The Typological Study Of Yunnan Traditional Settlement

In general, element analysis method is adopted in the study of specific traditional settlements; that is, the constituting elements of settlements, the process of the taking shape of the elements and the functions of the elements are studied, including buildings, squares, streets , rivers , greenbelt, and so on. Obviously, element analysis has strong limitations to understand different kinds of traditional settlements. In contrast, typology is particular and of great value. It studies the spatial integrity extensively, deliberately ignores some minor individual matters in settlements, and can greatly broaden the visions of understanding traditional settlements.Due to the complicacy of environment and the diversity of human history in Yunnan, in the process of the lengthy history, the 26 nations living in the territory of Yunnan have constructed lots of lovely, characteristic, vivid settlements. From primordial settlements to modern cities, in deed, there is an animated settlement phylogeny in Yunnan.In the thesis, the research object is traditional settlements of Yunnan. Through analyzing the context of the formation and evolution of the traditional settlements of Yunnan, from historical, ethnic and regional perspective, the thesis introduces typology method and comparatively systematically studies the archetypes of traditional settlements of Yunnan, including region cell types and plane morphology types. Examples are also given .to demonstrate that the spirit of traditional settlements can be incarnated in modern settlement patterns by applying typological conversion method.The thesis consists of 5 parts: Part 1-Chapter 1, elucidating the study backdrop, circs of the study, and the framework of the study, dissertating the typological theory on emphases; Part 2-Chapter 2, opening out the cause of the formations and the development tracks of the traditional settlements of Yunnan, through analyzing their coming into being and developing process; Part 3-Chapter 3, Chapter 4 and Chapter 5, opening out the culture origins, ideas of site selection, construction patterns, and evolvement tracks of traditional settlements in different regions, and comprehensively analyzing the characteristics of the spatial forms of the settlements, and summing up the archetypes of the settlements. Thereinto, Chapter 3 analyzes the morphological characteristics of the settlements of normal style, Chapter 4 analyzes the morphological characteristics of the settlements of combining different styles , Chapter 5 analyzes the morphological characteristics of the settlements of multi-national self-sow; Part 4-Chapter 6, discussing typological conversion of traditional settlements among different regions, examples are Kunming, Shuhe and Dukezong; Part 5-Chapter 7, the conclusion, summing up the types of traditional settlements of Yunnan and research method, pointing out that economy development is the fundamental motivity to actualize the sustainable development of traditional settlements in Yunnan, and encouraging more people to further the research of traditional settlements in Yunnan.