Page 22 - JCAU-7-1

Journal of Chinese

Architecture and Urbanism

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
A spatial syntactic analysis of temple cultural

heritage settlements on the western Sichuan
plateau of China

Xinyu Chen and Kangcai Nie*

Department of Urban and Rural Planning, Faculty of Architecture, Southwest Minzu University,
Chengdu, Sichuan, China
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Conservation and Utilization of Rural Heritage in the
Context of Rural Revitalization)

Abstract

The protection and development of the cultural heritage of temple settlements, the
utilization of cultural resources, and the inheritance of settlement characteristics are
pressing issues that require urgent attention. To address these challenges, this study
employs the spatial syntax research method to delve into the spatial form of the
*Corresponding author:
Kangcai Nie cultural heritage of temple settlements on the western Sichuan plateau. Specifically,
(3025313548@qq.com) the study focuses on four distinct settlement types in Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous
Prefecture, China: Baiyu Temple, Ganzi Temple, Dongga Temple, and Gesang Temple.
Citation: Chen, X., & Nie, K.
(2025). A spatial syntactic analysis Using Depthmap software, the study quantifies settlement parameter values and
of temple cultural heritage analyzes connection value, integration degree, and comprehensibility, to reveal
settlements on the western Sichuan their syntactic structural characteristics. Our findings indicate that these four temple
plateau of China. Journal of
Chinese Architecture and Urbanism, settlements present an organic whole in terms of spatial form. However, there are
7(1): 2504. distinct differences in their syntactic structures, which are closely linked to factors
https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.2504 such as settlement scale, historical inheritance, and other contextual influences.
Received: December 21, 2023 Based on our spatial syntax analysis, the study proposes a series of protective
1st revised: January 30, 2024 measures and development strategies. First, emphasis should be placed on
preserving the overall spatial layout and organic integrity of temple settlements to
2nd revised: February 12, 2024 prevent overdevelopment and the disruption of original patterns. Second, planners
3rd revised: February 27, 2024 must strengthen the protection and management of internal spatial elements to
Accepted: February 27, 2024 maintain their interrelationships. Finally, planners should formulate differentiated
protection and development plans tailored to the unique characteristics and values
Published online: October 22, of each temple settlement type. While the study focuses on traditional settlement
2024
spatial forms and their relationship with human behavior, further exploration is
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s). needed to investigate the impact of political, economic, and environmental factors
This is an open-access article
distributed under the terms of the on these forms.
Creative Commons Attribution-
Non-Commercial 4.0 International
(CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits all Keywords: Western Sichuan plateau; Cultural heritage of temple settlement; Space
non-commercial use, distribution, syntax
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is
properly cited.
Publisher’s Note: AccScience
Publishing remains neutral with 1. Introduction
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional The cultural heritage of temple settlements represents a remarkable cultural achievement,
affiliations. deeply embedded in the landscape of China. Throughout the long history of Chinese

Volume 7 Issue 1 (2025) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.2504