Street Landscape in Surrounding Area of Historic District in Modern City:
Comparison Study on Sannei-zaka District in Kyoto and Fuzimiao District in Nanjing
現代都市の歴史地区における外縁空間の景観に関する研究−京都市産寧坂地区と南京市夫子廟地区における事例分析-

譚 皓
TAN Hao
１．Introduction
Architectural heritage protection has already been aninternational consensus. In the process of urban

the protection of historic areas undoubtedly plays theprotagonist's role.
In this research, historic districts in Kyoto, Japan andmodernization, it's unavoidable to face the conflict
between constructing the new and protecting the old.
Historic buildings, sites and areas need to be protected by

Nanjing, China are taken as examples to explore principles
used in urban planning in surrounding areas of historic
districts from the perspective of street landscape features.

unique methods. There has been a well-developed system
in many countries and areas, by launching laws andregulations and establishing professional organizations.

２．Research Purpose
The city is a continuous, organic whole, where none ofHowever, if extra limitations and what kind of care needed
to be considered in historic resources protection, it is still
exploring and practicing by cities and countries beyond thethe areas can be separated and developed alone. In recent
years, more and more old cities are advertised for their
historical values as the city's image. The concept ofstatutorily protected zone.
In urban planning, the construction restrictions areformulated not only for the objective physical environment'integrated preservation' has been widely attempted inmany countries. Besides historic districts themselves, whatkind of role other areas connected to historic districts playrequirements, but also for the subjective shaping of city
image. Usually, any given form, a fine vase or a lump ofin the integrated preservation and methods implemented toprotect the historic districts, are issues this researchclay, will have a high or a low probability of evoking a

supposed to focus on.

strong image among various observers. Presumably, thisprobability can be stated with greater and greater precision
as the observers are grouped in more and more

The objectives of this study are:a. To find out limitations for construction activities
around historic districts;

homogeneous classes of age, sex, culture, occupation,
temperament, or familiarity. Each individual creates andbears his own image, but there seems to be substantial

b. To analyze spatial characteristics of the street landscapeunder the limitations;c. To evaluate influence and relation of elements made up

agreement among members of the same group. It is thesegroup images, exhibiting consensus among significant
numbers, that interest city planner who aspire to model an

the street landscape;d. To explore common principles and unique features on
the coexistence of urban modernization and historic

environment that will be used by many people.1

districts protection in modern cities.

In Asian cities like Kyoto and Nanjing, under the
influence of modern urban planning theories developed in

３．Research Methodology

western countries, the new construction and urban
planning model significantly impact traditional eastern citypattern. The protection of architectural heritage will be(1) Literature study of laws and regulations;Through international documents, laws and regulations inJapan and China, and other countries, search for how

challenging because of the big difference between the newlifestyle and the old. In shaping an image of historic cities,

historic districts and surrounding environment protection
has been progressed in history and which aspects are paid

学位論文梗概集 2020

attention to. Conclude elements limited in construction andplanning.
(2) Field survey and data collection;

countries' history and culture. Under similar 'Integrated
Preservation' strategy in two countries, Kyoto and Nanjing
are inscribed as national historic cities and protected by law.

According to limited elements found in laws andregulations, three times field survey in two districts wereconducted in July and September 2019 and August 2020,

Kyoto City

to collect data of current condition of each building andstreet inside study areas, by recording and taking photos.
Use street view function of digital maps to complete thedata besides information of facades facing the streets.
(3) Statistical analysis of street landscape in study areas;
To statistically analyze the street landscape, set standards

Nanjing City

Fuzimiao
District

Sannei-zaka
District

Jiangsu Province

Kyoto

Figure 1 Location of Sannei-zaka District (left) and Fuzimiao District (right)

The two districts are both located in public blocks of theand evaluation system. The standards are based onprinciples enacted in relative laws and regulations. Classify
buildings in study areas by streets or elements and compare

urban area. Mainly consisting of commercial buildings likestores and restaurants, the districts are developed as tourist
spots and have become well-known for tourists worldwide.

the same catalogue in Kyoto and Nanjing. Maps, graphs
and tables are made to express the results visually.
(4) Comparison of results in an analysis of two areas.

Meanwhile, these two districts are also protected by law topreserve their historical values.
In this research, study areas are drawn as tourists' routines

Identify the similarity and difference between the twostudy areas from every single element to the overallsituation.

from getting off the transport to entering historic districts.
As tourist spots, the two districts' target groups are mainly
tourists, especially those from other places. These tourists

４．Introduction to Sannei-zaka District and Fuzimiao
Districtaiming to experience sceneries and atmosphere in a newplace will have a more profound impression about
landscapes along their way. Most of the time, tourists

In this research, two historical districts and theirsurroundings are chosen as study areas, Sannei-zaka
Preservation District for Groups of Historic Buildings (産almost depend on public transportation in their journey. As
a result, streets and buildings along with them from thenearest public station (bus or subway) to historic districts,

寧坂伝統的建造物群保存地区) located in Kyoto City,

are chosen as the study areas in this research.

