From Space To Place

Under the co-influence of globalization and urbanization, a lot Chinese cities arenow experiencing high-speed development. Urban design practice, regardless of theirscale, are also being moved into top gear. Quite often however, urban design in Chinais carried out only to cater the needs for representationalism of3D space while ignoresculture, environmental characteristics and other similar issues. As a result, modern citiesare becoming ’meaningless’ space, in which the features of cities are found stereotyped,sense of belonging to the city is difficult to gain, and the spirit of space is dramaticallyweakened. Based on the problems listed above, the writer believes that the priorities ofurban design in the near future should be focused on how to high-light the uniqueness ofdifferent cities, how to update the quality of public environment, as well as how topreserve regional urban context. The spirit of place is probably the key to thosequestions. As such, in aims of providing useful theoretical references for urban designpractice in China, possible design strategies that help to create such ’spirit’ will bediscussed in this paper.Firstly the definitions of ’space’ and ’place’ will be clarified in this paper in order tobetter analyse the reasons behind the phenomenon of ’placeless’ in many Chinese cities.Then, related urban design theory shall be summarised to reach the point that spatialcreation, which is the core of comtemporary urban design in China, should be repalcedby place creation. In addition, the urban design of central area in Jinsha, Guizhou, willbe used as a detailed case study, of which macro and micro design methodologies are tobe discussed systematically. At last, the purposes of place creation and suggested designstrategies will be illustrated as the conclusion of this paper.Basically the structure of the paper is comprised of5chapters:Chapter one aims to demonstrate the importance of this study and range of researchobjects. Reviews on related theory will be carried out and research methodologies ofthis paper will be confirmed.In Chapter two from ‘place’ point of view, the phenomenon of ‘placelessness’ inChinese cities will be analyzed in order to further study components that contribute toform a place and then clarify the hierarchy in place creation. Based on these and otherrelated case studies in foreign countries, the effect on place creation from identifiability,accessibility, diversity, activity and context etc. Chapter three will be focusing on problem solving: solutions to the ‘placeless’phenomenon will be suggested based on previous studies.Content of Chapter four is mainly about careful analysis regarding place creationin Jinsha county. The analysis will be performed from urban structure to importantdistricts and nodes. Again, the urban design project in Jinsha will be used to supportthe analysis.