博士学位论文研究：Sustainable production of public spaces in small historic cities in China

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

关键词

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

简介

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.

我的角色

刘乾在 Laura Pezzetti 教授的指导下，独立开展并完成了本研究项目。

正定城市形态历史演变研究

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

关键词

城市形态学；历史演变；小型历史城市；城墙；正定

简介

正定是中国河北省的一座历史名城。本研究从形态学和类型学的视角，对正定及其公共空间的历史演变进行了系统梳理，时间跨度从公元7世纪正定在现址建城伊始，直至20世纪末。

本研究需要应对的最大挑战是这座小城市的文献和图像资料较少。与欧洲的地籍图不同，中国的古代城市档案通常缺少图像记录。因此，本研究尝试从有关这座城市的文字史料中，提取出形态特征的线索。

有两个关键因素可以辅助将这些文字记录映射到真实的地理空间上。第一个是由城墙、城市轴线和主要街道网络构成的城市结构，像许多其他保存完好的中国古城一样，正定的城市结构在其历史发展中基本保持稳定不变。第二个则是城中保存至今的建筑遗产，包括主要的寺庙、塔、纪念碑和城门楼等，这些城市要素在数百年间始终没有改变位置，如同固定在城市结构上的“锚点”。这两个因素将城市的现有形态与其历史形态紧密地联系了起来。

此外，现有的考古研究也为推断城市在各个历史时期的形态提供了实物证据。出土的古城墙、街道和建筑遗址，为我们了解城市的范围及其建筑类型提供了线索。不仅如此，20世纪初的军事测绘记录以及后来的卫星影像，也为研究城市近现代的演变提供了宝贵信息。

基于上述资料和方法，本研究首先确定了该城起源于公园7世纪的一座军事堡垒，它的选址主要基于军事防御目的以及风水原则。随后，研究还识别出该城在8世纪和15世纪为增强防御能力而进行的两次扩张。此外，研究也精确描绘了20世纪初该城军事和经济地位的衰落及其建成区的相应萎缩。最后，本研究记录了自1978年中国改革开放以来，城市所经历的快速蔓延过程。

我的角色

刘乾在 Laura Pezzetti 教授的指导下独立开展并完成了本研究

Laura Pezzetti (导师) | 刘乾

博士学位论文研究：Sustainable production of public spaces in small historic cities in China

关键词

简介

我的角色

正定城市形态历史演变研究

关键词

简介

我的角色