ABSTRACT
This chapter applies the theoretic model of typomorphology to Nanjing. It introduces the city's geographic conditions, socio-economic and political background and overall history of urban development. Only by putting urban form into its socio-economic and political context can its transformation properly reflect and express changing needs of society and contemporary challenges. The chapter demonstrates detailed analysis of the seven urban elements of Nanjing (the general plan, silhouettes, streets and street networks, urban blocks and plots, public spaces, public buildings and houses) over several morphological periods in order to find possible typological processes and robust types, which will be carried on to inform design guidance for Nanjing. By tracing the history of Nanjing's urban development, three distinct periods which offer different socio-economic and political contexts for Nanjing can be distinguished: the historical period (up to the 19th century); the republican period (1911 to 1948); the Liberation period (1949 to present). These are the morphological periods for the typomorphological analysis of Nanjing.
