Preservation And Renewal Of Traditional Commercial Towns In Meishan Region Of Zi River Basin

Meishan culture is one of three ancestral Chinese cultures(the other two are the Zhongyuan and Jingchu cultures)and a local culture of Zi river with distinct geographical features.Meishan culture is pluralistic in nature as it was formed in the long-term historical evolutions of cultures from different ethnic groups.The architectures and building environments of historical commercial towns in Meishan region are the embodiments of Meishan culture.This work studies the historical commercial towns in Zi river basin based on intensive fieldworks and literature survey,from multi-disciplinary perspectives including planning,architecture,environment behaviour,social anthropology and historical geography,etc.This work also explores ways to protect and update these historical towns by employing of cultural tourism and other characteristic industries,to achieve a balance between cultural protection and economic developments.This thesis includes four parts:introduction of background,fundamental study,analytical study and exploratory study.The introduction and literature review are listed in Chapter 1 and 2.In chapter 1,the background,scopes,methods,significances and framework are described.Chapter 2 reviews related literatures,including the current status of the protections of historical heritages,studies on historical towns in the field of architecture,sociology and economics,studies on Meishan culture and other successful practices in historical town protections.Chapter 3 and 4 are basic studies.In chatper 3,boundaries of locality are detected first and local characteristics of historical towns in Meishan region are then analysed from the domains of locality,culture and business.This chapter lays the groundwork for understanding the architectures and cultures of these historical towns.Chapter 4 investigated the logic of the architectural spaces of historical commercial towns in Meishan region by analysing their constituents and characteristics.Analytical studies are covered in Chapter 5 and part of Chapter 6.Chapter 5 focuses on the views,contradictions between protection and developments,introspections of the current status on historical commercial towns in Meishan region of Zi river basin.Chapter 5 also identifies problems and directions such as cultural tourism in protecting the culture and architectures of these towns.In Chapter 6,the concepts,values and rationale of cultural translation and its usages in protection of these towns are discussed.Chapter 6 and 7 covers the exploratory studies.In Chapter 6,the overall strategies of protecting the culture and architectures in these historical town are discussed,based on fundamental and analytical studies in previous chapters.These strategies include mutual progress of protection and development,organic renewal of cultural environments and authenticities of spaces.Moreover,the roadmap of "collection space information-identifying genes and symbols-expressions of objectives”in protection of these towns are proposed,which bridges the information gap between architectures and users.Chapter 7 describes three representative projects that designed based on the theoretical works of this study.These three projects were based on the objectives of“culture + rural tourism" and "culture + characteristic industries".Two types of protection,i.e.,in situ protection and relocation,are discussed through these projects.Chapter 7 also discusses three ways in protection these historical towns,i.e.,restoration,regeneration and recovery.These projects shed light on the protection of architecture and cultures in historical towns in this region and other regions.