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Lafreniere, Don

Rust belt cities as exemplars for urban development practice in a low-growth future

Zhang, Shuyu

ISUF 2020: CITIES IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY  
 
THE RENEWAL OF ANCESTRAL HOUSE UNDER ANCESTOR WORSHIP 
RITUAL CULTURE: CONSERVATION AND REVITALISATION OF 
SHICHUAN’GOU VILLAGE BASED ON TYPO-MORPHOLOGY THEORY 
Shuyu Zhang, Master of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, China 
ABSTRACT 
This paper discusses the spatial prototype of ancestral house and its renewal of revitalisation 
process under ritual culture in modern society by using a case study of Zhang’s ancestral house 
built in Qing dynasty in Shichuan’gou Village (Shaanxi Province, China). Hakka migrants, who 
moved to Shichuan’gou Village since the 18th century, brought ancestor worship ceremonies from 
Anhui Province. Shichuan’gou Village has a special culture combining both the Hakka and local 
folk culture of the southern Shaanxi Province. With a focus on the mixed ancestor worship ritual 
culture, this paper analyses the architectural form, axis connection, spatial sequence and function 
organization of 60 typical ancestor halls located in both northern China and southern China. 
Among which 12 spatial prototypes are analyzed for preserving and reconstructing Zhang’s 
ancestral house.  
In the hope of reviving ancestor worship ritual culture and developing the local tourism and 
economy, the spatial prototype is applied to the Typo-morphology of the settlement level and the 
courtyard level in Shichuan’gou Village. It helps to form various spatial ritual sequences, 
reconstruct the core ancestor worship space and reset the function to adapt modern life. By 
contrasting the new and the old, the renewal of the ancestral house and the adaptive reuse 
towards development of Shichuan’gou Village are exemplified. 
Keywords: spatial prototype, Zhang’s ancestral house, Hakka migrants, ancestor worship ritual 
culture, revitalization 
INTRODUCTION  
With the influence of urbanization, traditional vernacular villages are facing these problems: The 
cultural activities of clans in villages are gradually disappearing, the ancestral temples carrying 
family gatherings, banquets, rituals are no longer the core of the village space. The cultural spaces 
of clans in villages are lost, dilapidated and abandoned. The new residential space in villages 
begins to disperse (Zhang Yudong, 2018). Ritual activities are neglected in the conservation 
process of built heritage (Bai Ning, 2018). 
This paper aims to take the settlement of Zhang's ancestral house with ancestor worship ritual 
culture as the research object, by using typological research on the ancestral temples, extracting 
the spatial sequence prototype suitable for ancestral worship rituals and applying it to Shichuan’ 
gou Village. It is important to find the conjunction point of ancestor worship culture and space, 
create genius loci and accommodate more ritual activities so as to promote the protection and 
revitalization of heritage. This study also discusses that through the development of ritual cultural 
heritage tourism, rural economy will be revitalized, traditional architectural heritage will be 
protected, regional development and the revitalisation of traditional dwellings will be promoted. 
  
2 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
BACKGROUND  
Shichuan’gou Village is located in Gepai Town, Lantian County, Shaanxi Province. It has an 
ancestor worship ritual culture combined with both the north and the south traditions. In April 2015, 
Shichuan’gou Village was listed as the first group of Provincial Traditional villages.  
In Shichuan’gou Village, Qi’s ancestral temple and Zhang’s ancestral house undertake the ritual 
activities of the two families. In addition, almost every family has a small ancestral temple in living 
rooms. Every household in the central hall has a Memorial tablet of "Heaven, Earth, Monarch, 
Family and Teachers(天地君亲师)", which means that future generations should respect God, earth 
god, the gentleman of the dynasty, relatives and friends, and their teachers. (see Figure 1) 
 
Figure 1. The Memorial tablet of "Heaven, Earth, Monarch, Family and Teachers"（天地君亲师）, the Qi’s genealogy, the 
typical dwelling © Author 
The word ancestral temple first appeared in “Jia Li（家礼）” . The book begins by saying 
gentlemen would build the house and erect the ancestral temple to the east of the main bedroom. 
The book also clearly describes the shape of the ancestral temple which combines three bays, 
middle door, outer door, two steps and surrounding walls. Only these five elements are 
fundamentally related to the ancestral temple type, Drawing upon the description from “Jia Li”, 
later generations speculated and drew different pictures. This was the beginning of explorations of 
the new architectural type of "ancestral temple" in Ming Dynasty. It is shown that the "three rooms" 
3 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
ancestral temple described in the “Jia Li” mainly serves the function of "ancestor worship tablets", 
Whereas "holding ancestor worship ceremonies" can only be carried out in the empty space under 
the steps. (see Figure 2) This functional special prototype is extremely simple, but the largest and 
magnificent hall in the ancestral temple that can be seen today.  
According to the illustrations of Anhui ancestral temples in the genealogy of Qi’s family, the three 
courtyards are the same as most ancestral temples in Huizhou. Yet the appearance of gardens and 
wells are quite unique. Through the evolution of the ancestral temple architecture from “Jia Li” to 
the present, the shape and style of the ancestral temple may have changed with the changing 
region and time, however, the special prototype of the most essential core of the ancestral temple 
architecture has not been changed. 
 
