New Insights into the Layering Process of Urban Environment and Private Garden Transformations: A Case Study on the Bubbling Well Road Area in Early Modern Times, Shanghai

Zhehua Chen (), Qing Xu, Xiangpin Zhou and Yanping Yang ()
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Zhehua Chen: School of Arts and Design, Shanghai University of Engineering Science, Shanghai 201620, China
Qing Xu: School of Arts and Communication, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
Xiangpin Zhou: College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Yanping Yang: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University of Engineering Science, Shanghai 201620, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 18, 1-21

Abstract: The surrounding area of Bubbling Well Road in early modern times, Shanghai, served as an important transportation hub connecting the western and central districts of Shanghai’s International Settlement. It also marked the beginning of a half-century trend of profit-oriented private gardens. The development process from rural outskirts to bustling commercial areas is exemplified by the area of Bubbling Well Road, making it significant for the study of urban transformation in early modern times in Shanghai. In this work, private gardens in the vicinity of Bubbling Well Road are examined as hierarchical elements of urban subdivision using the layering approach of the Historic Urban Landscape. Based on summarizing the trajectory of different types of private gardens under urbanization, typical time nodes were extracted and then horizontally correlated with the process of urbanization to elucidate the hierarchical logic underlying the symbiotic interaction between private gardens and cities. The results show that private gardens have created new hot spots and gathered a lot of popularity for the Jing’an Temple area, prompting this area to gradually evolve from a traditional town to a “backyard garden” of Concession dominated by the entertainment industry. Through the rapid development of the modern entertainment, commerce, and real estate industries, the Jing’an Temple area successfully embraced the trend of developing Concession to the West while achieving transformations in business models and urban style. Finally, with the assistance of the transitional entertainment space, such as profit-oriented gardens, the Jing’an Temple area has successfully undergone a transformation into a modern entertainment industry hub and solidified its commercial status as the “consumption circle” of Shanghai. We systematically investigated the significance of the urban subdivision layer in relation to the temporal changes in the urban environmental structure and the evolution of spatial organization patterns at the macro level; this helps deepen the historical urban landscape approach from an ideological framework level to the practical level.

Keywords: historic urban landscape; layering; early modern times shanghai; bubbling well road; private gardens; subdivision layer (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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