Japan and Fuzimiao Historic Conservation Area (夫子廟
歴史文化街区) in Nanjing City, China.
Kyoto City is the capital of Kyoto Prefecture located in
the Kansai region of Japan. In 794, Kyoto (then known as
Heian-kyo) was chosen as the new seat of Japan’s imperial
court. The original city was arranged in accordance withtraditional Chinese feng shui (風水) following the modelof the ancient Chinese capital of Chang’an.

Streets in Study Areas

Historic District

Nanjing City(南京市), located in the east of China, is thecapital of Jiangsu Province(江蘇省). As the capital of six
dynasties of China in the past, Nanjing had long been a

Figure 2 Transport condition around Sannei-zaka District (left) andmajor center of politics, economy, culture, education andtransport networks.
Both Kyoto and Nanjing are modern cities with a long

５．Regulation for Historic Districts and Surrounding
Areas in Kyoto and Nanjing
Implemented in 2009, constitution of Kyoto City

history, and abundant historic resources remained
nowadays. Had been the capital of their countries in thepast, the two cities are now still important symbols of theLandscape Policy contains five main aspects and the
support systems: (1) building height, (2) design ofbuildings, (3) surrounding scenery and vistaed scenery, (4)Fuzimiao District (right)

Summaries of Academic Theses 2020

outdoor advertisements (5) historical streets. 2 Thegovernment has published a series of Guideline for Kyoto
Landscape to instruct the construction activities on these
aspects.
In the latest Plan for Nanjing Historic and Cultural City
Protection published in 2011, the basic aim of theprotection has been drew up to maintain the character ofNanjing City, a network of the city walls, river system andstreet pattern. For districts and landscape in the urban area,
detailed plans and regulations are set in the Regulatory
Plan of each area, including: (1) building height, (2)protection of landscape visual corridors, (3) slow traffic

Table 1 Standard for assessment of buildings in research areas
Point

Construction
PeriodHeightFaçadeCommercial

DesignType
Selling goods or1

Built before<3

Traditional

food related tomodernization

floorsStyle

traditional or
local culture

Modern0.5/<6

Style withfloorsTraditional
Elements

The regular3

system, (4) residential development control.
Kyoto and Nanjing are similar in the principle forconstruction around historic districts. The standard forbusiness which0

Built after>6

Modernhas nothing tomodernization

floorsStyle

do withconstruction is to make the landscape in areas aroundhistoric districts not be a strong contrast with the landscapeinside them. There are common restrictions that control thebuilding height and appearance. In Nanjing’s regulations,
there are also control of road planning and building
function.
Therefore, the field surveys and analysis will be
developed according to these common restricted elementsin the street landscape. The unique restrictions in one city
will also become references in the analysis.

/

traditional
culture７．Result（１）Sannei-zaka District
In Sannei-zaka District, totally 155 buildings have beensurveyed. Among them, 47 buildings on Higashioji-tori
Ave. (KA), 62 on Matsubara Ave. (KB), 29 on Yasama tori Ave. (KC), and 17 on Kodaijiminamimon-tori Ave.
(KD).
Table 2 Counts of buildings in Sannei-zaka District

６．Assessment System

Elements

The information of buildings, including construction
Façadeperiods, photos of street facades, height, function, façade
style and commercial type of each building, are recorded

designthrough three times field surveys in each research area.
Standard to evaluate the elements is designated by how
much the buildings in research areas are similar to

Buildingheighttraditional-style buildings inside historic districts. There
are three levels of points: (1) 1 point: the same, (2) 0.5
point: partly similar and (3) 0 point: totally different orwhen the building does not apply to that catalogue. That is
to say, if an architecture along the street is more similar to
those inside historic districts, it will get higher points.
Details for every element are shown in Table 1. Total points
for each building are the sum of building height, façade
design and commercial type. The construction period iscounted out of points because it's hard to tell only byviewing from streets.

