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The Marvellous Ordinary: A temporal enquiry into the socio-spatial morphology of alleyway housing in Taiping South Road area, Nanjing c.1930s/c.2020s

Sun, Yichang; Vaughan, Laura; (2025) The Marvellous Ordinary: A temporal enquiry into the socio-spatial morphology of alleyway housing in Taiping South Road area, Nanjing c.1930s/c.2020s. In: Charalambous, Nadia and Psathiti, Chrystalla and Geddes, Ilaria, (eds.) Space Syntax Symposium 14. (pp. pp. 2141-2176). Tab Edizioni: Nicosia, Cyprus. Green open access

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Abstract

Building upon the concept of co-presence, this paper – which forms part of a larger research study into Nanjing, China – seeks to explore whether and to what extent the mixing of use patterns and people’s everyday activities within Nanjing‘s historical alleyways are shaped and influenced by their configurational settings and typomorphological patterns. Focused on the north section of Taiping South Road area, two alleyway cases representing different historical periods, serve as pivotal examples of spatial continuity spanning the early twentieth century to the present. Using publicly accessed footway maps of c.1930s and c.2020s, on-site surveys and observations, and ethnographic research, our analysis explores the diachronic configurational settings and synchronic typomorphological patterns of the alleyways at a finely-grained micro level. We find that the alleyways, considered within their local context, have varying combinations of street network, building typomorphology, and micro-morphological attributes. The findings suggest that these elements contribute to the patterns of co-presence, mixed-use patterns and people's activities, not only within the alleyways but also in the various third places situated around them. We argue that the studied cases may play a vital role in shaping and maintaining urban diversity and sustainability (on environmental, economic, and socialcultural dimensions), particularly at the local and neighbourhood levels. It is further proposed that the micro social-spatial morphological approach, coupled with historical studies through space syntax, alongside the description and empirical studies of the alleyway cases, enhance our understanding of the everyday meshing of co-presence and micro-rituals, which further promotes a rethinking of the evolving meaning of the third domain in a rapidly changing urban context.

Type: Proceedings paper
Title: The Marvellous Ordinary: A temporal enquiry into the socio-spatial morphology of alleyway housing in Taiping South Road area, Nanjing c.1930s/c.2020s
Event: 14th International Space Syntax Synposium
Location: Nicosia, Cyprus
Dates: 24 Jun 2024 - 28 Jun 2024
ISBN-13: 979-12-5669-032-9
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Publisher version: https://www.tabedizioni.it/shop/product/space-synt...
Language: English
Additional information: © The Author(s), 2024. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License 4.0 (CC-BY-NC-ND), where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially without permission from the journal. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Keywords: Alleyways, Urban housing, Nanjing, China, Typomorphology, public-private interaction
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > The Bartlett School of Architecture
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10204276
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