Research On The Evolution Of The Shape Of Zhangye’s Historical Ancient City

It is extensively acknowledged that the spatial form of the historic area carries the memory of the city,which is the core factor of the historic context and vitality of the city.More importantly,the course of its spatial evolution reflects the process of urban social development and evolution.Besides,Zhangye is one of the Chinese historical and cultural cities.It is not only the historical junction of the "Ancient Juyan Road" and the "Ancient Silk Road",but also an important economic and cultural town and the key position of the introduction of Buddhist culture into China.At present,there are still some problems that Zhangye is facing,including the imbalance of the spatial structure in the spatial development of the ancient city,the replacement of the commercial space of the modern city,and the lack of historic and cultural connotation of the ancient city as well.Therefore,it is significant to study the vitality and evolution of Zhangye and make a serious awareness of the renewal and protection of Zhangye’s historic cities and the social and economic development of the city to some extent.Based on the ancient city of Zhangye from the Ming and Qing dynasties to the present,this paper tends to analyze the quantitative analysis of the evolution process and the spatial form vitality of the ancient city in Zhangye regarding the spatial syntax.At the same time,because of the historical data and the urban form vitality,it is effective to explore the behind influential factors and propose corresponding strategies.This paper is composed of six parts.Initially,this paper illustrates the key factors of Zhangye’s evolution of urban form inancient city’s geographical location,natural resources,and human environment.Also,regarding the Han dynasty to the Ming and Qing dynasties,a systematic elaboration and the characteristics of the spatial form changes of Zhangye can be found in the final.Based on the natural pattern,plane layout,road network structure,functional zoning,and construction concept of Zhangye during the Ming and Qing dynasties,the spatial morphological characteristics of Zhangye are analyzed to explore its historic value and cultural heritage.As research focuses on the spatial form of Zhangye’s ancient city,it provides an important reference for the protection of the ancient city.In addition,based on the Ming and Qing dynasties,the early period of the founding of the People’s Republic of China,the early period of the reform and opening up,the early 21st century,and the recent,the objective of this paper is to demonstrate the current situation investigation and set up a multi-dimensional analysis system from the whole to the partial space for the historic form of the ancient city regarding on the space syntax.Starting with the contents of the urban space morphology structure,road density,and traditional public space nodes of the ancient city of Zhangye,a quantitative analysis is carried out.More specifically,one of the most common uses of elements,including road accessibility,historic context continuity,functional diversity,and pleasant scale,can be vital to illustrate the current status of the ancient city’s spatial nodes to some extent.Finally,combined with the analysis of the previous chapters,the overall thoughts and strategies of the spatial shape vitality of Zhangye are cultivated,which consist of two parts:overall development strategy and human-centered spatial renovation strategy.The overall development strategy is proposed from a macro perspective,which can be defined as a dot-line-film model.Besides,it is supposed to highlight the characteristics of the ancient city and establish a spatial development model of a multi-core coordinated mechanism.On the other sight,The human-centered spatial renovation strategy tends to discuss the application of the people-oriented ideology in the vitality construction of the ancient city.Additionally,much more attention should have been paid to the accessibility of the road network structure,the creation of pleasant scales,publicp articipation,the diversity of service facilities,and the exploration of cultural connotations.Taking the time as the axis,the thesis explores the internal connections and related influencing factors of the spatial morphological structure of Zhangye’s ancient city from the cross-disciplinary perspectives of urban planning,urban morphology,history,and sociology.In particular,the combination of space syntactic research from the perspe ctive of space ontology and investigation based on actual activities of human beings are complementary.The two complement each other,making the study of the spatial morphology of historical ancient cities more scientific and comprehensive,and the strategy for the protection and development of Zhangye ancient city Operable.