Deciphering built form complexity of Chinese cities through plot recognition: A case study of Nanjing, China

Abstract

Dramatic changes in the economic systems and land rights in the recent history of China yielded unique but complex urban forms for many cities. The complexity of urban form is mostly manifested as ambiguous relations between elements of the physical form and between the physical form and human behavior. Currently, these ambiguities become obstacles that increasingly hinder urban regeneration. However, despite the fast-growing research on the morphology of Chinese cities, our understanding of the complexity of their built form is still in its infancy. Taking the city of Nanjing as the case study, this study attempts to decipher the complexity of its built form by investigating its plot patterns. Six samples, dating back to different development periods, are selected and analyzed in terms of both a physical entity and a unit of property. The results show that the complexity of plots is largely attributable to the inconsistency between their spatial boundaries as physical entities and as units of property. Accordingly, the plots of all six samples are re-recognized and two generic types of plot sub-series, co-inflection and embeddedness, are developed as a prism to decipher the built form complexity. The findings contribute to the theory on the compositional hierarchy of urban forms and may shed light on the urban regeneration of Chinese cities as well.