Public Spaces And Urban Life In Xiguan-Current Issues And Strategies

Xiguan, is located in Liwan District, north to Xicun, south to the Zhujiang River, east toRenmin Road, and west to the Little North River. In Min and Qing Dynasty，it was the wholeplace that out of the west gate of Guangzhou Town, so called Xiguan. Xiguan includesUp-Xiguan and Down-Xiguan, the topography of Up-Xiguan is high, the other is low.Eighteenth Fu was grow up for the last time of Ming, it opened Thirteenth Hang. In the middleand the last of Qing, Xiguan built a few residential neighborhood unit, such as Baohua Street,Fengyuan Street and Duobao Street. Xiguan is the old town of Guangzhou, it was thecommerce and trade center of Guangzhou in Ming and Qing Dynasty.Xiguan, people always feel it old and traditional, quiet and lively, closed and special. Thelocal’s outdoor life is communicate and mix, though how small the size of the open space is.However, it incudes so much outdoor life of the locals, and the locals keep on improving theopen space to fit their use.As the Urban Designer, how should we care about Xiguan from design? At first, thedesigner should learn the local speciality; and then, find out the current issues; at last, try tothink about the strategies. This research is from the urban design view that, to do the researchof Xiguan’s open space and city life by the systematic way, and then find out the premiseconditions of creating lively open space, and propose the strategies of the current issues.Guangzhou today, is in the high developing period of economic and construction. Withthe fast development of Urbanization, the change of the culture morphology cannot follow thechange of material morphology. Before we do the systematic research of the traditional district,so many villages inside the city have been destroyed and replaced, so many old residentialdistrict have been rebuilt. In2010, Asian Games was hold in Guangzhou, which brought manychances to improve Guangzhou’s urban environment. In the same time, it must push the stepsof reconstruction of the old city.Therefore, with the urgent condition, as the local (also living in Xiguan), I want to do thePOE to every open space in Xiguan, including inspecting the loacl city life by the urban andlandscape major view and systematic method, to describe the current issues and propose thedesign strategies.