Collective Memory Of City And Urban Form

In the process of urban conversion and renewal since 1980's, urban intrinsic physical form and structure has changed greatly. Especially contrived destroy of urban characters and image homology make city unable to be the familiar home in people's memory any more. How to protect culture,continue urban history effectively and sustain social identity will be pressing tasks nowadays. The thesis researched on basic theory and method of collective memory of city by logical discursion and case study. In five chapters, temporal and value conceptions in collective memory of city and urban form were mainly argued. Meanwhile, memory elements in urban form were concluded and relevant representation principles were proposed so as to provide references for further urban conservation and urban design. The conclusions were as follows:The collective memory of city was discussed to be a synthesis and interplay system consisted object, subject (including user and representor) and media. As the media, architecture should be explored in the whole system, so relations of subject and object, user and representor, time and space should be efficiently integrated.Architecture and place have close associations with memory. In the framework of collective memory of city, urban form reflects relation of subject and object in temporal dimension and relation of user and representor in social dimension. As a result, feature of memory in time provided the dynamic viewpoint to evolution of urban form and layered history of city. Moreover, the value conception of collective memory of city should be based on collective identity and integrate forms of official memory and civilian memory. So public and collective interests should be represented in urban form to maintain identity in intercourses of different social groups.Combining psychological theory of memory and sociological interviews, memory elements in urban form were summed up and subdivided. Corporal elements, including corporal practice and ceremony, emphasized participations in action. Field and scenery elements, including field elements (enclosure, scale and serial structure), scenery elements (number, feature and position), and synthesis elements (whole perception, movement speed, action content), emphasized ambient and mental feeling of object characters Symbolic elements, including toponym, type and landmark emphasized cultural experience of subject. Based on these results, principles of representation for designers in practice were suggested. They were accessible and paticipative principles, authentic and holistic principles, stable and manifold principles.Finally, the thesis pointed out that factors of time and user in urban form should be considered, and it was necessary to expand new methods in urban research and design.