The evolution of traditional ancient towns in South China: Tangjiawan Ancient Town in Zhuhai city

ABSTRACT

Based on the urban morphology theory of the Conzen School and the actual situation of the Tangjiawan Ancient Town, a morphological process analysis of the Tangjiawan Ancient Town was conducted. The end result is a visualization of the process of urban form evolution. The first objective is to describe the morphological framework of Tangjiawan Ancient Town and the morphological changes that occurred during its development. The current urban landscape is divided into units by superimposing morphological units, building types, and land use. The results of the division also reflect the morphological development, structure, and compositional characteristics of the ancient city of Tangjiawan. Using Tangjiawan Ancient Town in Zhuhai city as an example, on-site research, historical evidence, urban morphology analysis methods, and interviews were used to elaborate and analyze the spatial structure and evolution process of traditional ancient towns in South China. In particular, morphological units, building types, and land use are included. The morphological map of the Tangjiawan ancient town is inconsistent with the current economic-oriented development of ancient town planning. This shows that current planning is less concerned with the physical form of architectural heritage, which may lead to further damage to the landscape of the ancient town. This study provides a strong reference for the follow-up planning of ancient town protection of the same type from the perspective of morphology and area and provides ideas for the subsequent preparation of protection plans.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Historic urban landscape
• urban morphology
• Conzen school
• morphological map
• ancient town form

1. Introduction

1.1. Research background

In 2011, China’s urbanization rate surpassed 50% for the first time, reaching 51.27%. This means that China’s urban population surpassed its rural population for the first time, signaling the transformation of Chinese society from “rural China” to “urban China”, a pivotal point in China’s urbanization. China’s urbanization rate reached 58.52% in 2017. According to the “2013 China Human Development Report,” published by the United Nations Development Program (World Bank 2012), China’s urbanization rate will reach 70% by 2030, and its urban population will surpass 1 billion. The rapid urbanization of China has caused significant harm to urban cultural heritage (Jigyasu 2014). The hot topic of the National Two Sessions in 2022 was rural revitalization, and the highest-rated related search terms are smart agriculture and digital villages (Li et al. 2023). The use of the information platform has also received positive responses from the national urban management department and local governments. To support the development of the platform and the development of the historical context, various relevant departments have issued a series of relevant documents and policies. The efforts to protect Chinese urban historical and cultural heritage have reached a new starting point. The use of digital technology to support cultural heritage protection is also at the core of UNESCO’s work this year (Xiao et al. 2018). The digital management of cultural heritage is a mainstream trend. The “Quebec Declaration,” adopted at the 17th ICOMOS Conference in 2008, also pointed out the importance of digital protection. However, how can we visualize the evolution of historically important ancient towns to urban areas? This is helpful for the digital protection of cultural heritage and subsequent heritage space planning. It can also combine visual results with publicity and education to build awareness of cultural protection for future generations.

1.2. Literature review

In May 2005, the World Heritage Center and other professional institutions jointly held an international conference on “World Heritage and Contemporary Architecture: Managing Historic Urban Landscapes” in Vienna (Alberts and Hazen 2010; Rössler 2014; Rössler and Lin 2018). The formation of the “Vienna Memorandum”, which used the term “historic urban landscape” for the first time to discuss the contemporary development pressures faced by historical cities, is discussed. There are currently two research directions for historic urban landscapes abroad: the Italian School and the Conzen School (Cataldi 2013; Gauthiez 2004; Sadeghi and Li 2019). The Italian School mainly analyses from the perspective of typology, establishes a set of typology processes and methods, and applies them to architectural design. Typology was transformed from the proposals of Durand and Quincy to the development of neo-rationalist scholars such as Rossi, the Creel Brothers, Viedler, and Mudu. Although they have different views on city status, they all admit that the type expresses the urban culture and collective memory and can continue throughout the continuous evolution of time. However, the disadvantage is that although this school tries to construct a whole-system research structure from city to architecture, it still only remains at the architectural scale in the end; thus, applying it to the historical landscape of cities and towns is difficult. Conzen mainly analyzed the urban form from the perspectives of structure and composition and the coordination of various parts of the urban fabric at different scales during the process of change (Conzen 2004). Conzen’s method focuses on analytical and conceptual information rather than pure narrative to study the city and determine how it is built. Scholars such as Whitehand, J. W. R., Slater, T. R., and Kropf, K. S. developed Conzen’s theory and finally formed the Conzen School (Oliveira 2019).

From the perspective of heritage protection, Professors RON and Zhou Jian noted in 2013 that the “historic urban landscape is an updated approach to heritage management” (Kong and Jian 2013). The starting point is to recognize and confirm that any historical town has accumulated value, and it is necessary to combine different disciplines to analyze and plan the urban protection process to avoid the separation of these values in the planning and development of modern cities. From the perspective of value recognition, in 2011, Professor Lu Zhou’s postgraduate student proposed in his master’s thesis “Cohesion and Continuity: Tangible Elements of Urban Historic Landscape and Related Issues” that parade elements are an important part of the historic urban landscape. From the perspective of value cognition, in 2010, some scholars proposed the idea and method of identifying historic urban landscapes based on the understanding of urban form (Wang and Gu 2020). He sorted and discussed the urban landscape protection and management methods and policy frameworks proposed by the school of urban psychology represented by Conzen, providing a substantive research framework for historic urban landscapes and clarifying the analysis elements of urban landscapes: physical form, social groups, urban history, and the development process (Bandarin and Van Oers 2012; Zeayter and Mansour 2018). In other parts of the world, urban morphology developed earlier. After experiencing various problems with urbanization, Western scholars engaged in in-depth discussions on urban morphology. However, the focus of the research is constantly changing, and no research methods or research frameworks applicable to all cities have been established. In light of China’s national conditions, many scholars have achieved important results with different theories and practices as China’s urbanization progresses. However, the application of Conzen’s urban morphology theory to ancient towns is still in the exploratory stage, and its theoretical methods should be further strengthened and valued.