Figure 2. Illustration of ancestral temple of “Jia Li” and Qi’s family in Shichuan’gou Village © “Jia Li” and author 
METHODOLOGY  
Contemporary typology was proposed by the Italian architect Aldo Rossi in the 1960s. Its 
typological theory has two basic attributes: one is the connotation of history; the other is the 
abstract characteristics. The so-called "type" is formed according to the common characteristics of 
things, which can identify the essential characteristics of things (Aldo Rossi, 2006). In this paper, 
using typological research methods, the basic working method is based on the perspective of 
theoretical analysis and image interpretation. Through a large number of researches, 
deconstruction, classification and summary of ancestral temples, the generation principle and 
internal mechanism of local traditional dwellings are explored. It is conducive to follow certain 
elements in the renewal and design of residential buildings in the future. It creates the lifestyle 
which not only contains historical feelings and regional culture, but also adapt to modern human 
production and life.  
4 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
Unlike Qi’s genealogy, which has clear records of ancestral temples, Zhang’s genealogy and 
ancestral temples lack historical sources. The absence of historical source and the gradual 
disappearance of village ancestor worship ritual culture with the passing of the elderly in the 
village means it is important to use methods such as the typological research to revitalize the 
traditional ritual culture. It is hoped that the essential characteristics of ancestral temple buildings 
can be identified through the study of ancestral temple types. The application of this typology can 
be divided into two steps: 1. Type Selection: obtaining prototypes from the restoration (abstraction) 
of historical models; 2. Type Conversion: restoring prototypes to forms by combining specific 
circumstances. This paper process of form-prototype- new form is the concrete embodiment of the 
application of typology in form construction. 
FINDINGS  
The architectural characteristics of Shichuan’gou Village originated from Anhui Province, and at the 
same time integrated the local characteristics of architecture in southern Shaanxi Province. In the 
early stages of the typological research, the selection of research materials of the ancestral temples 
in the north and south areas mainly focused on the southern Anhui and Northern Shaanxi areas. 
The basic spatial characteristics of 60 typical ancestral temples were systematically sorted out and 
typified. By classifying one courtyard surrounded by the number of building: one-in- one dwellings
（独院）, three-in-one dwellings （三合院）and four-in-one dwellings（四合院）  through shape, 
spatial sequence, plan streamline, axis relationship and organizational form, 12 prototypes of 
ancestral temples spatial structure were extracted. (see Figure 3) 
The spacial structure of the ancestral temples takes one axis as the main axis, and three spacial 
modes: courtyard space (white block), half-outdoor grey space (grey block) and building space 
(black block). They are combined in series. The core axis is determined by the ritual sequence 
function of the ancestral temples ritual activities. The other three spatial modes are similar to the 
traditional Chinese courtyard buildings. The ancestral temple is a part of folk dwellings and based 
on its spatial organization, forming different sequences and experiences through the combination 
of three spatial modes. The difference between Northern and Southern architecture lies in the color 
brightness of these blocks. Southern architecture is dominated by courtyard and grey spaces with 
the courtyard wider and longer than its counterpart in the North. In the North, the courtyard and 
building space are mostly narrow. (see Figure 3) 
5 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
 
Figure 3. Typology of ancestral temples in North and South China © Author, Li Zhengchu, Duan Yanran 
Based on the excavation of local ancestor worship ritual culture and sources on typology of 
traditional ancestral temples, the theme of reviving traditional ancestor worship ritual culture in 
Shichuan’gou village and carrying out various tourist experiential ritual activities are established. 
Designing a variety of ritual tours, repairing damaged texture of the village, strengthening the 
spatial structure of ancestral temple types, and ritual axis and route. 
Zhang’s ancestral house settlement is located in the center of Shichuan’gou Village. There are 
village committees, villagers’ activity centers and Zhang’s ancestral house settlement. As the core 
settlement, Zhang’s ancestral house settlement is suitable to develop ancestor worship ritual culture 
and tourists experience activities. Through literature research and ancestral temples typology 
research, combined with the existing topography and architectural circumstances, nine types were 
selected and applied to Zhang’s ancestral house group. Combined with the existing intangible 
cultural heritage and other ritual activities in Shichuan’gou Village, such as natural worshipping, 
farming civilization, ritual ceremonies, god worshipping, genealogy worshipping, filial piety 
singing, dragon dance, Yao Wang Temple, ancestor worshipping, well sacrifice, and so on, the 
introduction of modern functional needs, forming a number of tour routes. On the basis of the 
original type of sacrifice, modern functions are added, which reflects the theme of "worship" 
through space revitalisation and reuse. (see Figure 4) 
6 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
 
