Page 13 - JCAU-6-3

Journal of Chinese

Architecture and Urbanism

REVIEW ARTICLE
The making of the Chinese urban landscape:

Exploring a framework for analysis

Ye Li* and Kai Gu
School of Architecture and Planning, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

Abstract

Despite sociopolitical changes, urban landscape heritage has traditionally been
valued in Chinese society. However, in the past two to three decades, intensifying
pressures for urban redevelopment have created major challenges to urban landscape
management. While the management of urban landscape change has focused on
landscape-based conservation techniques, urban landscape characterization and
assessment, and urban landscape planning, its theoretical and practical foundations
remain to be clarified. In connection with the epistemological orientations of
landscape in both China and the outside world, this article proposes a new conceptual
framework comprising a triad of structural-correlative, morphogenetic-generative,
and integrated perspectives for the study and management of urban landscape
heritage in China.

Keywords: Urban landscape heritage; Landscape; Urban morphology; Cross-cultural
Corresponding author: study; Chinese cities
Ye Li
(yli602@aucklanduni.ac.nz)
Citation: Li, Y. & Gu, K. (2024).
The making of the Chinese urban 1. Introduction
landscape: Exploring a framework
for analysis. Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism, 6(3), China boasts a rich urban landscape heritage; yet, it has faced unprecedented pressures for
261. redevelopment and other changes in the past two to three decades. Not surprisingly, during
https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.261 this time, there has been a surge of research publications on landscape-based conservation
Received: November 16, 2022 techniques (Dai & Liu, 2013; Jin, 2018), urban landscape characterization and assessment
Accepted: March 28, 2024 (Cai, 2007), and the role and methods of urban landscape planning (城市风貌规划
[chengshi fengmao guihua]) (Wang, 2007; Yu & Zhou, 2009). These studies have particularly
Published Online: July 2, 2024
recognized the significance of urban landscape heritage in social-cultural development
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s). and place identity, emphasizing the need to incorporate urban landscape management
This is an open-access article
distributed under the terms of the into the current statutory planning system. However, the exploration of theoretical and
Creative Commons Attribution- practical foundations for urban landscape management in China is lacking, which has
Non-Commercial 4.0 International
(CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits all undermined the efficacy of relevant planning practices. Consideration of landscape
non-commercial use, distribution, has long been an interest in both China and the outside world (Antrop & van Eetvelde,
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is 2017). Future urban landscape management in China can benefit from comparing and
properly cited. integrating landscape ideas and methods that have been developed elsewhere in the world,
Publisher’s Note: AccScience especially in Europe. In connection with a cross-cultural exploration of epistemological
Publishing remains neutral with orientations of landscape, this article proposes a new conceptual framework comprising a
regard to jurisdictional claims in triad of structural-correlative, morphogenetic-generative, and integrated perspectives for
published maps and institutional
affiliations. the study and management of urban landscape heritage in China.

Volume 6 Issue 3 (2024) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.261