RESEARCH ARTICLE

The morphological evolution of Chinese urban cemeteries from the perspective of fringe belt: A case study of Nanjing

  • Hao Deng ,
  • Meichen Li
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  • School of Architecture, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
denghao@seu.edu.cn

Received date: 14 Mar 2023

Revised date: 18 Jul 2023

Accepted date: 15 Aug 2023

Copyright

2023 2023 Higher Education Press Limited Company. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd.

Abstract

The urban cemetery is the material carrier of citizens’ view of life and death, and it also evolves with time as a special part of the urban form. Since the reform of the housing system in the 1990s, China has entered a period of rapid urbanization, and the urban cemeteries has entered a cycle of shock and accelerated transformation. The cemeteries originally located on the urban fringe were gradually surrounded by new built-up areas as the city sprawled, and then most of them inevitably migrated outward under the pressure of urban population explosion and land shortage. Taking Nanjing as an example, this paper presents the morphological evolution of Nanjing’s urban cemetery since the early 20th century, discusses the relationship between the evolution of the cemetery and the urban fringe belt, and analyzes the reasons for its evolution. The different types of morphological evolution of Nanjing cemetery are further summarized, revealing the general law and its Chinese particularity. The article concludes with a discussion of the value and significance of morphological research on urban cemeteries in China.

Cite this article

Hao Deng , Meichen Li . The morphological evolution of Chinese urban cemeteries from the perspective of fringe belt: A case study of Nanjing[J]. Frontiers of Architectural Research, 2023 , 12(6) : 1065 -1079 . DOI: 10.1016/j.foar.2023.08.005

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