Figure 4. Spatial prototype application in Zhang’s ancestral house settlement © Author 
Three-in-one dwellings  type 
In this type, the group of dwellings on the hill is regarded as the farmer experience group for the 
development and reconstruction of dwellings. The original dwellings here are seriously damaged, 
for most of them are used by left-behind elderly people. There are also many empty houses that no 
one lives in, so it is suitable to develop the short-rent residential mode that tourists will live together 
with the villagers. On the basis of the original architectural texture, two U-shaped courtyard groups 
with rotating axes are weaved and repaired. By adding new houses as residential accommodation 
for tourists, some old houses and new houses are connected to form shared residential 
accommodation. 
Four-in-one dwellings  type 
The Four-in-one dwellings type takes the surroundings of the village committee as the public activity 
key points of the whole village. In order to strengthen the connection between the villagers groups 
on both sides of the main road and build corridor bridges on both sides, the square in front of the 
village committee can be used as the performance space, and the farmhouse music and tea room 
on the other side can be used as a platform to watch the performance on the opposite side. At the 
same time, the platform can be combined with the mountain situation to form a ladder. The water 
system has become wider and wider here, so water carts and platforms are added to attract 
tourists and villagers to gather. 
Long-sequence type 
By sorting out the planning, Zhang’s ancestral house is the most important ritual point in this 
settlement. Zhang’s ancestral house is located in the higher part of the village. There was only one 
dirt road up the hill, which was very difficult for the elderly to walk. On the basis of improving the 
7 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
original road, the original scenes of ritual lifestyle are introduced to restore the space and activities 
of rituals, which are hold again in ancestral temples. Using two time lines, the functions of ordinary 
use and ritual use are different, and the streamlines are also different. Additional daily streamlines 
for climbing and ritual streamlines near the water will serve villagers and tourists. 
Multi-axis type  
The rest of the dwellings are scattered, unable to form groups, having more axes to enter the 
building and more courtyards or vegetable gardens available around the building. Tourists can join 
in the agricultural experience, vegetable garden planting, agricultural products processing, and 
ritual experience activities of farming culture, giving new functions and experience items to each 
axis. 
Zhang’s ancestral house is composed of five or six buildings, all of which were built in the Qing 
Dynasty. The most important one is Zhang’s ancestral temple, which belongs to the second group 
and is located on the central hillside of Shichuan’gou. It was built in the Qing Dynasty, with the 
form of Hui style. Zhang’s ancestral temple is mainly used for worshipping ancestors. In addition, it 
serves as a place for marriages, funerals, birthdays and celebrations of the grandchildren of each 
house. In order to discuss important affairs within the clan, the clan relatives often hold meetings in 
the ancestral temple. The building area is about 55 square meters. The beam-lifting girder frame 
has a bucket arch structure. The structure is generally preserved. The tiles are complete and the 
details of doors and windows are well preserved. The wall surface has been repaired. 
Zhang’s ancestral temple is renovated by the plenty use of series connection of temple types, 
through admission place, columnar, Pan Chi（泮池） , Yong Dao（甬道） , hall, corridor, stage, 
pavilion, archway, courtyard, ritual gate, courtyard, main gate, ancestor worship hall, shrine and 
patio. These traditional ancestral temple functional spaces, combined with the hillside, form a ritual 
path from the hill to the countryside. Zhang’s ancestral house is located in the mountain. The old 
long mountain road hinders many elderly people from coming to ancestral temples to worship their 
ancestors. The newly built mountain road gradually passes through the memorial archway, shines 
on the wall and water pool, experiencing the lengthy steps of traditional sacrifices, thus the number 
of tourists increased. 
The function of Zhang’s ancestral temple has also changed. Ancestral temples were used to convey 
family precepts and teach children of the family. Now it is a primary school for the villagers. 
Abandoned ancestral temples are surrounded by many subsidiary buildings, the surrounding 
academies, tea rooms, exhibitions, meetings and many other cultural activities are also open to the 
villagers in the spare time. Unlike the traditional ancestral worshipping venues, the altered 
ancestral temple has a variety of platform space to watch the worship. Tourists can drink tea 
upstairs and watch the ceremony. Children can run around on the outdoor corridor. Roofs provide 
rest for tourists. At midnight, all of them are blessed by their ancestors. (see Figure 5) 
8 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
 
Figure 5. Function transformation and reconstruction strategy of Zhang’s ancestral house ©Author 
CONCLUSIONS 
The ancestral temple is changing, the traditional rural life and the ritual ceremony are also 
changing. In the new era, new ancestral temples and ritual cultures will also be created in our 
countryside. But the only thing that remains unchanging is the memory of the old house. It is the 
ancestral temples, the home and the atmosphere in the memory of our ancestors from childhood 
that will be restored.  
The study of typology provides a way of thinking and method for design. By comparing the 
changes of ancestral temple form from the perspective of types, we can further understand its 
relationship with the rise and fall of villages and the life of villagers, and how ancestral temple 
space is integrated into villages. The interdependence of ancestral temple and villages is an 
important building logic of Chinese houses.  
REFERENCES 
Aldo Rossi. (2006). The Architecture of the City. Beijing: China Architecture & Building Press.  
9 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
Bai Ning, Zhang Yudong, Wu Feng. (2018) ‘Research and Enlightenment on the Space 
Construction Wisdom of Traditional Villages in Shichuangou of Lantian County’. Journal: 
Architecture and Culture. 86-87 
Shen Kening. (2014). Urban Morphology, Architectural Typology and Cities in Transition. Beijing: 
China Architecture & Building Press. 
 
Zhang Yudong. (2018). ‘The Research on the Protection and Renewal of Traditional Village in Shi 
Chuan Gou Village of Lantian County under the Idea of Limited intervention’. Xi'an University of 
Architecture and Technology. 
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR 
Shuyu Zhang, Master of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, China, Shanghai, Yangpu 
District, Rd. Siping No. 1239, 200092. zhangshuyu@tongji.edu.cn  


The renewal of ancestral house under ancestor worship ritual culture: conservation and revitalisation of Shichuan'Gou village based on typo-morphology theory

