Research and Application on Typology in the Historical District Renewal Author: Min Zhu Supervisor: Abarkan, Abdellah Submitted to Blekinge Tekniska Högskola for the Master of Science Programme in Spatial Planning with an emphasis on Urban Design in China and Europe on the 16th May 2011 Karlskrona, Sweden Abstract As an important constituent part during the urban devel opment, the historical district ha s very important historical and cultural values. At present, with the accelerate devel opment of the whole city, the problem of how to preserve the historical environment and continue the historical essence while make the district adapt to t he modern society at the same time became more an d more serio usly. Ther efore, the top ic about historical district renewal is well worth researching. This paper starts with issues standing in front of the historical district in the background of quick city bo oming and then p oints out the most important pro blem during the renewal process of historical district in China. After that, th is paper introduces typology as a new perspective to solve the problem. Th e main theor ies and ap plication methods are b oth researched in this paper. Based on the sum-up experiences from the example studies, the paper tries to research the concrete process of historical district renewal by using typology as tools, which is mainly from classifica tion, type abstraction and constru ction to type embodiment. And some basic ways of typology application would be summarized after the case study. These theoretical tools and example experiences are all taken into the case study for practice. Key words: historical district, renewal, typology Acknowledgement This is a diploma work made by a Chi nese student for master ’s degree of Science Programme in Spatial Planning with an emphasis on Urban Design at Blekinge Institute of Techbology in Karlskrona, Sweden. This thesis was supported by many people, who gave me a lot of assistance, suggestions and encour agements dur ing the process. Without their help, I could not have gone through this work successfully. I would like to give my sincere appr eciation to my supervisor Abarkan Abdellah for hi s patient guidance during my thesis work. With his valuable comments, I have been able to deal with lots of diffic ulties in the research and finish the thesis work smoothly. I also would like to thank Olof Woltil, who has given me lots of useful advice about the structure and writing technique of my thesis. I want to express my special thanks to the staffs who work in the designing institute of Yangzhou in China. We had spent a very wonderful time during the investigation peri od for the final case in my thesis. I cannot fini sh my thesis successfully without their group working duri ng the investigat ion period, and I would like to thanks for their sincere assistance and help through the whole writing process of my thesis. Besides that, I would like to thank the Blekinge Institute of Technology for providing me with a good environment and facilities to complete this thesis. Also, I would like to take this opportunity to thank to Gunnar Nyström, Eric Markus and other staffs working in BTH. Finally, I also want to thank my fam ilies and friends for their support, love and encouragement, which help me to spend a wonderful period of time in Sweden. CONTENTS CHAPTER1 INTRODUCTION .........................................................................1 1.1The background of the topic ....................................................................1 1.2 Problems and Possibilities ......................................................................1 1.2.1 Problems........................................................................................................... 1 1.2.2 Possibilities ....................................................................................................... 2 1.3 Objective and methods ...........................................................................2 1.4 The main contents of the thesis ..............................................................3 CHAPTER2 THEORETICAL STUDY ..............................................................5 2.1Definitions of related concepts.................................................................5 2.1.1 Historical district................................................................................................ 5 2.1.2 Renewal............................................................................................................ 6 2.2 The research on typology .......................................................................7 2.2.1 Relevant theories of typology............................................................................ 7 2.2.2 Design methods of typology............................................................................ 13 CHAPTER3 THE CORRELATION RESEARCH ...........................................15 3.1 Introducing typology theory into historical district renewal ....................15 3.1.1 The collective theory ....................................................................................... 15 3.1.2 The deep structure.......................................................................................... 15 3.1.3 The site spirit................................................................................................... 16 3.2 Introducing typology method into historical district renewal ..................16 3.2.1 The analogy design......................................................................................... 16 3.2.2 Application layers............................................................................................ 17 3.2.3 Summary......................................................................................................... 17 3.3 The application steps of typology in historical district renewal ..............18 CHAPTER4 EXAMPLE STUDY ....................................................................20 4.1 An example study of Xintiandi plaza in shanghai of China ...................20 4.1.1 Background information of the project ............................................................ 20 4.1.2 Introduction of the renewal activities ............................................................... 21 4.1.3 Summary......................................................................................................... 25 4.2 An example study of Haga in Gothenburg of Sweden ..........................26 4.2.1 Background information of the project ............................................................ 26 4.2.2 Introduction of renewal activities ..................................................................... 26 4.2.3 Summary......................................................................................................... 28 4.3 Conclusion ............................................................................................28 CHAPTER5 CASE STUDY ...........................................................................31 5.1 Brief introduction...................................................................................31 5.2 Description............................................................................................32 5.2.1Description of the whole city ............................................................................ 32 5.2.2 Description of the district................................................................................. 33 5.3 Classification of the components ..........................................................37 5.3.1 Classification of the street structure ................................................................37 5.3.2 Classification of the plot structure ................................................................... 40 5.3.3 Classification of the building patterns.............................................................. 41 5.3.4 The spatial configuration of the district............................................................ 46 5.4 Construction of types ............................................................................48 5.4.1 The spatial form of the district......................................................................... 48 5.4.2 The spatial interface of the district .................................................................. 49 5.4.3 The spatial nodes of the district ...................................................................... 51 5.4 Assessment and objective position.......................................................53 5.4.1 Assessment of the existing and potential value .............................................. 53 5.4.2 Objective position............................................................................................ 55 5.5 Implement of the principles ...................................................................56 5.5.1 Situational analysis ......................................................................................... 56 5.5.2 Design concept ............................................................................................... 58 5.5.3 Implement of the principles ............................................................................. 60 5.6 Summary ..............................................................................................63 CHAPTER6 CONCLUSION ..........................................................................65 Reference ...................................................................................................66