According to Conzen School theory, an urban landscape is composed of three elements: plane pattern, architectural texture, and land use. At present, the characteristic unit map of historic urban landscapes is mainly delineated according to the landscape characteristics of historical regions and has the following four parts: topography, land use, construction characteristics, and regional characteristics. This approach insufficiently considers the structural and historical context of the landscape. The Conzen School reflects the heritage value carried by the urban landscape, which can provide a more scientific basis for the division of spatial units in historic urban landscapes. When the morphological unit area is divided according to the theory of historic urban landscapes combined with Conzen’s urban morphology theory, the morphological unit division is adjusted. The urban landscape research of the Conzen School uses multi-level morphological region boundaries to divide morphological regions, which can provide more detail when dividing urban landscape forms and reflect the morphological characteristics of historical evolution.

1.3. Problem statement and objectives

Although many ancient villages and towns in China have distinguished histories, changes in their geographical locations and social systems impact them today. However, Tangjiawan, an ancient town with a relatively short history, has been able to continue to develop. Especially under the special circumstances that most of the rural areas were sluggish after the late Qing Dynasty, Tangjiawan did not decline but became a model county in Zhongshan and strengthened its historical traces. After 1979, the reform and opening seized Tangjiawan. The local government took the opportunity to make full use of the superior conditions in the region and vigorously improved the investment environment, introduced capital, equipment, and technology, and established joint ventures. In 2004, the town’s GDP reached 2.39065 billion yuan.

Tangjia Ancient Town has a long history. As early as the Tang Dynasty, primitive villages appeared in some places in Tangjiawan. By the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties, a large number of people from the Central Plains had moved in and built their own villages. Due to its geographical proximity to Macau, people from Tangjiawan worked and studied in Macau earlier than those from other villages, where they came into contact with advanced Western technology, ideology, and a religious culture. Under this influence, a group of influential pioneers in various industries in modern China gradually emerged. In the field of modern industry and commerce, Tang Tingshu is representative of the pioneers of modern industry and commerce. These include the China Merchants Steamship Company, the first civilian enterprise in China; the Kaiping Mining Bureau, the first coal mine; the Dragon Locomotive, the first train; the Tangxu Railway; and the Tangshan Fine Cotton Soil (Cement) Factory, the first cement factory. Tang Tingshu played a pivotal role in the development of the modern Chinese economy. The unique cultural environment has made Tangjiawan a unique Lingnan culture and folklore that combines the ancient and the modern, the intersection of the north and the south, and the integration of Chinese and foreign cultures. As an ancient town with such a rich historical and cultural heritage, the protection of this heritage is facing great challenges.

Current research on China’s historic urban landscapes mostly reorganizes the composition system of urban historical spaces through value accumulation, which has a certain adverse impact on its value recognition and protection management. The Conzen School developed a research method oriented toward spatial development, which provides good support for the understanding and conservation management of historic urban landscapes. Under the guidance of this theory, the heritage value of Tangjia Ancient Town was identified, aiming to explore management methods suitable for the protection and management of historical urban landscapes in China and more widespread urban landscapes. According to the research framework of the Conzen School, this research aims to obtain the division results of urban landscape units. Among the three elements of the landscape unit, the plane unit is relatively stable and affects changes in building types and land use properties. Therefore, the research focus of this paper is mainly on the division of plane units and in-depth analysis and summary of the street system, plot combination, and building base of the ancient town is provided. Regarding the research on building types, since horizontal and vertical sections are required and the workload of basic data collection is relatively large, this study uses drones to take bird’s-eye views for direct observation and classifies buildings based on age and style. Regarding the land use method, since the Tangjia area has experienced several wars and has a long history, there is a lack of historical maps, and the land use cannot be verified. Therefore, the current land use is summarized.

2. Research methods and analytical framework

2.1. Research methods

At present, domestic scholars have seldom analyzed the historical urban landscapes of ancient towns. This paper attempts to apply historical urban landscape and Conzen School methods to ancient towns in China and proposes a morphological analysis framework suitable for the ancient town of Tangjia. The morphological element framework, evolutionary process, and morphological area of the ancient town of Tangjia are analyzed, and constructive suggestions for its protection are proposed. At the same time, in the Tangjia Ancient Town area, there currently only exists surveys and maps of individual public buildings, and the research has not yet been promoted to the whole village. Streets, plots, and land use are not included, which are of great significance for the study of form.

1. On-site field investigation: on-site investigations, surveys and map records of ancient towns should be conducted, current problems in ancient towns should be understood, and relevant information should be collected.

2. Conzen urban morphological analysis method: Taking the historical urban landscape characteristics of Tangjiawan Ancient Town in Zhuhai city as the research object, under the guidance of this method, the development and renewal work are discussed. In addition, Conzen’s urban morphology method was used to further divide the management units.

3. Geographical information system (GIS) analysis method: On the basis of GIS tool functions, the angles of land parcels in the parcel combination are analyzed.