学位論文梗概集 2020

Function
Total

Points

KA

KB

KC

KD

1

2

26

7

6

0.5

14

13

10

3

0

31

23

12

8

1

29

45

22

10

0.5

15

15

7

7

0

3

2

0

0

1

10

26

15

5

0 [/]*

9
[28]

8
[28]

5
[9]

2
[10]

47

62

29

17

*[number]: Noncommercial function like residence,
office, service, etc.
In Sannei-zaka District, Road KA and KD are in level
No.14 according to the Architecture Standard Act. KA is a
two-lane, two-way road with sidewalks, where 17 bus lines
go through and stop at Kiyomizu-michi Station. KD is a
one-lane two-way road also with sidewalks and avenue

trees on the edges. (Figure 3)of the city. 10 bus lines go through the streets and stop at
three bus-stops. They're both four-lane, two-way roads formotor vehicles with separated bicycle lanes and pavements

Sid
ew
alk
s

Sid
ew
alk
s

Sid
ew
alk
s

Sid
ew
alk
s

on two sides. Part of the subway Line 5 in Nanjing has beenplanned to construct under Road NA. (Figure 5)

Figure 3 Road section of KA and KD

Road KB and KC are in level No.34. They are both are
one-lane, one-way road without pavements and have avehicle-pedestrian mixed traffic. Yasaka-tori is a stone path,

Road NC, a four-lane, two-way road, is a secondary trunk
road with bicycle lanes and pavements. Road ND is only a(store numbers)’ in the table. There are 203 stores in total.
Table 3 Counts of buildings in Fuzimiao District

BuildingheightFunction

Total

Points

NA

NB

NC

ND

1

9

0

2

0

0.5

5

7

8

2

0

18

2

0

3

1

15

2

6

0

0.5

8

6

4

3

0

9

1

0

2

1

10

2

8

3

(17)

(6)

(24)

(8)

29

8

7

5

(74)
[3]

(43)
[1]

(17)
[1]

(9)

32

9

10

5

0 [/]

In Fuzimiao District, Road NA and NB are arterial roads

Sid
ew
alk
s

function is counted separately, shown as ‘building numbers

Sid
ew
alk
s

(NC), and 5 on Pingjiangfu Road (ND). Because in somecases, there are more than one store in the same building
with different commercial type. The number of the

two-lane, two-way road with a bicycle lane on one side.
(Figure 6)

Bic
ycl
e la
n
Sid esew
alksIn Fuzimiao District, totally 56 buildings have beensurveyed. Among them, 32 buildings on Jiankang Road(NA), 9 on Zhonghua Road (NB), 10 on Zhanyuan RoadS
Bic idewa
ycl
e la lks
nes（２）Fuzimiao DistrictFaçadedesign

lan
e
Sid s
ew
alk
s

Figure 5 Road section of NA and NB

Figure 4 Road section of KB and KC

Elements

Bic
ycl
e

Sid
ew
Bic
alk
s
ycl
e la
nes

just like roads inside the historic district, extending from it.
(Figure 4)

Figure 6 Road section of NC and ND（３）Street Level and Landscape Assessment
Among roads in Sannei-zaka District and Fuzimiao
District, both areas have two arterial roads and two
secondary trunk roads. The secondary trunk roads arecloser to historic districts than arterial roads. Classified bylocation and road levels, in both districts buildings along
their streets have a similar trend in points for elements thatfrom arterial roads to secondary trunk roads. The average
points of secondary trunk roads are higher than that ofarterial roads. In other words, when getting closer tohistoric districts, there's a significant decrease in low-pointbuildings and increase in high-point buildings. (Figure 7)
Summaries of Academic Theses 2020

So, if a person walks towards the historic district from thestation nearby, the street landscape's impression would bea rising feeling about historic atmosphere.

new elements into street landscape. Continuous avenue
trees form a new type of landscape and a barrier for thefield of vision in streets. The height, density and locationof trees also influence people's feeling of space.
In Sannei-zaka District, the streets' width is smaller than
10 meters and almost no obstacles blocking the sight oflooking opposite through the streets. And buildings are
below five floors in the majority. The street landscapekeeps the basic model as building-road-building so thatfrom the view of pedestrians, they can get a quite complete
image about every element in streets. The assessment ofbuilding elements nearly reflects the characteristics of（４）Building Elements Comparison

street landscape.
On the contrary, in Fuzimiao District, over 10-meter wide
roads and plants along or in the middle of streets, divide

For every single element in the whole district, theproportion of 1-point level in Sannei-zaka District are allover 50%, higher than that in Fuzimiao District (Figure 8).

the space into several areas. For pedestrians, the street
landscape's border is no longer buildings, changed to street
trees on one side. Communication with sceneries andThat means there are more buildings in Sannei-zaka
District get higher points and more similar to traditional
type if judged from height, façade or commercial type.

activities on the other side is almost resisted because of the
distance and partitions. The average point of Fuzimiao
District shows the street landscape is much further from the

Figure 7 Proportion of total points for buildings classified by road levels

1
0.5
0

traditional style. However, the feeling of a large scale
modern-type street is also not so strong from the viewpointof human. More attention is always paid to stores nearby.
８．Conclusion
Kyoto and Nanjing are similar in urban planning history,pattern in old city and strategy on protecting historic

Figure 8 Proportion of Elements in Sannei-zaka District (left) andFuzimiao District (right)

resources under modernization. However, the images ofstreet landscape in practice are quite different.