Xiao, Qiubo

He, Yong

Liu, Yu

ISUF 2020: CITIES IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY  
 
STUDY ON THE DISTRIBUTION PATTERN OF URBAN SMALL LOGISTICS 
DISPENSE FACILITIES OF CHINA UNDER INTERNET ECONOMY 
BACKGROUND 
Qiubo Xiao, Doctoral Student of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, China.  
Yong He, Associate Professor of College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, China. 
Yu Liu, Professor of School of Mechanics, Civil Engineering and Architecture, Northwestern Polytechnical 
University, China. 
ABSTRACT 
Small logistics dispense facilities (SLDFs) were emerging urban public facilities with the 
development of Internet economy in China. SLDFs provided storage, classification, transportation 
and distribution services for package and takeaway goods to people. This study took Shanghai, 
China as a case, hoping to obtain the basic information of SLDFs in this area. The distribution and 
operation status of them were the main study content. In addition, this paper was going to collect 
the residents’ view on these facilities. The (point of interest) POI data of SLDFs distribution 
information was downloaded from Google Maps. The demographic data was collected from the 
Shanghai Public Data Open Platform. The data of categories and size of SLDFs, and the residents’ 
opinions about them was collected from the field investigation. The results showed that the 
distribution of SLDFs in Shanghai had an obvious clustered distribution phenomenon. The 
distribution of SLDFs had a great correlation with the total population of the region, but has little 
correlation with the population density. There were problems such as poor service quality, noise, 
and fire risks in the SLDFs were concerned by residents. Therefore. More targeted scientific space 
planning and management control measures were needed to adopt for them. Key words: small 
logistics dispense facilities, distribution pattern, internet economy, China. 
INTRODUCTION  
Logistics services has become the main content of supply chain management and e-commerce, it is 
also an important index in measuring the level of social development. SLDFs are set by express 
company to solve the last 1 kilometer of distribute goods (Fig. 1). They provided storage, 
classification, transportation and distribution services for package and takeaway goods to people. 
So that, they were the closest link to residents in the logistics supply chain and reshaped the 
connection between residents and businessmen. Because of SLDFs only needed a small space and 
simple function, they developed rapidly in cities. But the low profits made they grew in the narrow 
space (Fig. 2).  
This paper took Shanghai as an example, the location, dimension, and distribution information of 
SLDFs was collected based on field investigation and network survey. The results showed that the 
Figure 1. Structure of urban delivery network of China 
2 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
distribution of SLDFs had an obvious correlation with the distribution of urban population and the 
economic level, which means that they could reflect the development condition of an area. But 
neglects from related departments made SLDFs faced with a lot of problems, such as noise, fire 
risks, pollution, and poor service. How to improve the service quality of SLDFs and optimize they 
location planning became an urgent need. 
BACKGROUND  
People’s living habits and consumption patterns has been changed with the rose of online shopping 
for 21 centuries. There were many researches on logistics facilities location and distribution pattern. 
Four metropolitan areas of California were taken as the research objects to explore the spatial 
pattern and influencing factors of logistics industry distribution by Genevieve Giuliano and Kang 
Sang Gyun (Giuliano and Sang, 2018). The deployment of pickup points in urban and suburban 
areas in French was studied by Eleonora Morganti (Morganti, 2014, p.23). The location of urban 
logistics facilities in Gothenburg, Sweden was investigated by Adeline Heitz (Heitz, 2018, p.248). 
The locations of logistics service providers in Germany under a new freight transport generation 
model has been studied by Kevin Rolko and Hanno Friedrich (Rolko and Friedrich, 2017). These 
studies showed that there was a correlation between the distribution of pickup point and the urban 
development condition.  
The problems of the current pickup points planning and its layout in Nanjing, China were studied 
from the perspective of residents in decision making behavior by Rushi Tan (Rushi, 2016). Based on 
POI data of cainiao station and China post from Xi’an, cainiao station’s dependent organization 
relationship with the China Post has been studied by Gang Li (Gang, et al. 2018). The economic 
and social information such as managing types and service subjects of Cainiao stations were 
explored based on POI data and GIS tools by Jiao Zhou (Jiao, et al. 2019). Cainiao station was a 
representative small logistics dispense facility in China. These studies showed that a reasonable 
planning was needed for pickup points in China, meanwhile, these facilities could be used as an 
indicator to predict the development of urbanization and social economy development. 
METHODOLOGY  
This study wants to find the distribution pattern of SLDFs in shanghai, as well as the types and 
service situation of SLDFs. The scope of research includes 16 administrative districts, such as 
Huangpu District, Pudong New District. This paper was divided into 2 parts, the 1st part was to 
explore the distribution characteristics of SLDFs in Shanghai, including its spatial layout, types, 
Figure 2. Outward and internal view of a small logistics dispense facility 
3 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
quantity, and density. The 2nd part was to investigate problems of SLDFs and its impact on the city 
and residents.  
The point of interest (POI) data of SLDFs distribution information was downloaded from Google 
Maps. The results showed that, there were more than 3226 SLDFs in Shanghai, and their name, 
geographical location was collected. The distribution information of SLDFs could be display 
intuitively by using Geographic Information System (GIS). The demographic data in urban area 
was collected from Shanghai Statistical Yearbook (Shanghai Municipal Statistics, 2019), it showed 
that there were more than 24.84millian people lived in the urban area. The relationship between 
SLDFs and the number and density of people in Shanghai will be find by comparing these data. 
An investigation for SLDFs was carried out in a form of conversation. Information about storage 
area, service radius, service hours and space types of them was collected. A simple questionnaire 
about SLDFs was created to get whether the distribution of SLDFs meets the needs of residents. 
There were 5 questions in this questionnaire, and there are five indicators for each question. From 
0 to 4, they were very dissatisfied, dissatisfied, General, satisfied, very satisfied.  
1. Are you satisfied with the number of SLDFs in your residential area? 
2. Are you satisfied with the distance to go to SLDFs in your residential area? 
3. Are you satisfied with the service of SLDFs in your residential area? 
4. Are you satisfied with the noise was made by SLDFs in your residential area? 
5. Are you satisfied with the security performance of SLDFs? 
The questionnaires were conducted in Yangpu District. 195 valid samples are collected out of 200 
with effective return-ratio 97.5% in one months. The respondents were those who were about go to 
pick up their parcels. 
FINDINGS 
The geographic information of SLDFs was visualized by using ArcGIS software. The result showed 
that there were significant differences in the number and distribution of different types of SLDFs in 
Shanghai. The distribution of three types of SLDFs (Cainiao station, SF Express and Express Mail 
Service) were shown in Fig. 3. The distribution of different facilities was different, but, the pattern of 
central agglomeration and surrounding dispersion was shown in all kinds of SLDFs. Obviously, this 
distribution character is related to the population distribution of Shanghai. 
  
