Cognitive method of local identity in Chinese historic urban space based on layered morphology: taking Nanjing Mendong area as an example

Yiran Liu; Laura Pezzetti

doi:10.14568/cp36017

Authors

Yiran Liu School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Nanjing University, 22 Hankou Road, Gulou District, 210093, Nanjing, China; Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Via Giuseppe Ponzio 31, 20133 Milan, Italy https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5828-6214
Laura Pezzetti Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Via Giuseppe Ponzio 31, 20133 Milan, Italy https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7843-4648

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14568/cp36017

Keywords:

Historic urban space, Historical stratification, Mendong, Nanjing, Urban morphology

Abstract

Since the Venice Charter, heritage conservation has evolved to encompass historic urban areas, a process refined by subsequent charters, which frame historic cities as complex systems of cultural stratification requiring multidimensional diagnosis. In the traditional Chinese context, historic urban space follows a distinct logic: architecture is marked by material impermanence, while historical continuity are sustained through cultural memory. The interaction between this impermanence and modern urbanization has produced widespread physical absence, creating fundamental challenges for interpreting historic urban space. This paper proposes a framework that understands historic urban space as the dynamic unity of material transformation and narrative continuity, recognizing architecture, ruins, and physical absence as equally constitutive. Using the Mendong area in Nanjing as a case study, stratigraphic analysis and morphological reconstruction are applied to examine urban form in both present and absent states, providing a new theoretical and methodological tools for interpreting historical knowledge within Chinese urban space.

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