Research of the Morphological Types of Blocks in the Old City of Nanjing

Abstract

The block is one of the basic elements of urban space and its morphology is always changing due to the accumulation and substitution of constructions in different times. This dissertation has focused on the evolution and morphological types of blocks in the old city of Nanjing, in order to reveal the characteristics of blocks in Chinese cities, where top-down plans and practical constructions have been remaining conflicted in the long history of development. Extensive studies of relevant literature, quantitative researches and graphic analyses have been adopted to meet the research aims. This research has produced a number of key findings: at the scale of the whole city, the grid of roads tend to deviate from the boundaries of morphological homogeneous districts, or to say, plan-units; blocks in the old city of Nanjing usually contain all or part of several different plan-units, which can be divided according to construction times, geographical conditions and land-use types; the morphological difference of blocks can be presented by the different plan-units contained and the configuration pattern, so in this way a classification system for blocks has been established; some regularity has also been concluded regarding the transformation of block morphology, although there are various types of blocks in the city.