Exploring the spatial pattern of historic Chinese towns and cities: A syntactical approach

Abstract

This study explores the spatial pattern of Historic Chinese Towns and Cities (HCTC) by using a syntactic approach. The HCTC is an important element of the built environment and exhibits a variety of unique spatial characteristics. Although previous research has been focused on qualitative analysis, a quantitative approach to exploring this issue is scarce, leading to insufficient understanding of the spatial characteristics of HCTC. This study presents a quantitative approach to analyzing the spatial pattern of HCTC by utilizing the space syntax method. Four well-preserved historic towns were selected as case studies, each representing a typical spatial type of historic town in China. A series of mathematical measures from space syntax were used to explore the spatial characteristics of HCTC, facilitating expanded interpretation of traditional Chinese ideologies. Results contribute to a more critical understanding of the spatial pattern of HCTC.

Keywords

Historic Chinese towns and cities / Space syntax / Syntactical approach / Star model / Mathematical measure

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Higher Education Press Limited Company. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).