SPATIAL ORDER IN VILLAGES —— Translating Traditional Village Spatial Logic into Contemporary Chinese Urban Resettlement Communities

Sammanfattning

In recent years, China has carried out large-scale poverty alleviation and relocation policies, helping many people living in remote mountain areas move into newly built urban resettlement communities near cities. These policies greatly improved living conditions, but at the same time, many daily rhythms and living habits that once existed in villages have been strongly affected by standardized urban resettlement communities. Based on this background, this research aims to rethink the spatial logic of traditional villages. It focuses on the spatial relationships that naturally formed in villages, studies how these spaces influence people’s daily lives, and explores whether these spatial logics can be translated into contemporary Chinese urban resettlement communities. The research studies ten traditional villages in southeastern China through fieldwork, photography, 3D scanning, and hand drawings. At the same time, the research combines drawing and spatial analysis to understand village spatial order through points, lines, and planes. “Points” represent road intersections, turning points, and nodes where spatial changes happen. “Lines” represent path systems and spatial connections. “Planes” represent open spaces, courtyards, and voids naturally formed between buildings. At the same time, this research combines these three elements with topographic maps and scenario maps to further analyzes point accessibility and proximity, path curvature intensity, spatial morphology, and finally summarizes the hidden spatial patterns inside villages. The theoretical foundation of this research is influenced by Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Pallasmaa’s theories about bodily perception and dwelling. It is also inspired by the research methods of Hillier & Hanson and Rudofsky on spatial relationships, informal order, and vernacular architecture. Finally, this research attempts to transform these spatial findings from villages into a series of design guidelines and apply them to contemporary Chinese urban resettlement community design. The goal is to explore a spatial generation method that can better recreate village ways of living and everyday spatial relationships.