Comparative Studies On The Paths’ Spatial Characteristics Of Chinese Rockeries And European Mazes Based On Space Syntax

Rockery is one of the four basic elements of Chinese classical gardens, and maze is a significant component of western traditional gardens. Although they are two distinctly different elements separately exist in two different styles of gardens, their meandering paths have created the same experience: mystique and interest. Comparative studies on the spatial characteristics of the meandering paths of the existing C hinese Rockeries and European Mazes, which are first built from the 14 t h century to 20 t h century, explore their common features and construction rules, will provide theoretical basis for winding space creation in modern gardens which has unique spatial orders and unique spatial experience.Basing on literature review and field studies, using Space Syntax theory and Graph theory, this paper quantitatively analyzes the paths’ spatial characteristic of typical Chinese classical rockeries and European traditional mazes separately in five aspects, including spatial configuration, path geometry, entrances, holes layout and the number of circle layers via UC L Depthmap, and demonstrates the correlation between the paths’ spatial combination and the mystique as well as interest. Then, comparing the spatial characteristics of the Chinese rockeries with the counterpart of European mazes, the paper concludes the similarity and difference between the two meandering paths of the two kinds of garden elements, which not only enrich the studies on spatial theory of Chinese rockeries and European mazes, but also can be used for winding space creation in modern gardens.The whole paper focuses on the following key points:(1) Basing on the extensively existed cases of Chinese rockeries and European mazes, and their popularity in modern gardens, the paper qualitatively compares the mystique and interest created by the spatial combination configuration between Chinese rockeries and European mazes built from 14 t h century to 20 t h century, proposes the comparative studies on paths’ spatial characteristics of the two garden elements will be the keystone of the research. In addition, in the meanwhile, indicates the 6 selected cases of Chinese rockeries and the 9 selected cases of European mazes.(2) Using Space Syntax theory and Graph theory, the research classifies the topological space of the selected C hinese rockery and European maze cases and establishes the relevant spatial structures, then through the calculation of Connectivity, Integration, R2 as well as Depth via UC L Depthmap, the article quantitatively discovers that it is the complexed spatial combination consisted by “The Line”, “The Tree” and “The Network” that leads to the mystique and interest of Chinese rockeries: the setting of paths and attractions has the characteristics of “go opposite before you research the target”; and the pores on the sidewalls and the tops of the paths are respectively in approximately positive correlation with the mystique and interest, while an approximately negative correlation is between the number of entrances and the spatial characteristics; also, it is the complexed spatial combination consisted by “The Line”, “The Tree” and “The Network” that leads to the mystique and interest of European mazes: to hedge mazes of which the spatial combination configurations are similar to each other, the complexity of path geometry, the shortest entrance-to-center Step Depth and the number of circle layers are respectively in approximately positive correlation with the mystique and interest; while an approximately negative correlation is between the number of entrances and the spatial characteristics.(3) Basing on the findings of the former studies, the research focuses on the comparison between the spatial combination and spatial characteristics of Chinese Rockeries and European mazes, and concludes that it is the complexed spatial combination consisted by “The Line”, “The Tree” and “The Network” that leads to the mystique and interest of both C hinese rockeries and European mazes; the “flexibility” and “suggestibility” are respectively in approximately positive correlation with the mystique and interest of both C hinese rockeries and European mazes, and the “ups and downs” as well as “multi- sight” enrich the mystique and interest of C hinese rockeries; the more the entrances, the higher the spatial fragmentation degree and the weaker the mystique will be; Chinese rockeries are built by stones with “holes” and “pores”, while the European mazes adopt the full- height hedges as the contruction materials, and increase the mystique and interest via increasing the number of circle layers.(4) Basing on the research results drawn from the quantitative studies and comparative studies, the paper concludes the theoretical basis for mystery and interesting winding space creation in modern gardens with special spatial orders and experience via spatial configuration, path setting,entrance design and spatial enclosure. The details are as following: using the complexed spatial combination, which is consisted by “The Line”, “The Tree” and “The Network” as the basic spatial combination structure; increasing the “flexibility”, “suggestibility” as well as “ups and downs” of the winding space; controlling the number of entrances and preventing the fragmentation of the winding space, so as to avoid the increased accessibility and weakened mystique and interest of the winding space; using the “enclosure” and “open”, “holes” and “pores” in a flexible way.