A Study On Traditional Settlement Landscape Of Huizhou District

Traditional settlement landscape, which can reflect how our ancestors tampered with nature for production and living, is an important cultural landscape by its nature. Huizhou in East-China’s Anhui Province, with its unique geographical, social culture, economic industry and historical background, has become a major traditional Chinese local culture circle. This paper on the traditional settlement in Huizhou is conducted through both field research and comprehensive literature and has elaborated from site selection, constituent forms (entrance, borders, streets, water systems, square, plants) to landscape architecture (archways, bridges, street-across buildings and archs) by graphical study to the representative cases. By research on these three aspects, the paper comes to the conclusion that the Huizhou traditional settlement adheres to the traditional principles of human settlement planning as "oneness of man and nature" and "wild thinking" as the general thoughts, and that the design criteria should be ecological, humanistic and cultural. The beneficial thoughts and practical experiences in Huizhou traditional settlement could still be learned from in contemporary landscape design and construction, if not all of them because of the inevitable evolution of human settlements along with time.This paper aims to give some insights and inspiration in tackling the problem of contemporary human living conditions, seeking a way of urban planning in harmony with nature, exploring inheritance and innovation of the traditional local culture. Differing from historical data study or sheer research, the research aims to provide instructions for practical design.