The methodology of historic town landscape preservation in China

This study tried to find a feasible methodology most fitting to historic town landscape preservation and town development in China. With the social, environmental, and economic development in China, historic small towns faded away gradually, either disappearing naturally or overwhelming by the unlimited commercial construction. This study explored a methodology to preserve and redevelop these kinds of town landscapes, as well as created a strategy hybriding the preserving methods based on the research comparisons between U.S. and China. The study was consisted of the two primary phases. The first phase studied and analyzed the preservation methodologies of the historic town landscape in U.S. and China. This phrase compared and concluded some existing solutions to the town landscape preservation. Different from the historic buildings conservation, this research only concentrated on the “landscape”, such as streetscape, town spatial organization, landmarks, outdoor material application, etc. The historic approaches were collected through evaluation of case studies and the analysis was completed by categorizing the national register system, significance evaluation and related treatments. The second phase applied the combination methodologies into historic site design - Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province. It tested the feasible preservation methodology in a real site and explored the potential opportunity in Chinese developing process. The phase was consisted of site survey, collection of relative documentation, analysis of existing natural and cultural conditions, and guideline design for the site landscape.Department of Landscape ArchitectureStatement of the problem -- Definition of town landscape -- Historic preservation in U.S. -- Town landscape preservation approach -- Historic town landscape preservation in China -- Comparative conclusion -- Creative project -- Guoqing Road design guidelines and applications.Thesis (M.L.A.