Fractal Comb

The urban landscape shows unprecedented complexity under the influence ofevolving history coupled with diverse cultures. The urban form is an externalmanifestation of the social structure. Today, researchers of urban forms tend to followmore closely the political, economic and social issues behind the urban landscape,which makes the research on “Beautification” of the city become all the important buttend to be neglected. In the author’s view, a review of the Urban Beautiful Movementspanning from late19thcentury to early20thcentury will provide a welcomesupplement to research on aesthetics of contemporary urban form.First, this paper departs from Urban Beautiful Movement to discuss the urbanforms advocated by the Movementand relevant aesthetic issues in a comprehensiveand objective manner as far as possible, so as to avoid mundane interpretation of“Beautification”. Then it analytically compares the Urban Beautiful Movement andNanjing city planning in the same period, and goes further to illustrate thecontinuation of “Beautification”amid China’s urbanization.Second, this paper adopts “fractal properties analysis”–a tool for identifying andorganizing the urban form–in the attempt to seek the law inherent in the heterogeneityof urban form aesthetics in different periods. In evolution of urban forms in the usualsense，it analyses the urban evolution and beautification reflected from ancienttraditional cities to modernist cities and then to post-modern cities.Thediscussion onurban form aesthetics reveals that the formal features of traditional cities reinforceviewpoints on fractal city aesthetics. The modernist city overemphasizes functionalplanning, which gives rise to a de-culture form system; in result, cities look alike.However, post-modernism restores the relevance between urban form aesthetics andthe values encapsulating cultural properties, historical properties and differences ingeographical properties, which makes the urban landscape chaotic in certain aspects.In this process, the author employs the fractal properties analysis to present a clearpicture of urban forms in different periods and links them up in comparison andrelevance, so as to highlight the significance of the urban form aesthetics of UrbanBeautiful Movement against the background of contemporary urban construction.Finally, considering today’s “chaotic and fragmented” urban landscape, the urbanform discussion departing from the Urban Beautiful Movement makes rationalaesthetical values of tradition and order come back to the scope of urban formresearch. The urban aesthetic concept of “Urban Beautification” has been endowedwith new significance, which is likely to guide the building of acity model that shedslight on construction of the future city and connects the existing and future cities.