Figure 3. The distribution map of three SLDFs in Shanghai 
4 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
The correlation between the number of SLDFs and the number and density of population were 
funded by comparing these three data. The results showed that the distribution number of SLDFs  
had a great correlation with the total population of the administrative region, but has little 
correlation with the population density (Fig. 4). 
Based on the sample survey of SLDFs in Shanghai, this paper divided SLDFs into 7 categories 
according to their dimensions, mode of operation, service radius and objects. The results were 
show in Fig. 5. The individual store was the was the largest number of SLDFs, they were main 
distributed along the street like ordinary shops. A questionnaire about the service quality of them 
were conducted. 
Categories Newsstand Individual store 
Residential 
district 
property 
Campus 
pickup point 
Express 
company 
Chain 
store 
Self-
service 
cabinet 
Definition 
A newsstand 
provides 
service of 
sending and 
receiving 
express 
A personal 
store, often 
located in a 
residential 
area 
A property 
company 
provide 
express 
service for 
residents 
A pickup 
point located 
in a campus 
A pickup 
point is set 
up by 
express 
company 
Large 
chain 
stores 
with legal 
business 
license 
An 
automatic 
cabinet 
for 
receiving 
express 
Appearanc
e 
       
Storage 
area >1m
2 >2m2 >2m2 >5m2 >10m2 >10m2 Flexible space 
Service 
radius 
＜400m <600m Residential area Campus area <1 Km <600m 
Service 
hours >14 hours 24 hours 
Space types semi enclosed 
space 
semi enclosed 
space 
enclosed space open 
space 
Figure 4. The correlation between the number of SLDFs and the Number and density of people in Shanghai. 
Figure 5. The distribution pattern of SLDFs in Shanghai 
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Hu
an
gp
u
Ch
on
gm
ing
Ch
an
gn
ing
Jin
sha
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u
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n
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i
Fe
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an
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Fs
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um
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]
Po
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la
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n 
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ity
 [t
ho
un
d 
pe
op
le
/ 
km
2]
  
Districs of Shanghai
Population density Number of SLDFs Number of people
5 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
Investigations showed that, in Yangpu District, Shanghai, China. More than half of the respondents 
were feeling was generally about the number of SLDFs in their residential area, about 24% of them 
felt satisfied with the number of SLDFs. This result showed that the number of SLDFs in Yangpu 
District could meet the need of most of the residents. There were about 45% of the respondents 
were feeling was generally about the distance to go to SLDFs in their residential area, about 30% 
people felt dissatisfied about that, because the walking distance was too long. There were about 
47% of the respondents felt dissatisfied about the service of SLDFs the main reason of dissatisfied 
was the bad service attitude of the staff. 33% of them were feeling was generally about the service 
quality, although they thought the service attitude of staffs was not good, it was acceptable. There 
were about 45% of the respondents thought that the noise of SLDFs had affected their lives, 
especially the noise of loading and unloading goods in the early morning and at night. There were 
35% of residents believed that the SLDFs represent fire hazards and other security risks. According 
to the survey, most of the SLDFs were not equipped with any fire prevention facilities. 
CONCLUSIONS 
The distribution pattern of existing SLDFs showed that the spatial layout of pickup points had a market-
based orientation, because they were planned by e-commerce enterprises. The character of space 
structure of SLDFs was： 
1.  The distribution of SLDFs in Shanghai had an obvious clustered distribution phenomenon. 
As a service facility, aggregation led to inefficient competition. 
2.  The distribution of SLDFs had a great correlation with the total population of the region, 
but has little correlation with the population density. 
3. There were 7 kinds of SLDFs in Shanghai, they had different service radius, service hours, 
and the need of storage area and space types were also different. 
4.  At present, the main mode of development of SLDFs was attach on a private shop, which 
leaded the poor service quality. The cooperation threshold of SLDFs was low, which provides 
convenience for businesses, but on the other hand, it also weakened the service quality. 
Major express companies and e-commerce enterprises have joined the ranks of building pickup 
point space, with the rapid promotion and development of SLDFs. The spatial distribution of SLDFs 
based on market thinking could not fully applicable to the residents' modern living habits. Because 
it gradually became a facility had the public service attribute. In addition to the government's 
intervention, the construction and layout planning of SLDFs space needed to be systematically 
integrated as a new public service space for residents. The construction of SLDFs could not only 
consider the minimum of space and time cost, but consider the living needs of residents. 
E-commerce has come to a business-to-business (B2B) 4.0 era with popularization and rapid 
development of Internet. SLDFs play an increasingly important role in the city, effective 
managements of SLDFs will help to enhance the vitality of the city, elevate the quality of the city, 
and improve the online shopping experience of residents. Some suggestions are given as follow to 
promote the service quality of SLDFs: 
1 The necessity of SLDFs in urban planning should be considered. Relevant design standards 
should be formulated to guide its layout and construction. 
2 Stronger operational supervision should be taken to improve its service quality. For 
example, its fire-fighting facilities should be regularly inspected. Its operating hours should 
be adjusted to daytime rather than in the early morning or evening. 
6 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
3 The function of SLDFs should be enhance and updated to deal with other problems that 
may arise in the city. The relevant departments should pay more attention to the changes of 
urban space under Internet economy background. 
4 Facility staff should be trained and assessed to improve the service quality of SLDFs. 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
The research of this paper was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China 
(No. 51778438).  
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Organization Relation of the Pckup Points Based on POI Data in Xi’an: Focus on Cainiao Station’. 
Scientia Geographica Sinica 38, 2024-2030.  
Giuliao, G., Kang, S. G. (2018) ‘Spatial Dynamics of Logistics Industry: Evidence from California’. 
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of Pickup Point Networks in Urban and Suburban Areas’. Research in Transportation Business & 
Management 11, 23-31. 
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New Freight Transport Generation Model’ Transportation Research Procedia 25, 1061-1074. 
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Nanjing University. 
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(http://tjj.sh.gov.cn/) accessed 14 July 2020. 
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR 
Yong He, Associate Professor of College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, 1239 Siping 
Road, Shanghai, 200092, China. heyong@tongji.edu.cn.  


