A Study On Continuity Of Traditional Feature Of Smaller Historic Cities

With the rapid economic growth, the urban area of smaller historic cities in China, which contain the great diversity of local culture, expand a lot in recent years. In this situation, smaller historic cities have been able to build new urban district out of historic urban area, which provide a great opportunity for the conservation of smaller historic cities. However, as the city developed within the historic urban area since 1950s, the construction activities cause a continuous damage to the integrity of the townscape of historic urban area. On the other hand, the townscape of new urban district built quickly in recent years is monotonous. Smaller historic cities are facing a townscape crisis which is described as "the historic urban area is not as old as it should be and the new urban district is not as new as it should be". This paper tries to study on the continuity of traditional feature to solve these problems in this historic opportunity.The traditional feature issue is an important part of holistic conservation of historic cities in China. The continuity of traditional feature issue focuses on new construction activities, which should be controlled and guided to achieve the goals that the historic and cultural feature can be inherited. The continuity of traditional feature issue should obey the principles of authenticity, integrity and continuity which are emphasized in the conservation conception of the world cultural heritage and the historic cities in china. These principles are embodied in the following aspects:the new construction activities should contribute to the integrity of the cultural heritage and its sitting; the new construction activities should contribute to the display of the historical information, but at the same time should be distinguishable from the historic relics; the new construction activities should not do harm to the continuity of the life of the historic relics, and should enhance the associations with the traditional local culture. Based on the above principles, considering the evolution of urban spatial morphology, the smaller historic city can be divided into three parts for research, including the historic centre, the outlying area of historic centre and the new urban district.The goal of the historic centre is to improve the discord and achieve the wholeness of the townscape. The measures are as follows:emphasizing the axes, the center, and the city wall, etc. to preserve the traditional urban pattern; controlling the height, the volume, and the color, etc. to maintain the wholeness of urban morphology; guiding the style of buildings, which are different in scale, location and function, in different ways to keep the harmony of the old and new urban areas buildings and reflect the traditional feature; guiding the function of the historic and the new buildings to keep the local social life and inherit the traditional culture. The goal of the outlying areas of historic centre is to keep the link and the harmony with the historic centre. The measures are as follows:controlling the texture, the height etc. to maintain the existing urban morphology; guiding the style of buildings, which are different in scale and location, in different ways to keep the harmony with the historic centre and reflect the traditional feature. The goal of the new urban district is to shape a new city image with traditional feature. The measures are as follows:considering the mountain and river in morphology of urban layout to keep the association with the historic centre and its outlying area; guiding the style of buildings to fit the usage requirements and the current aesthetic standards, and reflect the traditional feature. In order to assure the implementation of the continuity of traditional feature, the administrative and legal measures and the publicity measure should be taken in the three districts. By the way, the new constructions in the historic centre should choose the proper main body.Through the research of the above content, this paper summarizes the appropriate experiences on the continuity of traditional feature, which are applied to the example of Jixi, Anhui Province.