GO BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS : A STUDY OF THE URBAN PEDESTRIAN ENVIRONMENT IN THE MOUNTAINOUS CONTEXT OF CHONGQING CITY

Abstract

Pedestrian spaces are the building blocks contributing to the morphology of the city. As an open gallery to showcase the spirit and character of the city, it possesses strong individuality and great vivacity, and gives the city life. However in modern urbanisation pursuits, the distinguishing characteristics of a city are often lost. For the mountainous city of Chongqing, its unique pedestrian environment is rapidly disappearing in wake of proliferation of motorised vehicles and profusion of mega re-developments. Therefore this dissertation attempts to take the pedestrian spaces of Chongqing as the objects of study, to investigate the distinct features of the unique spatial environment, now endangered. With an overview of the characteristics of natural environment, cultural aspect of the region, and the development of Chongqing in history, a foundation is established for the understanding of the formation of pedestrian spaces. Following that, the two main constituting elements of the pedestrian environment, the spatial environment and the public activity in the space are investigated in depth. The investigations are given more contextual background with two case studies pedestrian spaces, traditional and modern respectively. The dissertation reaches a conclusion with an attempt to propose some guidelines to better integrate future developments to the context, to restore unique and lively pedestrian spaces.