4. Combined with the above steps, the evolution of the urban form of the ancient town is finally visualized.

2.2. Framework of the morphological elements of Tangjia Ancient Town

To understand the specific role played by each morphological element in linking the spatial relationships of the ancient town, it is necessary to decompose the complex spatial form of the ancient town into different morphological element frameworks. On the basis of this research, the typical characteristic factors that play a key role in the formation of the spatial intention of the ancient town and the spatial structure – organization relationship of the ancient town are selected. These characteristic factors can be used as evidence to guide the protection of the overall style and appearance of the ancient town. Under the guidance of the above ideas, combined with the analysis of morphological elements in Conzen’s morphology and the spatial morphological characteristics and actual conditions of the ancient town of Tangjia (Figure 1), the ancient town wall, five fortress patterns, temples, farmland, and public space were analyzed.

Figure 1. The Spatial Range of Tangjiawan Ancient Town (image source: CONSERVATION PLANNING of HISTORIC TOWN, TANGJIAWAN, CHINA, 2016, pp.50, the author made changes and drawings on this basis).

(1) Ancient city walls: The earthen walls and gates of Tangjiawan Ancient Town form a complete and closed defense system to protect against the outside. Tangjiawan Ancient Town also built an earthen wall to prevent entry by bandits. It was first built in the late Ming Dynasty, and it was rebuilt many times from 1815 to 1852 and in the early years of the Republic of China. The main body was completed in 1854, and there are still remnants of the ancient city wall near Gongle Garden (Figure 2(a)). The circumference of the city wall is 260 feet. The five gates of Wan’an, Longqing, Yingxun, Qiming, and Hengqu provide entry through the wall at various locations. In the late period of the Republic of China (1912–1949), the five gates were successively demolished, and most of the walls were also demolished. Only the sections from Longqingmen to Lingyuanpu, at the foot of Yifeng Mountain in Ealing and Houlou Lane, Houmen Forest, and Hengqu Lane, remained, totaling approximately 580 meters.

Figure 2. The current status of the remaining walls in Tangjiawan Ancient Town. (image source: photographed by the author).

1. Fortress-style settlements were a common type of defensive clan settlement during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Tangjia Village is the largest and best-preserved fortress settlement in the Tangjiawan area. According to records, Tangjia Village began to form a basic pattern of “five fortresses” with “dividing houses” of clans in the late Qing Dynasty. Among them, those with the surname Tang lived in the first to third forts, and those with the surname Liang lived in the fourth and fifth forts. Generally, there were approximately 70–80 households in each fort, which is difficult to verify accurately at present. From the analysis of the morphological characteristics of the five existing forts, the following characteristics are presented. First, they conform to the traditional Feng Shui pattern. The five fortresses in Tangjia face the sea and are backed by the Efeng Ridge, with Longgang Mountain on the left and Ma Mountain on the right facing southeast from the northwest. Second, the five forts are adjacent to each other without a clear boundary, but each has a definite spatial order. The five forts were located on different platforms, and the low-lying areas between the platforms formed a “Y”-shaped main road connecting the five forts, namely, Shanfang Road and Datong Road. On the other hand, the spatial orientation axis of the buildings of the five forts were chosen according to their respective microtopographies. The five forts of the Tang family are built of rammed earth with a total length of approximately 5 kilometers, a height of approximately 3 meters, and a width of approximately 0.5 meters. They are built on rammed earth, and only fragments remain (Figure 2(b)). There were five gates, namely, the Wan’an Gate, Longqing Gate, Yingzhao Gate, Qiming Gate, and Hengqu Gate, but they no longer exist.

2. In the coastal areas of the Lingnan area, there are temples in every village, and the objects of worship are very practical. It was common to have multiple sacrifices in one temple. The common idols are Mazu, Guan Gong, and Empress Guanyin. The most famous temple in Tangjiawan’s ancient towns is the Tangjia Three Temples, which is the general name for the Shengtang Temple, Wenwu Emperor Temple, and Jinhua Temple (Figure 3). It is located at the intersection of Datong Road and Xindizhi Street and has an area of approximately 1,500 square meters. It was rebuilt in the 40th year of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, and it was completely overhauled in the second year of Tongzhi. The current three temples were developed on this basis. From an architectural point of view, the three temples all have two entrances, with a courtyard inside, an incense pavilion in the middle, and a hard mountain top in the entrance hall. The temples are connected by water alleys and corridors. Lingnan has a hot and rainy climate. This feature must be considered in the layout of the building complex. There is a one-meter-wide roadway between the courtyards, which is not only used for transportation but also serves drainage and fire prevention functions. The building adopts a mixed structure of piercing buckets, lifting beams, and brick walls. Facade brick walls were built using the grinding bricks to seam technology. Due to the additions during successive dynasties, stone columns and wooden columns were used together. The three temples show people’s good wishes and sustenance for a harmonious life, and they are also the materialized form of expectations in life. The township office was once located here, and it housed the Tang Family Training Bureau in 1886 and the Tang Township Public School in 1907, and disputes among the people were often resolved there. Under the shackles of feudalism, it is quite fair and enlightening to use folk temples instead of ancestral halls and patriarchal clans to address issues such as belief, administration, education, and public security.

Figure 3. The current status of the tangjia three temples in Tangjiawan Ancient Town. (image source: photographed by the author).

1. Public space: The main spaces for the public activities of villagers in Tangjiawan Ancient Town are the squares, which are generally located in the open spaces in front of public buildings, for example, in front of the large ancestral hall of the Liang family and in front of the vast ancestral hall. There is also a square in front of the market at the intersection of Shanfang Road and Datong Road. In the past, every second day of the second month of the lunar calendar during the “Land Festival”, villagers held mass activities such as “grabbing firecrackers”, dragon and lion dances, etc., in the square in front of the temple. Gong Le Garden, located at No. 234 Shanfang Road, is also an important public space in Tangjia Ancient Town. As the name suggests, Gong Le Garden means having fun with the people, and it is better to have fun alone than to have fun together. Therefore, Tang Shaoyi, the first prime minister of the Republic of China (1912-1949), opened the private garden he built in 1915 and named it Gong Le Garden for use by fellow villagers and even by people of the whole country. The garden is surrounded by mountains and faces the sea, with beautiful scenery, covering an area of more than 500,000 mu and planted with rare trees, flowers, and lychees that are mostly imported from abroad.