Study of the distribution pattern of urban small logistics dispense facilities of China under internet economy background

Seraphim, Ana Paula A. C. C.

Rodrigues, Anne Elise R

da Nóbrega Oliveira, Aline

Pacheco Júnior, José Mário

Cunha, Yamila Khrisna O. N.

Spatial modeling method for identifying urban homogeneous zones of open spaces supply: a study of Brasilia, Brazil

Mei, Mengyue

Sun, Tongyu

An urban morphology repair towards cultural sustainability: take Hongkou District in Shanghai as an example

Akyurek, Meltem

Hoskara, Sebnem

ISUF 2020: CITIES IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY  
 
TRANSFORMATION OF HISTORIC CITIES: A TYPO-MORPHOLOGICAL 
APPROACH TO THE HISTORIC CITY OF SILIFKE, TURKEY 
Meltem Akyurek, PhD Candidate, Eastern Mediterranean University, North Cyprus, Lecturer, Toros University, 
Mersin, Turkey 
Sebnem Hoskara, Professor of Architecture and Urbanism, Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, 
North Cyprus  
ABSTRACT 
This paper aims to investigate the important features affecting the planning and transformation of 
historic urban patterns, focusing on their typo-morphological characteristics. After developing a 
theoretical framework on the topic, the paper uses the historic town of Silifke located in the south 
of Turkey as its unique case study. Accordingly, the study examines the current formal and spatial 
patterns of Silifke, from an historical perspective, highlighting the key issues that are emerging as 
a result of the political, socio-economic and cultural changes throughout history. From a 
methodological point of view, the study will present the evolution of urban form of the historic 
town of Silifke through town-plan analysis of M.R.G. Conzen, by concentrating on streets and their 
arrangement into a street-system; plots and their aggregation into street-blocks; buildings in the 
form of the block-plans; and, patterns of building forms and land use. The study will evaluate the 
layering of these aspects and elements through history, in order to comprehend the existing urban 
form of Silifke, with an attempt to describe and interpret major spatial changes in the town in 
terms of land use patterns and urban morphology under the effect of political, economic, social, 
cultural and environmental factors, which will guide the future transformation and management of 
the town. The outcome of the research supports the argument that the identity of historic cities 
relies on their adaptation to new conditions over time. 
Keywords: Historic cities, transformation, urban morphology, typo-morphology, Silifke. 
INTRODUCTION  
Historic cities have been increasingly linked to economic, social, cultural and environmental forces 
both internal and external to their regional and national boundaries, which lead to their ongoing 
change and transformations. The breaking points of this change and transformation constitute 
physical determinants shaped by religious, ethnic and cultural elements that develop in parallel 
with administrative, social and political events. Within historical continuity, the preferred, 
established, expanding, shrinking, demolished and reconstructed urban spaces reveal their 
changes and transformations in a so-called vicious circle as they offer life opportunities to people. 
This paper, which covers the partial findings of a PhD research carried out at the Eastern 
Mediterranean University, Department of Architecture, under the main title of  “Evolution of the 
Historic Town of Silifke in terms of Economic, Social, Cultural and Physical Perspectives”, examines 
transformation of the historic city of Silifke in the age of environmental crises, cultural and economic 
globalisation, concentrating on its urban form characteristics. While the main research presents the 
evolution of Silifke throughout history, focusing on the relationship of the built environment formed 
by the contact of social traces of the urban fabric with politics and social events, including the field 
of urban morphology within its scope, this paper only presents todays’s urban form characteristics, 
which get their roots from history. 
2 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
BACKGROUND  
Silifke, also called Seleucia, is a town and district in south-central Turkey, 80 km (50 mi) west of the 
city of Mersin, on the west end of Cukurova. It is located along the banks of the Göksu River, 
overlooking the Taurus Mountains. Silifke, founded by Selefkos Nikator, one of the commanders of 
Alexander the Great, in the early 3rd century B.C., is surrounded by around 100 ancient cities 
featuring the unique heritage of the Greek, Roman and Byzantian civilizations 
(http://www.mtso.org.tr/en/announcements/mersin-s-history-ve-tourism) The center of Silifke is 
situated on the banks of Goksu River down the lower slopes of Taurus Mountains and 14 km from 
the Mediterranean sea. The river is 260 km long and empties into the Mediterranean Sea passing 
through the rift valleys, Silifke town and finally Goksu delta. Mersin is a cultural and commercial 
center of Eastern Mediterranean of Anatolia since the 19th century. Silifke is located 80 km west of 
Mersin province on the junction of Mersin-Konya, Mersin-Antalya highways. The administrative 
boundary of Silifke under a central municipality, has 105 km of coastline and 72 km of this is 
included in the delta area. 
The economy of the district depends on agriculture, tourism and raising livestock. The town of Silifke 
is as a market for the coastal plain, which produces beans, peanuts, sesame, banana, orange, 
lemon, cotton, grapes, lentils, olives, tobacco, and canned fruits and vegetables. Silifke is also an 
industrial town, well-connected with other urban areas and producing beverages, chemicals, 
clothes, footwear, glass, plastics, pottery, and textiles. 
Throughout the urban history of the city, differences in the social and economic structure is based 
on political developments. Despite the changing administrative periods, the most important factor in 
the city is the geographical data and the coastal element that determines the purpose of the 
establishment of the city. In this context, a reference was taken from the parallel of the flow of the 
Göksu River and the land use in the city was determined accordingly. There are six important 
administrative periods that affect the formation and development of the city. These are: (i) The 
Seleucid Period (312 BC - 64 BC), (ii) The Roman Period (64 - AD 395), (iii) The Byzantine Period 
(395 - 647), (iv) The Karamanoğulları Period (1256-1483), (v) The Ottoman Period (1483-1923) 
and (vi) The Period of the Republic (after 1923). During these different administrative periods, the 
structures were shaped around Silifke Castle, and they attempted to establish a commercial 
connection with the Anatolian interior and the developing trade through the Taşucu Port and Port 
Castle (Ak Liman) for the city. Thus, like many other ancient towns, Seleucia was made up of an 
upper town on a fortified hill (acropolis) and of a lower town along the river with markets and 
warehouses, then surrounded by houses in their extension.  
  
