Street Syntax

Since 60's of the 20 century, the plentiful and substantial space fruits have come forth in western world. But they have no been absorbed inside the urban planning and architecture because of subject barrier. The space has only been regarded as the appendant of the other thing and the background only.Philosopher Henri Lefebvre thinks that space is not a pure physical space, but a outcome of society variety, social transformation and social experience. At the same time, the space produces complicated social relations, itself also participates in the history progress.In the complicated process, the space not only is background of society development or"container", but also is produced by the purpose to affect the complicated social relations.Meanwhile, philosopher Michel Foucault thinks that the former history researches are usually about time history, the history is a structure based on time, but the space has been behind it ,as the point of the Foucault , the world our experiencing and feeling is seldom a material exsit that evolves over a long period of time in traditional viewpoint, but the human history even more seems a spatial history. The space has a close contact with knowledge and the power inevitably, the space is constructed and organized in process of power procedure and knowledge expansion, and is embed into the social relations, insuring the power mechanism run without obstruction from the whole social machine until the minimum society part, which resembles Henri Lefebvre very much.The street, as a kind of spatial type, whose variety can't escape from the process of the society production and society practice,keeping an independent position. So only taking the street into the frame of social history and regarding it as the same process of the social history, can we hold its real substance. By taking the evolution history of Hanzheng Street into the frame of the social history, it can been revealed that Hanzheng Street how to be producted historically in the different evolution process of the social history, and how it embeds into the society relations and influences the social history actively, which is the so-called street syntax in this paper and follows the research approach of Lefebvre's"tripledialectic".This paper introduces a concept of power network from Focult, by the analysis of the power network, the conjunct between the different social history and the street evolution can been found. The space evolution is brought into social history and affected mutually, which combines into the same historical process and emphasizes the space's perspective.At the same time, the paper also seeks help of the standpoint from Lefebvre's, each society has a space production adapting to its production mode accordingly. In other words, in order to operate its system smoothly, each society must producte(manufacture, construct or create)the space properly. So this paper divides the history of street evolution into the traditional business, modernity open, MinGuo age, planned economy, market economy five stages according to the different society.Firstly inquiring into the power network structure of Hanzheng Street at the stage of the traditional business before 1889, the author thinks that in this a stage Hanzheng Street reaches the local self-government, forming a crystal power network structure of balancing the communities themselves and even between the communities and authorities. Authorities influence street shape very lightly, as a result street shape have close relations with the mode of production, natural environment, market mechanism. In the text the author also investigates the social landscape of the street at that time to release the street syntax and the street spatial meanings .From 1889 to 1911, Zhidong Chang is in charge of Hubei. In this period power network changes suddenly and the modernity opens acutely under the influence of western civilization and internal new-born mechanism. The power network is in transitional stage and forms dispersion structure. In the text, the focus is placed on how the authorities power seeps through the every aspects in folks gradually after the autonomy gradually breaking up. Suffering from this, the street shape, syntax, meanings also changes accordingly, and combining an observation for social landscape in streets, querying some new value judgments after modernity opening.From 1911 to 1949, the war being continuous, the political power changing frequently, the politics is the most important aspect that affects the power network, power network from political influence forms a similar sand filter structure, as a result street syntax and space meanings have a close relation with politics. In the period, urban planning introduced from West become a kind of important technique means that adjusts and controls the city, together with politics, making a bigger variety in street shape.In the planned economy period of 1949-1988, every part of the whole society is involved to be supervised and controlled by the official, politics system, economic structure, cultural oriented are the different appearance but same structure, and therefore power network structure forms pyramid hierarchy type lognitudinally and beehive type horizontally. This structure in the help of urban planning established for it affects the street syntax and spatial meanings greatly.After 1988, the market economy openning, the resources operation way is translated to market mechanism. Sufferring of it, the official control removes moderately, and the folks is placed in the gentle control. Market, society, and government becomes a tri-aspect struggle mechanism .In the process, the power network of Hanzheng Street resembles the plasticene, unsteady and fluky, causing the street syntax and meanings of Hanzheng Street ceaseless change and full of uncertainty. however, politics usually cooperates with capital and becomes the main factor of spatial change.By combing the evolvement of Hanzheng Street historically, some conclusions can be drew. In the text ,the author pays attention to space production, context protection, the urban informality, public participation and expatiates them detailedly. Finally the author also puts forward some suggestions on renewing of Hanzheng Street.