Morphological Analysis Of Historic Area Of Kaifeng Form The Perspective Of Conzenian School

Kaifeng as one of the first historic cultural cities in China,once was the capital of seven dynasties in the history.It also has a long history and rich cultural heritage.In order to meet the needs of the current social and economic development,Kaifeng is making great efforts to reconstruct the old city,resulting in the drastic change of urban morphology.The renewal of the city is so fast that many historical blocks have been occupied by the new districts.And the original urban features and historical memories no longer exist,making the city losing its own characteristics in the development.In face of such situation,obviously,it is necessary to make a careful study on the evolution process of the city's inner morphology to provide a reference for the renewal of city and the protection of the historical landscape in the future.M.R.G Conzen's urban morphological theory which is based on geographical background focuses on the evolution of urban morphology at the micro level and has been well put into practice in most urban studies in the West.Therefore,this study takes Gulou area in Kaifeng as the research object and brings in Conzen's urban morphological theory to analyze the evolution process of morphology in this area.It is hoped that this study can provide a good reference for the urban renewal of Kaifeng ancient city and the same type of this city can be acquired,promoting the protection of the city's historical landscape.The main conclusions of this research are as follows:(1)The whole morphological evolution of Gulou block takes the main street as the boundary to carry on the renewal replacement process of “circle type” from the outside to the interior,forming the pattern of interlaced distribution of morphological units in different morphological periods in the end.The evolution characteristics of four morphological stages in this area are as follows: In the traditional development period(1662-1907),it mainly refers to the intrinsic supplement on the basis of inheriting the pattern of street system in the late Ming Dynasty.In the reformation period of the Republic of China(1908-1948),it means the modernizing renewal of plots distributed along both sides of the main street.In the modern stable period(1949-1978),it mainly refers to the internal morphological changes caused by the large number of unit plots in the area.In the modern update period(1979-2016),it mainly refers to the large-scale renewal because of the reconstruction of old city.(2)The variation of urban morphology in Gulou block is decided by the usage type of land.During the long period morphological evolution,the evolution of the street system is relatively stable on the whole,which basically maintains the road frame of the urban reconstruction in the early Qing Dynasty.As a result,the division of morphological-type units changes under the control of land-use units.The change of land-use pattern will cause the integration or decomposition of the plots,and then affects the building pattern and architectural type above the plots.However,the process of morphological evolution of the Gulou block is very complex,which is the result of the accumulation of multiple factors.Among them,the behavior of government plays a leading role.Only in the different morphological period,the influences of government behavior to the evolution of morphology are different.(3)According to the evolution of the morphological pattern of the Gulou block,this study redefines the development of morphological-type on the basis of the regional status,which points out the direction for the internal renewal of the Gulou block in Kaifeng and that of similar cities.The government as the controller of the evolution of regional morphology,should give fully play its roles of supervision and guidance to respect the morphological texture formed in the long-term development of the historical blocks and abandon the high intensity redevelopment mode of large area demolition and reconstruction and advocate the internal small renewal in the street block gradually.