2. Ancient wells and ancient trees together constitute important public space nodes in the Tangjia ancient town. People gather by wells and under old trees. There are two types of ancient wells in Tangjia: a single well with one borehole and a double well with two boreholes. There are also two forms of twin wells: one is two eyes side by side, and the other is two eyes tangent to each other. These ancient wells generally have a diameter of approximately 0.5–1 m and a depth of approximately 1–5 m. The well platform is generally made of granite, most of which is square with a small round part. Due to the terrain limitations, the shape of the well platform will also change accordingly.

3. Farmland: The Tangjiawan region was an isolated island in the Lingding Ocean outside the Pearl River Estuary in ancient times. As the sea level gradually decreased, the land area continued to expand. By the start of the nineteenth century, Tangjiawan had completely emerged from the sea and turned into land. Since then, the upper reaches of the Pearl River have been continuously depositing a significant amount of sediment in the bay of Tangjiawan Town, causing it to rapidly build up. The beaches of Shanghai, Kwun Tong, and Longtoujiao in Houhuan led to Xiangzhou, Nanyang, and San Francisco in the United States at the end of the Qing Dynasty. In the 1980s, they evolved into shoals. In conjunction with the artificial reclamation that occurred at the end of the 19th century and the start of the 21st century, the majority of the shoals became land. The Municipal Bureau of Land and Resources began expropriating all rural collective land in the city in 1991. Since 1997, all collective land in the Tangjiawan area has been requisitioned for municipal government use, with the exception of some land set aside for the production and housing of villagers in accordance with local policies. As a result, the current pattern of ancient towns has developed, while the farmland has essentially vanished.

3. Tangjiawan Ancient Town town-plan analysis

3.1. The historical development stages of Tangjiawan Ancient Town

From 1522 to the present, Tangjiawan Ancient Town experienced five typical development stages: the Fuchongjing period (1522–1750), the five fortress pattern periods in the late Qing Dynasty (1750–1925), the Zhongshan Model County period (1925–1934), the slow development period (1934–1967), and the rapid development period (1967–present).

1. Fuchongjing period (1522-1750): According to an old map from 1522, the most famous name of the place where Tangjiawan was located at that time was “Fuchongjing”, and it is generally inferred that this place is related to water and gold. Silver mines were discovered in Fuchongjing, and the center of the map was Xiangshan Town at that time, which was very impressive. The earliest people living at the foot of Fenghuang Mountain were families with the three surnames of Jiang, Cheng, and Feng. The area was originally named “Sanjia Village” (a village where people from families with three surnames live together) and later changed to Tangjia Village.

2. Five fortress pattern period in the late Qing Dynasty (1750-1925): Fortress-style settlements were a common type of defensive clan settlement during the Ming and Qing dynasties in China. Tangjia Village was the largest and best-preserved fortress settlement in the Tangjiawan area at that time. According to records, Tangjia Village began to form a basic pattern of “five castles” with “dividing houses” belonging to clans in the late Qing Dynasty. Moreover, the area around each fort basically remained unchanged for the next six hundred years.(3) Zhongshan model county period (1925-1934): During the period of the Republic of China (1912-1949), the design of model counties was based on or aimed at local autonomy, and it was promoted throughout the country. Therefore, the model county became a comprehensive honor to praise local achievements in autonomy, education, and industry. There were fewer new buildings during this period. In 1930, the county government of Zhongshan County moved to Tangjia Town, which has an urban area of less than two square kilometers. As usual, large-scale construction projects were needed, but Tang Shaoyi (chairperson of the Zhongshan County Political Training Committee at the time) did not do so. In contrast, the construction of county government embodied more economical and practical characteristics, fully respected the original living pattern, and used it to transform it into a political, economic, and cultural center at the county level. Ruizhi Ancestral Hall was built in the Guangxu period (1875-1908) and was an important government office in Zhongshan County. Tang Shaoyi’s private garden (Gong Le Garden) became a high-level reception center that often received government officials and celebrities from all walks of life. The Wangci Mountain House at the beginning of Shanfang Road was also the office of the county magistrate. However, at this time, the five fort structure was destroyed, and the city gates were demolished.

3. Slow development period (1934-1967): During the Anti-Japanese War, Tangjia Ancient Town experienced several major military incidents. In 1934, soldiers from Zhongshan County caused problems in Tangjiawan. In 1938, the Japanese army attacked Tangjiawan. The anti-Japanese troops in Zhongshan County dug four air raid shelters and trenches on Liushi Mountain to prevent Japanese attacks. Unfortunately, the Tangjia Dongshan blockhouse, the Tang Family Ancestral Hall, and the Bianshan Maiyuan were destroyed by shells. After several battles, the layout of Tangjia Ancient Town changed, and the original layout of the ancient town was no longer recognizable. After the founding of New China in 1953, to strengthen the construction of coastal defenses and develop fishery and agricultural production, the Government Council approved the establishment of Zhuhai County, and the county government was located in Tangjia. Tangjiawan became the political, economic, and cultural center of the county. In 1959, Zhuhai County merged with Zhongshan County. When Zhuhai County was restored in 1961, the People’s Government of Zhuhai County was located in Xiangzhou, and the economic center shifted. Especially during the “Cultural Revolution”, the town’s economic construction developed relatively slowly.