Silifke 1839 ((nach MAMA III Taf. 3) Silifke 1839 (Omer Ataman Archive, 2019) 
3 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
 
 
Silifke 1907 (Keil & Wilhelm, 1931) Silifke 1907 (Yalcin, 2004) 
Figure 1. Historic maps of Silifke 
 
 
Figure 2. Urban pattern of Silifke in 1907 
METHODOLOGY  
Urban morphology is the study of the form and shape of settlements through the analysis of 
land uses, building structures, plot pattern and street pattern (Conzen, 1960). It is an approach 
that provides an understanding of the form and spatial characteristics of settlements, and their 
creation and transformation processes, through historical analysis. In that sense urban morphology 
is used as an assessment tool for the determination of the transformation processes of the urban 
fabric, considering their historic roots. 
Urban morphology is a powerful tool to understand a city's history and to connect it to the 
processes of its development and rehabilitation. Because this discipline does not focus only on the 
outstanding monuments, but on the urban fabric as a whole, it can provide a basis for conservation 
planning that want to emphasize continuity of the urban form and of urban spaces. From the 
perspective of urban morphology, this study will present the evolution of urban form of the historic 
town of Silifke through town-plan analysis of M.R.G. Conzen, by concentrating on (i) streets and 
4 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
their arrangement into a street-system; (ii) plots and their aggregation into street-blocks; (ii) 
buildings in the form of the block-plans; and, (iv) patterns of building forms and land use. M.R.G 
Conzen concentrated on evolutionary method, in which he argued that tracing existing forms back 
to the underlying formative processes and interpreting them accordingly. According to his 
understanding, the evolutionary method provides an understanding of the physical development of 
urban structural elements, resulting from the city's cultural and historical development (factors that 
strongly influenced its morphological development), which is an objective of his morphological 
approach. Conzen’s approach to urban morphology allows the morphological analysis of 
settlements by developing the morphogenetic analysis method. Conzen regarded cities as a part of 
the historical development. For this reason, Conzen argued that all cultural processes that 
contribute to the current state of the city should be examined, especially in cities with a significant 
historical background. This study, mainly follows his town-plan analysis methodology, in order to 
understand the urban development of the historic city of Silifke. Original and re-produced maps 
and primary written documents have been used as a part of data collection techniques for the 
purpose of the study, 
FINDINGS 
The findings of the research will be presented under the 4 
above-mentioned main topics defined by M.R.G Conzen. 
1. Streets and street-system 
 
There are 2 boulevards, 9 avenues and 117 streets in the 
Silifke city center study area. While the streets form the main 
axes, some of them are parallel to each other and some of 
them are located perpendicular to each other. Street axes 
have changed the formation of a net grid system by creating 
angles from place to place in the process. The city, which is 
claimed to have been established as a regular city at the 
beginning, like other cities founded by Seleukos Nikator, 
was formed by a network system that made the castle a 
focal point, with the transportation provided from Silifke 
Castle to the city in accordance with the topographic data. 
Therefore, the plan of the city was not named as a clear grid type plan or a radial city plan 
formed by designing the castle as the center. 
Figure 3. Street system in Silifke 
A road with stairs or steps that connects the area where the Hellenistic city is thought to have been 
established with the city leads down to the Central Alaeddin Mosque by connecting to the streets of 
the modern city. These roads, which are available today, provided the connection of the ancient 
city with the river and the plain. The streets connecting the avenues varied according to their 
importance, depending on their density and supported the transportation network.  
 
