Doctoral thesis research: Sustainable production of public spaces in small historic cities in China

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Keywords

Public space; Small historic city; Sustainable; Production of public space; Tourism

Introduction

Public space has been an essential part of Chinese cities in various types and forms throughout history. However, the turbulent 20th century has broken the long tradition of public space in urban China, bringing in new types, transforming existing types, and eliminating some old types. In contemporary Chinese cities, public spaces are facing problems, especially in small historic cities with valuable historic urban landscapes and typo-morphological characteristics but lacking sufficient funding and adequate professional design. They are more likely subject to damage by problematic public spaces.

Now the production of public spaces in small historic cities is dominated by capital and policy powers. Capital power, especially the tourism capital, is over-exploiting such cities for more profit, and tends to reduce the unique historical characteristic to simple stylistic elements, without paying due attention to the real authentic historical urban morphology and identity. Policy power, on the other hand, is aggravating the situation by cooperating with capital power to produce large, “modernized”, and symbolic public spaces as city marketing tools, which are not always suited to the urban context and the residents’ real demand on public life. Such an unsustainable way of producing public spaces is sabotaging the unique historic urban landscape of these small historic cities while costing a huge amount of funding.

This thesis intends to contribute to the effort of addressing these problems in the public spaces in small historic cities. The objective is to propose a possibility of reaching a balance among cultural heritage preservation, public life, and economic growth. The research started with an overview of the public spaces in the history of urban China, in order to figure out what inspirations they may offer to contemporary interventions, and lay a basic research framework for the following work. Then in the second phase, the research introduced the main case study, the city of Zhengding, and analyzed its typo-morphological characteristics both of the whole city and of the public spaces within the city. Next, the contemporary problems in public spaces in small historic cities were closely examined to find their causes and impacts so as to better tackle them. In the last part of the research, several principles and strategies were proposed as attempts to reach the balance mentioned above, by learning from the history and taking the city of Zhengding as the main case study.

My role

Qian Liu carried out this research project independently under the supervision of Prof. Laura Pezzetti.

Research on the morphological evolution of Zhengding

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Keywords

Urban morphology; Historical evolution; Small historic city; City walls; Zhengding

Introduction

Zhengding (正定) is a small historic city in Hebei Province in North China. This research provides a historical overview of the evolution of Zhengding and its public spaces, examined from morphological and typological perspectives. The research covers the period from the 7th century, when the city was first established on its current site, to the end of the 20th century.

This research addresses the challenge of limited documentation. Historical urban archives in China typically do not include many graphical records, unlike the cadastre in Europe. Therefore, this research extracts traces of morphological features from written accounts of the city’s history.

There are two critical factors that help mapping the texts into real geographical space. First, that the city’s structure, compromising the city walls, urban axes, and major street network, remained roughly unchanged throughout the historic evolution, which is evidenced in many other well-preserved Chinese ancient cities. Second, the preserved built heritages in the city, including the major temples, pagodas, monuments, and gate towers, remained where they were over centuries, like anchors fixed on the city’s structure. These two factors link the current urban form to the one in history.

Furthermore, existing archaeological studies have provided physical evidence to infer the city’s urban form throughout history. Excavated ruins of old city walls, streets, and buildings offer clues about the city’s extent and its architectural types. Moreover, military survey records from the early 20th century and subsequent satellite images provide valuable information on the city’s more recent evolution.

Based on the materials and methods mentioned above, this research initially determined that the city originated as a military fortress, strategically located for defence purposes and according to Fengshui principles in the 7th century. Subsequently, the study identified two expansions of the city, in the 8th and 15th centuries, undertaken to enhance its defensive capabilities. Additionally, the city’s decline in military and economic importance in the early 20th century and the subsequent shrinkage of its built-up areas were closely mapped. Finally, the research documented the rapid urban sprawl that has occurred since China’s economic reform in 1978.

My role

Qian Liu carried out this research project independently under the supervision of Prof. Laura Pezzetti.

Laura Pezzetti (Supervisor) |

Doctoral thesis research: Sustainable production of public spaces in small historic cities in China

Keywords

Introduction

My role

Research on the morphological evolution of Zhengding

Keywords

Introduction

My role