A Study On Shipai Historic Town Of Zhongxiang City In Hubei

This paper comes from the cooperative project studied by Wuhan University of Technology and Kanagawa University of Japan: "China-Japan's Cooperative Study of the Streets of Historic Town in Hubei Province" and "The Study of Protection Using mode and Method of Historic Town in Hubei " published by Wuhan University of Technology, in the same breath this case study is a part of the project "The Study of Traditional folk house in Hubei" of the Construction Department of Hubei province.This paper studies the Shipai historic town in the aspect of architecture history and urban design, with the principle of geography, city sociology etc. Starting with the history and current situation of Shipai town, this paper try to discover the evolvement principle of the historic town, explore the features and connotation of the historic streets of Shipai town, analyses the regional characteristic of the traditional folk house in it, and then, put forward the blue print about conservation of the historic inheritance in order to promote the sustainable development of shipai town.Boomed from Jing City, an ancient castle in Han Dynasty about 2000 years ago, and prospered from business, Shipai town developed from a small fair into a well-known Commercial town, with the influence of the transportation, nature, economy and cultural in Hanjian River valley.With Maliang mountains and Hanjang River around, Shipai town formed the particular space structure which is lined up by the mountains, the castle, the town and the river. It expanded from a settlement spot to a district, limited by traditional Fengshui idea also.It is planted defensively with 10 streets, 3 lanes, 18 gates, 2 bridges, 4 buildings and a city wall around since Ming Dynasty. The defensive space fact—Chang door, and the traditional street texture and structure is reserved now. The appearance of street is free, the dimensions is pleasant, which reflects the traditional ideal that respect the nature and human.There are more than 100 traditional folk houses reserved in Shipai town now, forming the traditional townscape of Shipai town. Tianjing is the core of these folk houses, which have some regional characteristics in construct way and art images, such as Doufang, Liangdou and double Eaves etc.The paper is composed of 7 chapters. The chapter 1 is introduction. The content from the chapter 2 to chapter 6 is the main body of the paper. It discusses the development of the historic town, the organization of the town's space, the features of the public space, the type and features of the traditional building. Finally, the paper presents the conception for the protection and development of the town: "To protect the historical townscape, to improve the residential environments, and to develop the tour industry". The chapter 7 draws a conclusion and presents the further study on the town.