The Research On The Spatial Structures Of Traditional Settlements In South Hunan And Explain The Culture Of Traditional Settlements

Cities and their structures derive from traditional villages. Abundant styles of traditional settlements in south Hunan formed the unique regional culture. Researches on the traditional settlements are meaningful for the exploration, protection and development of them.This paper is based on the site visit of traditional settlements in south Hunan. Morphological analysis was employed to research the spatial structures of them. This paper also explains the culture of traditional settlements. The results of this paper are as follows:The spatial structure of traditional settlements in south Hunan includes natural structure and civil structure.(1) Natural structure is formed by water system, mountains, ground and vegetation. And the styles include flat settlement, mountain settlement, near water settlement and near farmland settlement.(2) Civil structure has following styles:public spaces, street spaces, water systems, architectures. The layout of them includes court style, centripetal style and artery style.1) Public space is used as the ritual centre, leisure centre, sacred centre. It is composed by square, public architecture, street and pond. The styles include scattered points, strip style and cluster style.2) Street has many functions, which is usually present to people as regular and irregular styles. Street space is composed by street, laneway and architecture. The scale is set to be suitable for people by arranging the nodes.3) Water system includes point style, linear style and plane style. Wells, rivers and ponds are the elements of comfortable water systems.4)Traditional settlements in South Hunan have 3 kinds of architectures:public architectures, symbolic architectures and residence architectures. As a basic element of spatial structure, architectures have following styles:tri-rooms, quadrangle, multi-rooms, multi-halls and combinatorial styles. The spatial sequence is usually as following:street out of courtyard- entry hall- dooryard- pass hall- dooryard-main hall- room. The arrangement and grade are very clear.The transfixion, crossover and combination of different spatial structures compose linear spatial sequence of settlement. Traditional settlements in South Hunan have two kinds of spatial sequence structures:step-up style and juxtaposition style, and the treatment techniques are abundant.The spatial structures of traditional settlements in South Hunan are affected by geomantic omen, consanguinity, interpersonal convention and religion. This paper explains the culture of traditional settlements and discusses the cultural factors of spatial structure.Discussions on above conclude that the characters of traditional settlements in South Hunan are as follows:â‘ Holistic:civil spaces and natural spaces are harmoniously combined.â‘¡Abundant:different arrangements compose abundant spatial structures.â‘¢Cultural:similar cultural imagoes make them be very artistic.