Page 26 - JCAU-6-3

Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Multidimensional image of Guilin’s central space

formation and development (Tao et al., 2020). The evolution Employing an integrated approach, we aim to explore
of Guilin’s urban form reflects its close alignment with its Guilin’s urban images and cognition from multiple
natural surroundings, from the initial selection of the city’s dimensions. Our goal is to delve deeply into the potential
site to subsequent urban development, which has been shaped characteristics of Guilin City and to illuminate the future
by its natural environment. In modern urban construction, development direction of its construction.
Guilin strategically integrates its landscape features to inform
adjustments in functional structures and the construction 2. Research methodologies and study area
of new areas while rapidly expanding its space. Looking 2.1. Research methodologies
ahead to the future urban construction in Guilin, there is
significant merit in exploring strategies to leverage the city’s The traditional methods of studying city images primarily
urban imagery to further enhance its overall image, improve involve literature reviews, field research, and questionnaire
the living environment, and chart a sustainable path for the interviews. However, these methods are limited by the
future development direction of the city. research timing, resulting in subjective data and weak
connections with spatial patterns. With the advancement
The theory of city image originated from Kevin Lynch’s of computer technology, an increasing number of digital
seminal work “The Image of the City’ in 1960. Since tools are being used in city image studies (Qin et al., 2020),
then, research on city image has advanced significantly optimizing the process of data acquisition and analysis at
worldwide, yielding diverse and substantial findings. both temporal and spatial levels.
Existing research on city image mainly focuses on
three main themes: the exploration of urban marketing In this study, we conducted a comprehensive analysis
strategies through individual cases of city image (Zhang, of the foundational theories and practical examples in
2004; Jiang et al., 2022), the integration of quantitative urban image research. We chose to augment traditional
analysis with the original qualitative framework of methods by incorporating spatial syntax research and big
city image (Gohari, 2019; Jian et al., 2021), and digital data methods to adopt a multidimensional perspective.
investigation into city image (Jiang, 2023; Yang et al., Spatial syntax theory is one of the most widely used
2020; Lyu & Fang, 2023; Filomena et al., 2019), among digital methods in the field of city image research.
others. However, existing studies mainly concentrate Through an examination of existing research on spatial
on individual urban spaces, often with a cognitive syntax theory, three main syntactic variables have been
focus on specific demographic groups, which boast the identified for analyzing regional cognition: integration,
disadvantage of being one-sided. intelligence, and choice. First, the integration degree
map describes cognitive pathways in terms of axes, with
At present, studies on Guilin’s city image are limited. the frequency of city images being positively correlated
While most of these studies focus on the tourism with the integration degree of urban axes (Zhu et al.,
characteristics of the city, they rarely delve into the image 2005). Higher integration of paths corresponds to
characteristics of Guilin city as a whole. Moreover, the greater cognition and lower color temperature in image
research methods used, such as questionnaire interviews presentation. Integration can be further divided into
and travelogue texts (Liang, 2019), tend to favor the global integration, which studies the overall situation
subjective perspective of tourists. For instance, Deng et al. of the urban area, and local integration, reflecting the
(2020) conducted a study on the tourism image of Guilin’s clustering degree of a unit space with other spaces
old town core space, utilizing cognitive maps drawn by within a certain radius. Second, the intelligence value
tourists and the questionnaire data to identify factors represents the correlation between local integration and
affecting the urban tourism image of Guilin’s old town global integration in spatial syntax theory (Xiao, 2019),
core space. Similarly, Guan (2019) collected travelogues reflecting people’s ability to cognize the global area
of domestic and foreign tourists related to Guilin on the within the unit area. The intelligence value indicates the
Internet. They analyzed these Chinese and English online typical representation of a node in the whole area. When
travel notes with the help of natural language processing the intelligence value exceeds 0.5, people can preferably
technology and network text analysis method to discern cognize the global area within the unit area; when it
the cognitive image and emotional image of domestic and exceeds 0.7, people within the unit area can adequately
foreign tourists to Guilin. Overall, existing research on cognize the global area. Third, selectivity can be expressed
urban image lacks diversity in terms of the type of subjects, as the amount of passage through a region, and in image
the degree of objectivity, and the analysis method. cognition, it represents the degree of preference people
Building on this foundation, our study focuses on have for accessing a region. The higher the selectivity, the
the urban central space of Guilin as the research object. lower the color temperature of the image rendered.

Volume 6 Issue 3 (2024) 2 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.1032