Research Of The Function, Grade And Layout Of Hangzhou's City Centre District

With the ongoing national urbanization, the Chinese cities are changing themselves everyday. One obvious impact is the decline of city centres, facing the challenges of regeneration and redevelopment. This dissertation will take Hangzhou as an example, discussing the city centre problems it is now suffering, such as the urban function, regional grading, and location selections.The first part starts from forming the basic idea of Hangzhou' s city centre, by reviewing its history, describing today' s situation, and finally giving a viewable prospect, by suggesting the central business district (CBD) development mode for Hangzhou. The second part talks about the respective aspects for the CBD of Hangzhou, such as the function, grading, and size. In addition, the "three kingdom" phenomenon in the site decision process is analyzed. The third part is dedicated into researching the sub-urban centres. As very few relative theories are applicable for this research, a considerable size of text talks about the design theories of sub town centres, based on which the function and layout of Hangzhou' s sub town centres are discussed. Finally, a couple of cases from Hangzhou are studied.This dissertation aims at clarifying the clues of Hangzhou' s urban development, by testing the city centre' s size and layout, so as to provide enough theories to support the town' s future CBD and sub centre developments. In further, through the studies of such a typical sample of Hangzhou, the author hopes this will provide references for both theories and practices of the regionally central towns development in China.