TRANSFORMATION OF THE MORPHOLOGY OF THIRTEEN FACTORIES HISTORICAL DISTRICT IN GUANGZHOU

Abstract

This paper studies transformation of the morphology of Thirteen Factories historical street block in Guangzhou from 1715 to 2018. The Thirteen Factories used to be the single port of Qing empire for hundred years, which is a symbolic and commemorative cultural landscape that records China's transformation from the ancient to modern society. Today, with a lot of master pieces, it has become a valuable historic area. The morphology of Thirteen Factories has gone through a significant transformation process from the suburb commercial port wharf into the inner city commercial touristic district in different periods of time, through several destructions and rebuilding. Through a diachronic study, the morphology of Thirteen Factories in different periods can be presented in several diagrams. Based on the comparison of the textures and background events of different stages, the author tries to find social, cultural and technological factors behind the morphological evolution. Different characteristics of the urban form and constituent elements in each period reflect the changes of transportation mode from water transportation to land transportation as well as the social condition from foreignization to localization and eventually to capitalization. The research of Thirteen Factories presents the influence of social forces on the morphology, which enlightens the policy making for urban regeneration and heritage preservation in Guangzhou's historical districts.