4. Rapid development period (1967-present): After 1979, the reform and opening up swept through Tangjiawan. The local government seized the opportunity, made full use of the superior conditions in the region, vigorously improved the investment environment, introduced capital, equipment, and technology, established joint ventures, cooperated, developed “three-in-one subsidy” enterprises, and accelerated the development of foreign-India-inner-linked and self-run enterprises. Overseas Chinese, Hong Kong, and Macau compatriots actively donated commemorative facilities and souvenirs. In 1994, individuals from overseas, Hong Kong, and Macau donated 500,000 RMB to renovate the 500-year-old “Three Temples of the Tang Family”. After the establishment of Tangjiawan Town in 2002, the economic development of the region accelerated. The town government actively built the Tangjiawan Cultural Ancient Town brand and vigorously developed the tertiary industry, integrating tourism, catering, and commerce, with an annual growth rate of more than 20%. In 2007, Tangjiawan Ancient Town was rated as a famous historical and cultural town.

3.2. Street system analysis

In the composition of plan units, the street system is the most stable form element. The main roads in Tangjiawan Ancient Town can be divided into main roads and secondary roads. Shanfang Road and Datong Road have been the two most important roads in Tangjiawan in modern times, and they are also the main streets of Tangjiawan Ancient Town. In 1932, these two roads were two branch lines from Xiazha to Tangjia on the east line of Qiguanche Road. A series of important buildings, such as ancestral halls, temples, former residences of celebrities, hotels, and stations, are concentrated on both sides of the road. The ground was originally made of cement produced by the Macau Green Island Cement Factory. The secondary roads are mainly alleys extending from Shanfang Road and Datong Road in the ancient town. Inside Tangjiawan Ancient Town, there are many ancestral halls arranged along Shanfang Road and Datong Road. These ancestral halls control the internal spatial structure of Tangjiawan Ancient Town and the street interface of each main road, forming a continuous ancient town control line. It is also connected with external ancestral halls and temples through Y-shaped streets, which together constitute the traditional road system of Tangjiawan Ancient Town.

The lanes in the ancient town can be roughly divided into three categories. In the first category, the width of the roadway is approximately ten meters, such as on Shanfang Road, the street at the entrance of Yuwo Tang’s Ancestral Hall, D/H > 1. In the second category, the width of the laneway is approximately 5–8 meters, and it is the main laneway inside the historic district. The heights of the buildings on both sides are mainly 1 to 2 floors; for example, at the Datong Road-Xiaoqing Family School entrance, D/H ≈ 1. In the third category, the width of the roadway is approximately 2 meters, mainly used by pedestrians. This is the main auxiliary roadway in the ancient town, and the building heights on both sides of the roadway are mainly 1–2 floors, and D/H < 1. An example is the street behind Yuwo Tang’s Ancestral Hall.

Furthermore, the outline of the block can be divided into several descriptive units for later analysis. Since the historical map depicts the internal streets of the ancient town rather vaguely, the drawing of the basic unit of the street is based on the current roads of the ancient town (Figure 4 and Figure 5).

1. Bifurcation type: This form is the most common road form in ancient towns. It often branches from the main road of the ancient town and connects various building groups in series (Figure 4(a)).

2. Comb-shaped: As the name suggests, this road network consists of a horizontal line and several roads perpendicular to the horizontal line. This form effectively responds to the sloping terrain, connects roads on different elevation lines, and facilitates the internal traffic management of each building group. At the same time, the roadways of this form are usually end-of-section (Figure 4(b)).

3. Street-along type: In this type, there is no roadway inside the building group, and the building group directly connects to the main road of the village and town space (Figure 4(c)).

Figure 4. Classification of street unit types (image source: CONSERVATION PLANNING of HISTORIC TOWN, TANGJIAWAN, CHINA, 2016, pp.50).

Figure 5. Combination unit map of the Tangjiawan ancient town plot. (image source: CONSERVATION PLANNING of HISTORIC TOWN, TANGJIAWAN, CHINA, 2016, pp.50, the author made changes and drawings on this basis).

On the basis of the unit analysis of the street and lane system, further research is carried out on the land combination mode of the inner group of the ancient town. Since Tangjiawan Ancient Town experienced several battles during the Anti-Japanese War, the original structure of the ancient town and the area of property rights are no longer available. Plots can be classified into independent plots, large ancestral hall plots, single-row plots, irregular plots, urban fringe belt plots, multirow plots, irregular plots at the same angle, and single-row four-sided street plots (Figure 6).

Figure 6. Combination unit map of the Tangjiawan Ancient Town plot. (image source: CONSERVATION PLANNING of HISTORIC TOWN, TANGJIAWAN, CHINA, 2016, pp.50, the author made changes and drawings on this basis).

1. Independent plots: There is only a single building on the plot; the number of plots is small, and the plots are located along the edge of the ancient town.

2. Large ancestral hall plots: The square in front of the ancestral hall often serves other functions and hosts various activities, and the plot of the ancestral hall is often large.

3. Single-row plots: This type of plot is widely distributed throughout ancient towns. The internal building structure is relatively regular, and the slope topography and roadway direction are the determining factors in the formation of these plots.

4. Irregular plots: The internal building directions of this type of land plot vary, and the land area is relatively large.

