Parametric Reconstruction of Traditional Village Morphology Based on the Space Gene Perspective—The Case Study of Xiaoxi Village in Western Hunan, China

Abstract

Traditional settlement space contains regional, natural, economic, historical, and cultural characteristics. The spatial texture serves as a material carrier of rural life and production and a vital landscape resource for the traditional villages. Traditional rural settlements have formed relatively unique and stable spatial form genes over time, which contain the “order” and “law” of spatial creation traditionally established in villages. The metropolis erodes traditional village spaces due to fast socioeconomic development and urbanization. In addition, the lack of adequate recognition and continuation of spatial texture in current mainstream village construction planning methods also limits the ability of villages to adapt to environmental changes and promote self-repair and adjustment, which, in turn, causes the gradual disappearance of their distinctive appearance. The reason is the need for more quantitative research and planning on the genes controlling the evolution of spatial texture morphology in traditional villages. They are faced with issues such as blind construction and development, a fracture in the rural characteristic spatial texture inheritance, and a loss of the distinctive vernacular landscape. Adopting an objective and in-depth approach to the cognition of traditional village space texture is an essential demand for the preservation, optimization, and renewal of the spatial appearance of rural settlements. We use the spatial genes of village settlements as its starting point. It then uses the spatial texture of village settlements connected to gene information mining as its specific method. We investigate the autogenous law of traditional village spatial form and determine its application using the CityEngine parametric platform, digitalization, and 3D visualization as the applied technical means. The feasibility and implementation path of the parameterization technique are explored using the traditional village of Xiaoxi in western Hunan Province as an example. We effectively promote the integration of rural spatial landscape resources, feature assessment, optimization guidance, and management control and provide an innovative research perspective and scientific planning path for analyzing the spatial morphological evolution of traditional villages.