Architectural Strategy On Urban Renewal Of Old City Districts

With the rapid development of urban economics and construction,a large amount of old city districts are no longer able to meet the demand of contemporary society which is changing quickly.More and more problems in old city districts are showing up during the last few decades.However,as the land resource becomes more and more scarce,the developing mode of many cities is changing from incremental expansion to urban renewal.How to renovate those old city districts has been an urgent issue.The focus of this thesis,Chongqing Luzu Temple district,is such a typical case.It is located in the center area of Chongqing old city with a very convenient traffic condition.Just like many old city districts,the infrastructure is out of date and the environment is declining in Luzu Temple district.This dissertation concentrates on the architectural strategy in the renewal process.By researching on the current situation and learning form other theories,this dissertation is trying to propose a typical model of urban renewal of old city districts.One one hand it can renovate the Luzu Temple district,and on the other hand it can also apply to other similar old city districts.Following the logic of “problem seeking-study and analyse-project practice-introspection”,this dissertation consists of four parts.At the first,The dissertation addresses the background of the downfall of old city districts and relative studies on urban renewal and the feasibility of choosing Chongqing Luzu Temple project as the focused research.Afterwards,based on the study of some classical cases of contemporary old city district renewal,several typical problems have been analysed,such as the loss of historical heritage caused by the large-scale redevelopment,the insufficient support in the small-scale renewal,the loss of diversity of public space,the severe change of community structure during renewal process and paying too much attention to the economic benefits instead of the culture.Responding to these problems,this dissertation learns from some relevant theories like organic renewal,urban catalyst and architecture typology,proposing a model for the urban renewal of old city districts,which are composed of both commerce and residence.The model follows the following concepts: focusing on the public space renewal,reconstructing a certain part as urban catalyst,using modern architectural languages,using of local culture as a powerful impetus.To clarified this renewal model,Chongqing Luzu Temple project has been well introduced and analysed,including its location,history,current situation,developing plan,architecture programming and further design.The last part is some reflection of urban renewal in old city,providing views from other aspects beside architectural strategy.