5. Urban fringe belt plots: Larger plots with scattered buildings near the walls of the ancient city.

6. Multirow plot: The terrain restricts the building combination and follows the contour line.

7. Irregular plots at the same angle: The distribution of buildings in this plot type is relatively disordered, but they all face the same direction and follow a contour line distribution. The GIS calculations also included four regular distributions of angles of 320°, 30°, 80°, and 170°.

8. Single-row four-sided street plots: This type of land is rare in Tangjiawan Ancient Town and is located in the depths of the ancient town and seems to be wedged within and occluded by the adjacent land.

3.3. Block-plan of a building

Tangjiawan Ancient Town is located on the coast of China and is surrounded by mountains in the southeast and northwest and flats in the northeast, facing the Pearl River Estuary and Venus Gate. Affected by the western Pacific monsoon climate, the dominant wind direction is southeasterly. The climate is hot, humid, and rainy, with typhoons and heavy rains in the summer, strong solar radiation, and long periods of high temperature. Therefore, ventilation, heat protection, typhoon protection, and rainstorm protection are problems that must be solved in residential buildings, and they are reflected in the architectural layout and space combination. Generally, traditional houses are mainly located from northwest to southeast to cater to the dominant wind direction in summer. The architectural layout is typical of traditional Lingnan dwellings: a “three-room, two-corridor” courtyard house with one bright, two dark, and three bays or a “three-room, two-corridor” courtyard house and other variations (Figure 7). The courtyard style is the most common; the former is two rooms deep, and the latter is an expansion of the former, three rooms deep (Figure 8). There is a hall in the middle of the main room and rooms on the left and right, forming a bright hall and a dark room. The building is balanced on the left and right; it is closed to the outside and open to the inside. Additionally, a double house also existed in the ancient town where two families shared a front yard. In this case, two brothers usually shared the house, each with his own room. However, due to the large area and small depth, this kind of architectural form is not conducive to saving land, so it is rarely distributed throughout ancient towns.

Figure 7. Block plan of a building. (image source: drawn by the author).

Figure 8. The typical block plan of a building type in Tangjiawan Ancient Town. (image source: photographed by the author).

With the development of urban society and the economy in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the living standards of residents continued to rise, and the pursuit of an urban-living culture became more intense. However, due to the development and prosperity of commerce and the growth of families, the land supply in the ancient town was tight, making multibay, shallow, and deep traditional houses unable to adapt to the new city, and a new architectural form of single bay houses emerged. However, this type of building is still very different from the bamboo tube house in Guangzhou in terms of nature and base. Since the layout of the Tangjiawan ancient town was relatively fragmented and the roads of the ancient town were relatively tortuous, some irregular plots were divided. Therefore, in the forms of the above several buildings, ancillary rooms are added according to the terrain, forming buildings with different shapes that adapt to the base (Figure 9 and Figure 10).

Figure 9. Changes in the form of residential buildings in Tangjiawan Ancient Town. (image source: drawn by the author).

Figure 10. Analysis of typical three-bay and two-corridor building layouts in Tangjiawan Ancient Town. (image source: drawn by the author).

3.4. Plan unit division

The division of plan units is based on the superposition of the above three plan units. Since the street base description unit is the most stable factor, it is used as the basemap. The parcel composition unit provides the framework for the building block plan and is therefore the secondary basemap. Finally, the building block-plan map is superimposed to form a plan unit (Figure 11).

1. Traditional and modern mixed residential plots: Traditional and modern dwellings coexist in this type of flat unit, and the plots have variable shapes, so they are classified as one category.

2. Public building plots: There are public spaces such as squares in this type of planar unit; most of these planar units are located at the intersections of streets and alleys, and the plots vary in size.

3. Urban fringe belt: The fringe belt of Tangjia Ancient Town is a belt-shaped area with an ancient wall as the axis. This type of flat unit building density is low and relatively loose, so it is classified as one category.

4. Modern residential land plot: The plot unit is dominated by modern buildings, the land area is small, and the distribution is relatively loose.

Figure 11. Plan unit division of Tangjiawan Ancient Town. (image source: drawn by the author).

4. Building type and land use type unit division

4.1. Classification of building types

(1) Public buildings: There are 28 public buildings in Tangjiawan Ancient Town, mainly family ancestral halls, private schools, temples, and former residences of celebrities. These include Cuiping Tang’s Ancestral Hall, Longgang Ancient Temple, Ruizhi Ancestral Hall, Juchuan Tang’s Ancestral Hall, Tang Shaoyi’s Former Residence, Pingli Temple, Tangjia Old Station, Fengtai Liang’s Ancestral Hall, Xiaoqing Family School, Tangle Majing, Peiyu Liang’s Ancestral Hall, Wenwu Emperor Temple, Shengtang Temple, Jinhua Temple, Tang Bao’e Former Residence, Tangjia Ancient Wall, Junxu Liang’s Ancestral Hall, Shoushan Liang’s Ancestral Hall, Bujiu Liang’s Ancestral Hall, Yueji Liang’s Ancestral Hall, Yuwo Tang’s Ancestral Hall, Wangci Shanfang, Gongle Garden, Xuejingtang, Juzhuang Tang’s Ancestral Hall, Quanda Tang’s Ancestral Hall, Xianyao Tang’s Ancestral Hall, and Tangjia Ancient Well (Figure 12).

Figure 12. The family ancestral halls in Tangjiawan Ancient Town. (image source: photographed by the author).

1. Modern buildings in the period of the Republic of China (1912-1949): Most buildings were brick and wood structures or mixed structures with flat roofs. The overall architectural style was varied and uneven, and the building quality was mostly average.

