Research on the Conservation and Regeneration of Historic Conservation Area with the Perspective of Italian School’s Typo-morphology: A Case Study of Changhua District, Guangzhou

As the most important cultural heritage in Chinese cities, the historical conservation areas with their adjacent historical features have always shown people the unique characteristics of cities. In recent years, with the progress of urbanization, historic conservation areas are generally in a conflict between conservation and development, between traditional and modern types and morphological changes. A morphological analysis method compatible with Chinese reality needs to be urgently developed. The Italian school of typo-morphology is one of the three schools of urban morphology, which is more suitable for the analysis and design of urban morphology. It can not only explain the evolution of urban morphology and building types, but especially link the past, present and future of a city through theoretical analysis and design. Therefore, it can provide theoretical and methodological support for the conservation and regeneration of historical conservation areas from the perspective of typo-morphology. This study chooses the Changhua historic conservation area in Guangzhou as the research object. As one of the new residential areas in Xiguan area, Changhua historic conservation area has a characteristic spatial structure and a variety of building types in the district, which include almost all types of modern housing in Guangzhou. However, Changhua district faces the problems that the damage of the district morphology and the residential environment could not be adapted to modern life. The focus of this study is to explore the characteristics and multiple values of the typology and morphology of the district by applying the Italian school of typo-morphology, and to conserve and regenerate them to inherit the essence of tradition and integrate them into modern urban life. This paper first analyzes the background and development of the Italian school of typo-morphology, the research content and research approach, and the conservation of the historic center of Bologna as a key practical case, and summarizes the basic theoretical framework. Secondly, through the overview of Changhua district, the issues related to Changhua district and typo-morphology are clarified, and the research framework of typo-morphology for Changhua district is established by combining the historical information and adjusting the research hierarchy. Then, this paper conducts a general analysis of the morphological evolution of Changhua district according to the adapted research framework, based on which building surveys are carried out in the Republican district and the present district. The ground floor plans of the two periods are analyzed at five levels: simple tissue, streets, plots, buildings and rooms, and structures and materials, and the typo-morphological characteristics and evolution rules of each level are identified. Then, based on the above analysis, this study proposes the general design and design guidelines for the three levels of streets, plots and buildings, and on this basis, specific designs for two typical areas of the district are carried out, verifying the viability of the Italian school of typo-morphology from the analysis to the design. Finally, the study reflects and summarizes the thesis, and put forward the shortcomings of the research.