CONSERVATION OF ARCHITECTURE IN TRADITIONAL WATER TOWN: A CASE STUDY OF XINCHANG TOWN IN SHANGHAI

Abstract

Traditional water town in Yangtze River Delta, China has a history of more than a thousand years. Small water towns were distributed among this region and located next to the waterway network. Town layout and architecture represented traditional Chinese philosophy that respect the nature and consisted a clear hierarchy. Water town’s golden era was in Ming and Qing Dynasty; at that time the region was the financial support for the country and the most prosperous place. However, in last decades, under the circumstances of rapid urbanization, traditional water town has a difficult time to fit in the development while keep its own identity. The main objective of this paper is to fist understand the traditional value of water town, observe and critic the current situation and then provide general conservation guideline for future development. Conservation in traditional water town is a well-establishedissue. There are many study and research in different fields, like sociology, economics and architecture. In architectural perspective, spatial organization and architectural elements in water town are research objects and historic heritage that need to be protected. Due to the limited time of field study, only selected towns are visited in three weeks. These towns are mainly located in rural area of Shanghai and are the non-famous towns, which are less developed and encounter different kind of problems in conservation. Xinchang old town as a case study water town is one with a conservation plan and comparably well protected. The paper is organized in the way- first chapter provides a basic understanding for water town architecture and spatial organization as well as the social, historic background. Second chapter consists primary research of water town, observation from field study in Xinchang, and a case study of a mature conservation plan for Singapore shophouse. Third chapter analyze the existing conservation plan in Xinchang adopting knowledge from previous research. And fourth chapter provide general guidelines and suggestions based on the real life issues, which intend to be applied in town conservation and create a modern typology of traditional town conservation.