The Wisdom of Traditional Human Settlements and Reshaping of Place Spirit: Inheritance of Ancient Villages in the Sustainable Landscape Design of Urban Residential Areas in Zhejiang
Abstract：With the development of urban settlements, human concerns are gradually shifting from housing conditions to the ecological and cultural environment of settlements. Facing the decline of the natural and cultural climate of Zhejiang’s urban residential areas, we seek to draw inspirations from the wisdom of traditional human settlements for the transformation and upgrading of residential areas. The human settlement wisdom of the ancient villages in Zhejiang is an art of field construction highly conforming to the environmental consciousness and ideal pursuits of the ancestors, externalized as the overall artistic conception of ″harmonious coexistence″ of the ancient village space with the place spirit of nature and humanity complementing each other. On the other hand, Zhejiang’s ancient villages and urban settlements are both affected by Zhejiang’s human geography and social economy, and their relationship is homogenous in origin but heterogeneous in forms. Therefore, based on the theoretical background of traditional human settlement wisdom and place spirit, this paper explores the role played by the art of field construction in creating a spatial artistic conception reshaping the spirit of place, in order to provide a feasible solution to the improvement of people’s lives and sustainable landscape design for urban settlements. To this end, this paper first reviews the concepts of ″atmosphere and artistic conception″ in Chinese and Western contexts. Then, from the expression mechanism of space artistic conception and humanistic value, it demonstrates the connotation of traditional human settlement wisdom in Zhejiang’s ancient villages: a field construction art that realizes a harmonious coexistence of human and land in the context of farming and reading culture. Then, it analyzes in detail four types of spatial artistic conception in ancient villages in Zhejiang: the ancient villages are integrated into the natural landscapes, presenting a harmonious artistic conception mediating nature and man; the size of the villages and the development of resources are balanced and harmonious, rendering a poetic atmosphere of physical and mental balance; diverse cultures are integrated into the life of the ancient villages, depicting the harmonious but distinctive local customs; integrity, goodness and beauty are revealed in the life scenes of the ancient villages, promoting the sustainable value of ethical spirit. Thus, the art of field construction is summarized as ″integration, balance, harmony and inheritance″, forming a whole system, which is both the concept and the result and the organic process of natural circulation. Finally, it discusses the application of the art of field construction in the sustainable landscape design of Zhejiang urban residential areas from three aspects: the ecological space in the residential area making a safe and comfortable artistic landscape conception; the humanistic space reproduces the rural artistic conception of local customs; the social space conveys the ethnic artistic conception in the life stories. It is emphasized that the three spatial artistic conceptions are an organic unity of mutual superposition and dynamic continuity, and their cohesive ″natural symbiosis, cultural heritage and ethical sustainability″ and other place spirits will eventually become the core driving force for sustainable development of residential areas. In summary, this paper aims to make contribution from two aspects. First, from the perspective of field construction art, it builds a theoretical bridge between traditional human settlement wisdom and urban settlement construction, and enriches the research literature of traditional human settlement culture and urban settlement. Second, the core strategy of creating a spatial artistic conception with field construction art shows people how to condense the place spirit of urban settlements by creating a spatial artistic conception of local taste under the background of globalization, so as to build an organic core of power, providing a practical approach for the sustainable landscape design of urban settlements.
