From Building Type To Urban Form:Reading The Typomorphology Theory Of Gianfranco Caniggia

This paper arranges the theory of Gianfranco Caniggia,the representative of Italian school of typomorphology,in the aspects of social background,academic inheritance,theoretical contribution,comparison with theories of other morphological schools and the practice of typomorphology in China.Caniggia played a significant role in the academic inheritance of Italian school of typomorphology.He adopted the definition of type and the interpretation of urban organisms,gained experience in the treatment of tradition and rural settlements from the exploration of Pagano and Giovanni,the pioneers of typomorphology,expanded and re-interpreted his tutor Muratori's original theory system,and defined the concepts of level of specificity and generic type.Furthermore,to summarize a set of effective interpretation and application methods of typomorphology Caniggia established and interpreted the Subdivisions of four orders of complexity of the components including elements,structures,systems,organisms,the definition of typological process,distinction of basic buildings and specfic buildings and interpretation method of the history of towns even the built environment.This theory system lays the foundation of typomorphology in the perspective of architecture.It is a complete set of interpretation methods for the form of space material,which can be used to interpret urban form and settlements form.The theory system also has been the guiding theory of urban form analysis in architecture college teaching in Italy and has a certain influence on the formulation of urban planning and regional laws and regulations.There are a lot of similarities between Caniggia's typomorphylogy theory and Conzen's,the representative of British urban form school in the perspective of geography.Afterwards,Ivor Samuels,Karl Kropf,Anne Vernez Moudon and other scholars of ISUF were committed to integrate the two theories into a comprehensive method of typomorphology in order to guide the design of architecture and city.The current situation of urbanization and construction in China requires a strong theoretical support.This paper analyzes domestic research on the theory of typomorphology and several representative scholars' practice in traditional cities,like Nanjing,Pingyao and Guangzhou,and summarizes the characteristics of Chinese traditional urban form.These differences are conducive to arrange the theory of Gianfranco Caniggia to summarize compatibility theory and new practice strategy suitable for domestic research,which can guide the analysis of urban form and urban or building design.