The return of tradition: a preliminary study on the integration of traditional concepts of space with contemporary Chinese urban space

As the speed of urbanisation, which is driven by power and capital, has slowed down on the Chinese mainland, the connection between human emotion and urban space has gradually been gaining attention. Moreover, traditional Chinese culture is attracting more and more interest because of people's nostalgia for rural life. This study examines how the traditional Chinese understanding of space is integrated into contemporary architecture, and people's perception of it, to bring meaningful urban space. The methodology in this study collects the characteristics of the Chinese concept of space and investigates how to translate these characteristics into contemporary concrete spatial forms. Furthermore, a felt-phenomenology study of cases located in contemporary urban space is used to examine whether this transformation is feasible. Traditional Chinese thinking is correlative, focusing on the relationships between things rather than rational or logical thinking of things themselves. In traditional Chinese courtyard buildings, for example, this correlative thinking is expressed in the contrast between void and solid. Moreover, the subjective spatial experience arising from the rhythm and ambiguity, which is brought by the interplay between the void and the solid in traditional courtyard architecture, may suggest an absence of connection between the urban space and human emotions. Meanwhile, in contemporary urban space, rhythm and ambiguity can be informed by the research of specific case studies, such as SHUM YIP UpperHills LOFT, the West Village and Raffles City Chengdu.