Page 19 - JCAU-5-4

Journal of Chinese

Architecture and Urbanism

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
An analysis of the spatial morphology of

cohesive village in Leizhou Peninsula of western
Guangdong Province

Yan Zeng*

Guangzhou Urban Planning and Design Company Limited, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Vernacular Architecture: Typology and Regionalism)

Abstract
There is a cohesive village with a highly geometric spatial form in the Leizhou
Peninsula of western Guangdong province. Due to the lack of historical records,
scholars generally believe that the spatial form of this village is a variation of the local
comb-type village, influenced by the typical village form of the main migration areas
and provincial administrative regions. However, the evolution of this village form in
the area did not exist. The existing studies are unable to explain the development
of cohesive villages. Through field research combined with spatial observation
techniques, this work explored the spatial form generation mechanism of the cohesive
village from two aspects, natural environment adaptation, and social environment
adaptation and found that there is a spatial form isomorphism among this village and
*Corresponding author: the cross-administrative comb-type village, and the “nine dragons toward a pearl”
Yan Zeng village. The established clues are based on isomorphism that can provide a reference
(flyingfish217@163.com)
for the exploration of the cohesive village and offer new perspectives and methods
Citation: Zeng, Y. (2023). An for the study of the culture of similar dwellings where historical data are lacking.
analysis of the spatial morphology
of cohesive village in Leizhou
Peninsula of western Guangdong Keywords: Leizhou Peninsula; Cohesive village; Spatial morphology; Isomorphism
Province. Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism, 5(4):
1224.
https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.1224
Received: July 3, 2023 1. Introduction
Accepted: August 7, 2023 The previous studies on traditional villages have focused on typical cases, with weak
Published Online: September 13, 2023 cognition of cultural commonalities and differences at the regional level, much focus
on the core range, and insufficient recognition of village culture in the peripheral areas.
Copyright: © 2023 Author(s).
This is an open-access article However, culture is transmitted at the regional level, and spatial form is an element of
distributed under the terms of the planning and design, as well as a material carrier of political, economic, and cultural
Creative Commons Attribution- change. Taking the isomorphism of spatial forms as an entry point, studying atypical
Non-Commercial 4.0 International
(CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits all traditional villages in marginal areas can help recognize the generational mechanism
non-commercial use, distribution, and evolutional law of traditional villages in a more profound and systematic way and in
and reproduction in any medium, a broader scope. Research in this aspect also provides clues regarding the village culture
provided the original work is
properly cited. with missing historical data and provides the basis for unified protection and utilization
of traditional villages to assist in rural revitalization.
Publisher’s Note: AccScience
Publishing remains neutral with The Leizhou Peninsula is in the southwestern part of Guangdong province, the
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional southernmost point of mainland China. The research found that there is a special kind of
affiliations. cohesive village in the Leizhou Peninsula. The standard spatial form of a cohesive village

Volume 5 Issue 4 (2023) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.1224