5 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
 
Figure 4. Street network in Silifke from 1839 to 2018 
 
Figure 5. Street pattern in Silifke in 2018 
2. Plot pattern – plots and street blocks 
The plots in the city are in different shapes sizes and ratios. They are mostly irregular in shape. The 
smaller plots are more concentrated in the central part, as getting far from the center to the north of 
Goksu River they get bigger for contemporary residential purposes. The ratios differ from 1:1 to even 
1:4 and 1:5. In the central region of the city they are small, mostly between 1:1 and 1:2 as seen in 
the maps. It can be argued that the distribution of various plot ratios does not follow a particular 
logic however the smaller ratios are seen mostly around the archaeological sites dating back to 
Hellenistic periods. 
6 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
 
Figure 6. Silifke street and plot pattern  
3. Block Typology 
The building pattern in Silifke consist of 6 different periods. There are 10 archaeological sites from 
the Hellenistic period in the city; 8 of these sites are within the urban structure. Most of the 
buildings according to the analysis are built in Turkish Republican Period after 1923. As illustrated 
in the analysis sheets the blocks of the city are in regular shape following a grid pattern in the 
exact north and south of Goksu River, whereas more organic shape to the far south and west. The 
city center where the commercial functions are located, the urban blocks present a slight grid-radial 
form. The block sizes are considerably small around the central commercial area of the city 
whereas the commercial center and the main axis to the east consist of larger blocks.  
7 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
 
Figure 7. Figure ground map of Silifke showing building blocks (2018) 
 
Figure 8. Historic periods of building blocks in Silifke 
8 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
 
Figure 9. Block – plot – building block pattern of Silifke (2018) 
4. Land-use 
According to land use analysis the dominant premises in the town are the residential buildings mainly 
surrounding the commercial zone in the city center. North of Goksu River and the east of the 
commercial center presents a mixed-use of commercial and residential units. The main route or axis 
of the city is where the most of commercial and mixed-use premises take place. Though in the central 
part of the city, variety of premises and uses can also be spotted in the secondary routes and between 
alleys. The mixed-used premises are commercial and residential where the ground floor is dedicated 
to commercial function and the upper floors are for accommodation.  
 
9 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
Figure 10. Land uses in Silifke (2018) 
 
Figure 11. Regional uses in Silifke  
CONCLUSIONS 
Urban morphology analysis methods based on M.R.G Conzen have been used within the scope of 
this paper, in order to present the development and transformation stages of the historic city of 
Silifke. All analyses on the physical form characteristics of the city have been carried out through 
historic data including street pattern, block-plot-building typologies and land uses, blending them 
with the social and economic conditions within the historical process. In this sense, it is important to 
understand and absorb the founding philosophy of the city and to interpret certain periods of the 
city correctly for its future development which should also include conservation policies. The initial 
findings of this ongoing research will lead to understanding the city of Silifke from economic, social, 
cultural, and physical perspectives once they are merged with more detailed historical data. 
REFERENCES 
Comert NZ (2013) Testing an Integrated Methodology for Urban Typo-Morphological Analysis on 
Famagusta and Ludlow, Unpublished PhD Thesis, Eastern Mediterranean University  
Conzen MRG (1969) Alnwick, Northumberland: a study in town-plan analysis. Publication no. 27. 
Institute of British Geographers, London  
Conzen MRG (1975) Geography and townscape conservation. In: Uhlig H, Lienau C (eds) Anglo-
German symposium in applied geography, Giessen-Würzburg-München, 1973. Giessener 
Geographische Schriften, pp 95–102  
Conzen MRG (1988) Morphogenesis, morphological regions and secular human agency in the 
historic townscape, as exemplified by Ludlow. In: Denecke D, Shaw G (eds) Urban historical 
geography: recent progress in Britain and Germany. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 
253–272  
10 ISUF 2020 Cities in the Twenty-first Century 
Keil, J., Wilhelm, A. (1931) Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua III. Manchester: The Manchester 
University Press, pp.6-8 
Whitehand, J. W. R., Gu, K., Conzen, M. P. and Whitehand, S. M. (2014) ‘The typological 
process and the morphological period: a cross-cultural assessment’, Environment and Planning B: 
Planning and Design 41, 512-33.  
Yalçın, A. (2004). Geç Devir Osmanlı Silifkesi (1860 – 1904). Silifke: Taşeli Ofset, 5-102. 
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR 
Sebnem Hoskara, Professor of Architecture and Urbanism, Department of Architecture, Eastern Mediterranean 
University, Famagusta, 99450, North Cyprus. 
sebnem.hoskara@emu.edu.tr @SebnemHoskara (twitter)  
https://isuf2020.exordo.com/logout 
 


Transformation of historic cities: a typo-morphological approach to the historic city of Silifke, Turkey

Marzot, Nicola

Urban prototyping and hybrid architecture. A morphological perspective

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