatial structure of Nanjing demonstrates strong integration in the syntactical analysis for the 2007. Along with this spatial trend, the urban center of complex and diversified functions expends to cover larger space of the dominant global integrator. On the contrary, the spatial structure of local region has gradually lost the independence and becomes the component of global structure. As the local integration weakened, the diversity of function in local area also reduces. This case study is worth of being referenced for integrating the historical city of split urban structure. It also could be conclude that the specific urban space and its function have strong connection with the related spatial structure, once the spatial structure changes, the spaces and function also lose their economic significance and consequently lose their viability to be productive. This conclusion provides new perspective for the conservation of old city. In order to revive the old city, it is more important to improve the urban spatial structure than protect individual building.

As the second-level road system has been completed REFERENCES accompanying with the main road system (Fig.10), the [1] Hillier, B. and Hanson, J. (1984) The social logic ofspace global integration is further strengthened. The area (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge). between North Zhongshan Road and Zhongyang Road [2] Hillier, B. (1996) Space is the machine (Cambridge University is another main shopping center where markets, stores Press, Cambridge). and restaurants cluster. Zhujiang Road also experiences the increase in global integration, and the

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Proceedings of 11th ISERD International Conference, Macau, People's Republic of China, 16th Sept. 2015, ISBN: 978-93-85465-90-1 42