The transformation of the bright-dark space in Chinese traditional dwellings

Abstract

ABSTRACT The spontaneous transformation of traditional residential space is one of the important phenomena in urban development in China, which is generally considered as a disorderly, random, and individual spatial product derived from current life. However, are these transformations really random individual phenomena? With traditional residential dwellings of Sanyi Street in Jingzhou as research objects, this study revealed the inherited characteristics of the concept system of “Bright-Dark” in the process of contemporary transformation of traditional residential dwellings. Typical residential dwellings were selected for surveying and mapping and the expression of the “Bright-Dark” concept system in the current transformed residential space compared with traditional residential space patterns. The results demonstrated the traditional concept system (“Bright-Dark”) of residential space still exerts its spatial control function in the seemingly random transformation of contemporary dwellings. In addition, the study provided new perspectives and methods for understanding contemporary transformation of traditional dwellings from the perspective of the concept system of “Bright-Dark”.