Urban conservation in China: <i>Historical development, current practice and morphological approach</i>

Abstract

Relatively little has been written about urban conservation in China, despite the fact that it is facing great challenges in both research and practice. It developed from a focus on individual sites and structures in the early 1920s to a concern with entire historic cities and sizeable historical areas within cities by the end of the twentieth century. A major defect, however, is that morphogenetic and analytical approaches are largely lacking. Conservation of individual buildings is poorly connected to appreciation of the wider historico-geographical environments in which those buildings are located. A morphological approach of a type developed by M. R. G. Conzen, hitherto largely limited in its application to Europe, provides a means of rectifying this defect. This approach is illustrated by an examination of a historical area in Beijing. It demonstrates the way in which an understanding of urban areas as historico-geographical entities can strengthen the theoretical basis of conservation.