2. Traditional buildings in the period of the Republic of China (1912-1949): Most of them were built with blue bricks, and a few were built with stone or oyster shells. The ground pavement was an all-lime soil foundation or block stone foundation. There were various forms of roofs, mainly hard mountain tops with gray tiles with exquisite decorations on roof ridges, which have typical Lingnan characteristics. The houses were dominated by wooden doors. The thicknesses of the stone beams and stone door frames were combined with the elegance of gray bricks. There were also some hollow wrought-iron doors. The windows were mostly ordinary casement windows and glazed windows; the sashes were made of wood; and the upper part was basically decorated with plaster. Most railings were made of concrete, and hollow, decorated concrete grids or vase rails were made of ceramic (Figure 13).

3. During the period of the Republic of China (1912-1949): Some of the traditional structures were rebuilt into modern dwellings; the old and the new ones were intertwined, and the old and new residential buildings had different styles, which greatly damaged the texture and style of the ancient town.

4. Residential houses in the 1950s to 1970s: These buildings, which were primarily steel‒concrete structures influenced by foreign residential culture, were of Western style.

5. Residential houses after the 1980s: Most of these buildings were multistory buildings without traditional features.

Figure 13. Building type map. (image source: drawn by the author).

4.2. Classification of land use types

The current land is mainly used for village construction, public management and public service facilities, commercial service facilities, public facilities, green land, and squares. The village construction land refers to the current villagers’ residences, with a land area of 55.98 ha, including Tangle Community and Tangjia Community. The land area for public management and public service facilities, including middle schools, primary schools, administrative offices, and other facilities, is 14.03 ha (Figure 14). The current land use situation reflects the development status of the ancient town as the mainstay. Unfortunately, its historical and cultural value is not well utilized at present.

Figure 14. Land use map. (image source: drawn by the author).

5. Urban morphological unit division and characteristics of Tangjia Ancient Town

The street system unit, plot combination unit, building type unit, and land use unit division diagrams above simply superimpose the division of morphological regions. In the process of superposition, overlapping areas appear, indicating that there are many similar elements in this area, and they can be divided into the same unit area.

5.1. Morphological area division

1. The first-level dividing line: The area is divided into planar units formed by superimposing the three plans of the street and alley plan, the plot combination map, and the building block-plan map.

2. Second-level dividing line: On the basis of first-level zoning, the building type distribution map and the land use type map are superimposed, and the morphological units are further subdivided (Figure 15).

Figure 15. Morphological region division of the Tangjiawan Ancient Town. (image source: drawn by the author).

According to the figure, on the basis of the morphological regions initially divided by the plane pattern, nine morphological regions are superimposed:

1. Traditional residential areas: Most of these areas are row-by-row arrangements in the plane and are different from other subareas in terms of building function and plot size. Morphological subregions with uniform characteristics are thus formed.

2. Green space: There is a large area of green space in a park area, and some buildings are scattered among it.

3. Modern residential areas during the Republic of China (1912–1949): These areas were formed earlier, but their architectural style is relatively modern, which conflicts with the style of the ancient town.

4. Modern residential areas in the 1950s to 1970s: These areas were formed relatively late and can be classified as subareas according to their row and multistory forms.

5. Unused land: This land is located at the edge of the city, and currently, no buildings are built on it.

6. Mixed commercial and residential area: the first floor or the entire building of the residential area in this area is transformed into a commercial space, which is generally arranged facing the street, and the land use type is villagers’ catering and commercial land.

7. Reconstruction of traditional residential buildings into modern districts: Second floors will be added to traditional residential buildings or modern ancillary buildings, and the architectural style will be chaotic.

8. Public building area: Most of the buildings in this area were built in the late Qing Dynasty and had obvious architectural styles and large plots. It is an area with independent shape characteristics in Tangjia Ancient Town.

9. Residential areas after the 1980s: This is the latest form, with irregular plots and inconsistent architectural styles.

5.2. The overall characteristics of the urban form of Tangjia Ancient Town

1. The morphological evolution process starts with traditional villages and focuses on modernized villages. Before 1925, the main construction body was the various families, the morphological feature was the five-fort pattern, and the evolution direction was southeast. In 1934, the main body of Tangjia Ancient Town became the national government, and the morphological characteristics at this time were large land units with uniform types and efficient uses. The ancient town of Tangjia in the middle has experienced several battles, but due to the lack of historical maps, it is speculated that some morphological areas were destroyed based on subsequent changes in the pattern. After the reform and opening up, the rural system changed, and after the land reform movement, the government’s restructuring and private participation in development made the ancient town a collage-style unit of “public‒private blur”. After the land use of the ancient town reached the saturation level in terms of construction, renovation activities began, changing residential buildings into commercial use or modernizing parts, forming a pattern of overlapping and mixing forms in various historical periods.

2. The stable primary and secondary arterial road systems constitute the morphological skeleton of Tangjia Ancient Town. The main and secondary arterial road systems that formed in the late Qing Dynasty are the morphological skeleton of Tangjia Ancient Town, which has guided the spatial form evolution in historical development. The ancestors of the ancient town of Tangjia experienced collective migration. There were ancestral halls and housing ties. Thus far, the residential structure of the five fortresses remained stable. The multisurname settlements dominated by Liang and Tang carried a large amount of original historical information. From the end of the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, the size of the land was determined by the division of houses and the needs of life, and the architectural form of three rooms and two corridors formed the early small land plots. After the reform and opening up, with the change of the construction subject, the large amount of land that originally belonged to a unit was further subdivided and planned.

