| The former British Consulate Sub-District was located at the north end of theBund where the Suzhou creek and Huangpu River intersect., the British Consulatemoved from the Shanghai County for military reason shortly after the establishmentof foreign concession, which started the boomingly development of the district, andlater make this sub-district to be the center of command/authority at its peak. Situatedwithin the then city context in terms of city road network growth and themushrooming of real estate projects, the district evolved into a morphologycollectively characterized by key spatial structural components like the road network, blocks, lots, and so on. While various morphological characters representing differenthistorical episodes can be identified from the urban space of the district: for the lateQing dynasty, although commercial buildings were less developed in this area due tothe marginalized location at the fringe of the British Concession, this districtwitnessed erections of a series of amenity facilities, such as boathouse of RowingClub, Lyceum Theatre, Masonic Hall, R. A. S. Building, Union Church. Thesebuildings made this district be social cultural center for British people, and moreover, the coexistence of spaces for Chinese and foreigners made it be the place wherewestern and eastern cultures start their merging. After the Xinhai revolution, thisarea emerged many buildings owned by Protestant associations, which organizeddivergent activities to usher the modern movement, westernization and socialinnovation, and influenced the thinking of the younger generation of China. At thesame time, a wide range of modern commercial buildings, entertainment resorts alsoappeared in this area; changes occurred to the existing amenity facilities to follow theevolution of the society, cultural buildings began to take place of facilities for pureentertainment gradually, becoming the mainstream. This district developed to theplace bearing the then urban culture and urban identity. When it came to the year1937, evolution during the past two historical episodes had finally built this place to be with a kaleidoscopic-like street silhouette representing respective culturalmeanings; with its unique style of simple and modern established, this district becamethe symbol of a cultural bund. Studies exploring the evolution of this district areimperative, serving the purpose of a more authentic conservation planning.The dissertation is made up with three chapters, with field background, significance of the research, literature and thesis structure being addressed in theintroduction. Chapterâ… addresses the origin of the district and its structure in threesections, which review the origin and burgeoning, analyzes the historical evolution ofroad network system, blocks, and lots respectively. Chapterâ…¡investigates thebuildings developed in the early age, made up by two sections addressing publicbuilding, commercial and residential buildings for British people. Primarily, thechapter explores the role of the district as the core of the concession, discussing thepublic building centered around daily life of British and the relative less developedcommercial buildings. Chapterâ…¢- buildings towards modern age, includes foursections, exploring the religion buildings, amenity buildings, commercial buildings, street silhouette in the year 1937. the primary purpose of this chapter is to discuss theconcentrated construction of Protestant associations' buildings, evolution of amenityand cultural buildings and the forging of commercial space at the new age; identifythe architectural feature of street silhouette and buildings after the two episodes. Atthe end, conclusion is drawn on the forces ushering the evolution, the value ofsignificance, and the current situation of conservation.
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