Spatial Representation Of Municipal Square Under The China's Political Reform Towards Good Governance

Municipal Square has long been an important public space in modern cities, which carries the most complicated social relationships; its spatial patterns are definitively influenced by the corresponding political patterns. The dialectical relation between Municipal Square and political system has always been running through the evolving progress of western and eastern squares. During the past 30 years of reform and open, China has enjoyed outstanding economic achievements and also experienced dramatic change of social structure; correspondingly, the pace of China's political reform is accelerating:the Political Reform from "Government" to "Governance" and "Good Governance". Influenced by this transition, Chinese Municipal Squares are showing new characteristics, such as pluralism, humanization and an emphasis on ecology. Thus, a proper reading of the new trend of Municipal Square's ongoing spatial development, caused by the political reform, must shed some useful light upon the critical factors of the design practices, and therefore helps design Municipal Squares which accord with the needs of the contemporary age.The significance of this research is that it breaks the architectural constrain of traditional spatial study and turns its interest into the political origin which strongly influences the formation of social spaces. This combination of political and architectural research not only provides brand new and in-depth perspectives for the phenomenological explanation of Municipal Square's spatial transformation, but also will find rational basis for the development direction of its spatial design.