Cognitive Method of the Morphology and Narrativity of Chinese Historic Urban Space Based on the Historical Layerings: Taking Nanjing Mendong Area as an Example

After the approaches to urban conservation in the Washington and Nairobi Charters, the Valletta Principles (2011) have redefined objectives, attitudes and tools for the evolution of definitions and methodologies of preservation in historic towns and urban areas. A higher awareness of intangible values contributing to the character and identity of historic areas as well as the multifaceted challenges of modification were introduced in the coherence of all tangible and intangible heritage values. It suggested that diagnostic methods must be used to identify the particular cultural identity of the historic urban areas considering the urban areas are complex phenomena that have resulted from the historical stratification of cultural values. Because of physical absence, in the Chinese traditional contexts historic space is always associated with cultural meaning, regarded as the intangible value of urban heritage. However the absence of the physical space results in a dilemma in cognition of historic urban space. As the physical existence of artefacts is impermanent, appended cultural meanings are essential for experiencing Chinese space. Beyond the restoration approach, this paper explores urban form in its tangible and intangible elements related to both absence and presence. Taking the Mendong area as an example, it frames physical impermanence issues through the stratigraphic analysis combined with the morphological evolution and the narrativity of the process for the further potential interpretative approach for the historic urban space. This mutualism between them provides the theoretical basis and tools to cognize historical knowledge hidden in Chinese urban space