Abstract
This study applies space syntax methodology and investigates the centrality process of four centers in Qingdao, China, which grow from old settlements during successive phases of urban growth. The aim is to increase the understanding of how urban form can generate and sustain centers as well as embed them in, or distinguish them from their context that has been built up in a rather complex geographic region. Results reveal the development of these centers and the associated different scales of accessibility are related to both pre-urban road network of the city and the local grid conditions of those settlements from which a center has grown. The overall condition of the city frames the global structure of the city and renders those settlements with potentials for movement-engaged activities. The local grid structure set by metric and topo-geometric properties influences the actual concentration patterns of social economic activities and determines the range and strength of a center in the city. The study suggests that the morphological structure of the city may be historical in nature, in the sense that old settlements are not simply “absorbed” by urban growth, but can sustain or even function as a center given proper spatial environment.
Highlights
1 Introduction Rapid urban growth in modern cities is often associated with suburban development, with the built-up areas of city expanding into their surrounding environment and assimilating many edge settlements and towns through successive phases of development (Fig. 1)
By setting the segment analysis at various metric radius, the finetuned angular analysis allows research to assess how integrated a street segment is within a local catchment area. Such practices are widely used by space syntax research to analyze the multi-scale structures of cities that are characterized with a centrality process of spatial integration and movement related land use distributions
5 Discussion and conclusions This study examines the development of the four centers and sub-centers growing up from settlements or preurban towns that had been built through successive phases of urban growth in Qingdao before the 1950s
Summary
Rapid urban growth in modern cities is often associated with suburban development, with the built-up areas of city expanding into their surrounding environment and assimilating many edge settlements and towns through successive phases of development (Fig. 1). The space and function relationship of city has been a major issue of urban research for decades, it is not until Hillier who had theorized a general linkage between them via the mechanism of systematic influence of spatial structure on movement distribution (Hillier et al, 1993), and through this to influence the location choice of land use (Hillier, 1996) With their emphasis on the structural properties of spatial configurations, syntactic studies focus on the formulation and reproduction of hierarchical urban centers as driven by theories of movement economy and centrality process, upon which the spatial interactions of spatial elements occur at various scales in a city (Hillier, 1999). By analyzing the relationship between the spatial characteristics and the functional roles of centers, the aim is to increase the understanding of how urban form can generate and sustain centers as well as embed them in, or distinguish them from their context that has been built up in a rather complex geographic region
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