6. Conclusions

This paper uses the urban morphology method of the Conzen School to analyze the development process of the urban morphology of Tangjia Ancient Town and provides theoretical and methodological guidance for the protection of historical landscapes on the basis of understanding the evolution of urban morphology. The first is the understanding of the historical urban landscape level, especially a richer and more diverse understanding of the authenticity and integrity of heritage. It emphasizes local values, responds to bottom-up needs, and maintains the integrity and continuity of a city rather than simply dividing it into different types of “units”. Therefore, the practice of delineating isolated “protection areas” and confining protection within the delimited space often results in the destruction of the integrity and continuity of the city.

Despite the increasing application of UNESCO’s recommendations on historic urban landscapes in heritage conservation communities, research and practice to date have been limited. A historic townscape can observe and experience the urban landscape through urban form and an urban interior. Tangjia Ancient Town is in a state of rapid development. In the midst of intensifying pressures for change, the dynamic identity and changing character of the city are expressed through the identification of structures, places, and other traditional cultural elements of the historic urban landscape and the analysis of their historical context and evolution. With the flow of capital and the participation of experts from other regions, recent changes in Tangjia Ancient Town have been influenced by the development experience of large cities. The preparation of the master plan involved academics and professionals from Guangzhou and other larger cities, and the planning approach was largely influenced by national guidelines. Therefore, a historic urban landscape strategy needs to be integrated into the guidelines and regulations of the national strategic planning process. This will require support from policy-makers and better coordination among government agencies. For example, more effective collaboration between the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Housing and Urban‒Rural Development, and their corresponding local offices is essential to ensuring good integration of urban planning and heritage management. In the process of industrial and tourism development, the development of Tangjia Ancient Town tends to prioritize material and economic goals over meeting the basic cultural and spiritual needs of the local community. Therefore, historically sensitive and community-based urban landscape management, including urban design and placemaking, is a particularly important endeavor. Treating historic urban landscapes as infrastructures for livable cities is critical for ensuring sustainable development, the continuation of local cultures, and the reconnection of people and places. Urban design and placemaking have become important tools for driving cities to meet the needs of local communities and visitors. They utilize existing elements and create others as needed to recreate spatial unity and continuity. Employing inclusive urban design and placemaking practices grounded in an understanding of the processes by which places evolve can strengthen connections between people and places and between old and new structures. More strategic, holistic urban design and placemaking strategies that involve all stakeholders can enhance local identity and individuality and help avoid repeating the development experiences of large cities. Unfortunately, the potential of morphological urban design and placemaking has not yet been clearly defined in the planning of the Tangjia Ancient Town. The protection and planning of such ancient towns need more attention in the future.

Author contributions

Conceptualization, J.S. and Y.C.; methodology, J.S., Y.C., and L.Z.; software, J.S. and Y.C.; validation, L.Z.; formal analysis, J.S. and Y.C.; investigation, J.S. and Y.C.; resources, J.S. and Y.C.; data curation, J.S. and Y.C.; writing – original draft preparation, J.S., Y.C., and L.Z.; writing – review and editing, J.S., Y.C., and L.Z.; visualization, J.S.; supervision, J.S. and Y.C.; project administration, Q.T.; funding acquisition, Q.T. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Acknowledgements

This research first originated in 2021. Junxin Song would like to thank her master thesis advisor, Class-1 Certificated Architect & Urban planner of China, Macau Architect, Associate Professor Dr. Jianyi Zheng, for providing many innovative ideas for the development of the research. After graduating from the master’s degree and entering the doctoral program, new information was obtained for the study of Tangjiawan Ancient Town, and new researchers were added, resulting in the current version of the research results. The researchers are also very grateful to everyone who provided help during the fieldwork in Tangjiawan Ancient Town.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Research data of this study are included in this published article. Further information is also available from the Junxin Song on reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the research from the Guangdong Provincial Department of Education’s key scientific research platforms and projects for general universities in 2023: Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao Cultural Heritage Protection and Innovation Design Team (Funding Project Number: 2023WCXTD042).

Notes on contributors

Junxin Song

Junxin Song is a PhD candidate at the Institute for Research on Portuguese Speaking Countries, City University of Macau. She graduated with a master’s degree from the Faculty of Humanities and Arts, Macau University of Science and Technology. Her current research focuses on the architectural culture and tourism planning of Zhuhai, Macau, and Portuguese-speaking countries. She has published papers in SCIE and SSCI journals in the Sustainability.

Yile Chen

Yile Chen is a PhD candidate in architecture at the Faculty of Humanities and Arts, Macau University of Science and Technology. She is a Master of Urban Planning and Design and graduated from the Faculty of Innovation and Design, City University of Macau. She has published more than 10 papers in SCIE, SSCI, and A&HCI journals in the International Journal of Architectural Heritage, Heritage Science, Open House International, Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering, Buildings, Geocarto International, Frontiers in Earth Science, Atmosphere, and Sustainability. Her research interests are urban design and renewal in Macau, urban from, machine learning (YOLO and CGAN).

Liang Zheng

Liang Zheng is a PhD candidate in architecture at the Faculty of Humanities and Arts, Macau University of Science and Technology. His research interests include sustainable architectural design. He has published more than 10 papers in SCIE, SSCI, and A&HCI journals in the International Journal of Architectural Heritage, Heritage Science, Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering, Buildings, Frontiers in Earth Science, Atmosphere, and Sustainability.

Qiang Tang

Qiang Tang is an associate professor at the School of Design at Shunde Polytechnic. At the same time, he is also a senior environmental art designer in China. He graduated from the Faculty of Humanities and Arts at Macau University of Science and Technology with a PhD in design in 2024. His research areas mainly focus on cultural heritage protection, architecture, and environmental art design. His papers are mainly published in many of the of the top design journals in China.