Renovation of Traditional Water Villages in Jiangnan: a Casa study of Renovation Planning of Wenchang Village

Headnote

Abstract The rapid urbanization, and new rural construction have being exerted serious impact on the renovation and protection of traditional water villages in Jiangnan area (die southern regions of the Yangtze River). More and more distinctive villages are losing their historical background and regional architectural culture in modern society. Taking the renovation planning of Wenchang village as a case study, its function structure and land use are determined by the theory of "three layers of HSR (high-speed tail) station" after deep mining its history and culture. Then, the design method of rebuilding characteristic space in traditional villagesaiming at finding a proper way to handle the relationship between development and protection of traditional villagesis investigated from the perspective of natural landscape, spatial form and architectural features.

Keywords Traditional water villages in Jiangnan, Spatial form, Architectural features

DOI 10.16785/j.issn 1943-989x.017.2.005

1 Background

Since the 21st century, construction of "new socialist countryside" has become an important task in China which results from the sustained economic growth and accelerated urbanization. In 2015 the annual "No.l central document?' underscored the importance of speeding up the renewal of rural infrastructure, enhancing the living environment, and building of "beautiful country". Under this circumstance, the projects of upgrading and rebuilding the countryside have been expanding in major provinces and cities. However, the homogeneous renovation approaches such as broadening the streets, artificially digging or shaping the rivers, simply maintaining the building facade, etc., have resulted in serious destruction of original space structure and distinctive building features, as well as the loss of the traditional village texture and architectural culture. How to protect and inherit the specific history, culture and art of the traditional architectures in those villages in the process of modernization and urbanization has been an important problem that should not be ignored.

In this paper, the renovation planning of Wenchang Village in Hangzhou Gty has been taken as an example to explore the methods of protecting and rebuilding the villages' characteristic space from the perspectives of natural landscape, spatial form, and architectural feature. We hope that it can be meaningful for handling die relationship between development and protection of traditional villages.

2 Renovation planning of Wenchang Village 2.1 Brief introduction

The project, equipped with convenient transportation and great geographical position, is...