（５）Spatial Analysis
An essential aspect of townscape composition depends on

Based on the findings of this research, the following
conclusions were drawn:
a. Limitations for construction activities around historic

the ratio of street width to building height.5 In the past,street width in cities is according to the scale of humanactivities and transportation, mostly walking and by

districts
The construction activities are mainly restricted inappearance of buildings, including height, façade design

wagons at that time. To preserve historic architectures andtheir surrounding environment as an integration, thosenarrow alleys are also left as original. Along with low riseand other decorations on the facades facing the streets. In
Nanjing’s regulations, there are also control of roadplanning and building function.

traditional buildings, the ratio of street width to buildingheight is in a kind of medieval spatial qualities.
With the change in transportation means, streets becameb. Spatial characteristics of the street landscapeAccording to the assessment system, the total point ofbroader and broader. The relation between buildings on
both sides of streets is no more merely the street width.
Meanwhile, modern urban planning theories also brought

each building showed the index of similarity to traditionalbuildings. In Sannei-zaka District, buildings with 1~2
points were in the majority, which means the buildings

学位論文梗概集 2020

more or less have elements related to tradition and history.
Very few buildings had entirely nothing to do withtraditional culture and got 0 point. In Fuzimiao District, thebuilding-road-building mode like before. Sometimes
people were feeling about an image of items on the roadpavement-partial external appearance of buildings on

proportion of 1-point buildings was the highest, and thesecond was 0 point. Less than 10% of buildings were over2 points, compared to 22% in Sannei-zaka District. Thus,

lower floors. As a result, besides the points in building
elements, characteristics of the street landscape are closer
or further to historic districts should be considered from thethere were more buildings in modern style in thesurrounding area of Fuzimiao area. (Figure 9)

human dimension, too.
d. Coexistence of modernization and historic districts
protection in modern cities
For new constructions, the limitations were considered toadapt modern buildings to traditional style, by controllingtangible aspects in construction. Meanwhile, adding
traditional elements to modern constructions was also acommon method to prevent over modernization aroundhistoric districts.

Figure 9 Proportion of every level of total points for each building

９．Recommendation
To shape an image of a historic city, besides the silent

In every single element and the overall situation, Kyoto
all got higher points than Nanjing. (Table 4) The average
point showed a rough image of the street landscape in theappearance of buildings in traditional style, stone alleys orother historical constructions, the historic image's core is
the active intangible aspects of the culture and the people,

surrounding area of a historic district. The landscape ofSannei-zaka District was closer to the historic district
compared to Fuzimiao District.

behind the appearance. One aiming to a historic district
usually wants to know what is like in the past to experience
what is unique. Such as in and around the historic areas,

Table 4 Elements' index of similarity to traditional buildings

traditional costumes are sold or rent for tourists. It's a partof image shaping, combining the human activity, wearing
traditional clothes, with the environment, a traditional town,

Buildin

Façad

g

e

HeightDesignFunctio

Commercia

Averagnl Typee

1.58/3finished. Interaction makes people have a sense ofparticipation in the environment, which is the streets'

1.14/3

original function.
The final results of landscape planning must be tested
from the human's viewpoint. There is no need to blindly

Sanneizaka

82%

79%

36%

62%

District
Fuzimia
o

60%

39%

27%

27%

so that a complete image of the historic district has been

Districtc. Influence and relation of elements
Nowadays the scale of streets and buildings in somemodern cities has been beyond the maximum of anindividual's perception. Pedestrians walking in streets were

pursue every single element to be coherence with historicareas. People live or pass by a place, the impression left intheir mind is from vision and other senses. When it's hard
to change the physical environment, it's a good choice tothink about soft elements.

always hard to perceive a complete street landscape in a
References
1) Kevin Lynch (1960), The Image of the City: p72) 京都市都市計画局都市景観部景観政策課, 京都市の景観政策（時を超え光輝く京都の景観づくり
3) Nanjing Academic of Urban Planning & Design Co., Ltd, Regulatory

4) Architecture Standard Act(Japan) Article 42 (1):No.1: Road prescribed by Road Act (public roads such as nationalroads, prefectural roads, municipal roads, etc.)
No.3: Road existing before the enforcement of Architecture Standard
Act5) 芦原義信，「街並みの美学」，岩波書店，1979

Plan of Old Nanjing City (2006)

Summaries of Academic Theses 2020