Renewal Design Of Riverside Old Region

The riverside old region is one of the most prosperous areas in the traditional cities of China, where the spirit of the city is congregated. With the social and economical development since the 1990's, the renewal and reconstruction of the riverside old region has become the focus of city construction. However, many of the renewal designs not only led to damages on the historic and cultural environment of the city, but also brought new problems to society and economy. Therefore, how to preserve the history and cultural tradition of the city while creating a new image of the riverside old region becomes an urgent issue.Choosing Cao Yun (canal transport) as the point to start, this dissertation is devoted to the solution to the problems of the renewal design of the traditional riverside region in Chinese cities. After distinguishing between the concepts of "riverside" and "waterside" in Chinese cities, the author discusses the history and today's reality of the traditional riverside region with reference of Cao Yun, and puts forward the theory of renewal design based on humanism. Furthermore, the author tries to apply this theory to the renewal and design of the Longxigang riverside region of Huzhou in Zhejiang Province.The dissertation is composed of two parts.Part I begins with the contrast between the Hesperian "ocean culture" and Chinese "river culture" from the viewpoint of culture-geography and shows the characteristics of the "riverside" region in Chinese cities. The comparison is followed by analysis of the relation between the Cao Yun and the capital city, commercial cities and the traditional riverside region respectively. Meanwhile, after making comparison with the foreign waterside region renewal, the author expatiates on the socio-economic basis of the large-scale renewal appearing in the riverside regions, and points out that the renewal of the riverside region is a two-edged sword to the reconstruction/revival of the city. Part II focuses on the ways and practices. Based on the analysis of the three stances of renewal design: functionalism, structuralism and formalism, the author proposes that the stance of humanism is the most suitable for the renewal of the riverside region. In the following parts, the concept of human culture is interpreted through analysis of relevant ideas and rules, and the key elements of design in riverside regions and some other important problems are discussed. This part also focuses on the exploration of the deep-seated structure of humanism approaches in the renewal. In the last part of this section, the author expounds the application of the humanist renewal approaches to the Longxigang riverside region of Huzhou in Zhejiang Province.After summarizing the dissertation, the epilogue concludes with an emphasis that the renewal design of riverside old regions in cities of China should take an approach that fits in the Chinese historic and cultural background.