Changes of
Canal Networks and Canal Spaces of Suzhou
The old city of Suzhou is a famous water oriented
city in the Yangtze Basin of China. Suzhou is called ‘canal city’ in the world
because there are a lot of canals in the city and it has a special water-oriented
landscape. With development of the old city, canals were occupied and filled up
gradually recently, the distinctive water oriented landscape is also being
damaged with the reduction of canals. In this paper, in order to retain and
preserve the historic water oriented characteristics and to create new
water-oriented landscape of modern life, we analyze and show the historic
changes of canal networks in the old city from Song Dynasty to modern times,
and classify the spaces of canal into three patterns and 10 types to show the
character of canal spaces. Based on the results of these researches, some
useful and constructive suggestions are presented for the old city’s
redevelopment.
1.
INTRODUCTION
The old city of Suzhou, which is called ‘The Venice
of the Orient’, is a typical of traditional water oriented city in the south of
the Yangtze Basin of China. Canals run north-south and east-west over the city
and form the canal grid which is called ‘3-Horizontal and 3-Vertical’ in the
old city, restrict the street pattern and the residences’ location. It formed a
special and abundant landscape of canals that other cities have not. Canals
become important spaces in the construction of Suzhou city. But in the last two
hundred years, with change of times and city’s redevelopment, canals were
occupied and filled up gradually. Canals, the most important element of the
main landscape feature of Suzhou water-oriented city that is called “small
bridge, running water and houses”, are disappearing. And the feature of water oriented
also disappeared gradually without canals. New canals are also rebuilt and
maintained, are more regular, beautiful but also more monotonous and stiffer
than old canals, losing its natural property.
There are some papers concerned
with the researches of China’s water-oriented city. Yu[1]
and Suzuki[2]’s paper analyzed the characteristic
of city space from the viewpoint of city history and the formative process
of residence area. Bao[3]’s paper was about
space construction of old residence by morphology. Wang[4][5]’s
paper summarized the development system of city after 1949, and discussed
the possibility of development and management plan by the viewpoint of space
design theory. Jinnai[6]‘s book argued the
cultures of water-oriented city, analyzed the city space from water-oriented
city facilities based on surveys, and presented a method about how to preserve
and restore the traditional streets. But these papers
are all mainly for dwellings and construction of city space in Suzhou.
However, as we know that there are no any papers on canal spaces of water-oriented
city.
In this paper, we want to look
for some formations and evaluation of canal spaces of the old city of Suzhou
through the analyses of the canal networks’ changes with the standpoint of
historical development. We analyze the changes of canal networks from Song
Dynasty up to now and obtain some important results. Also we divide the canal
spaces into three patterns and 10 types and show the characteristics of canal
spaces of the old city. The purpose of this study is to present some useful and
constructive suggestions for the old city’s redevelopment criteria and design
guidelines, to help to retain the historic feature and to recreate new
characteristic of water oriented landscape.
2. CHANGES OF CANAL
NETWORKS
Here, we will show the changes of canal networks from Song Dynasty up to now based on the Suzhou traditional maps in various periods.
Suzhou as a city was built in 514BC, dates back 2,500 years and is one
of the oldest cities in the Yangtze Basin. It is said that there are no any
maps or pictures described about Suzhou before Song Dynasty.
2.1 Song
Dynasty (960-1276)
Fig. 1 called ‘Ping-Jiang Map’
(1229) is the earliest map about Suzhou, carved in a stone monument, whose
scale is out of proportion. By the scale map [7],
we got a figure of canal systems of Song dynasty shown as Fig. 2. It can be
seen that the canal networks of Song dynasty were very complete at that time.
The city is large as 14.2 m2 as like a rectangular.
There is an outer moat that is 17.48 km in length and about 50-130 m in width,
and there are three inner moats in the northern, eastern and southern.
Hundreds irregular canals
composed canal networks and led everywhere in the city. Canals and their
associate streets formed a checkerboard ‘tartan’ grid. There are five major
canals of north-south direction shown by N1-S1, N2-S2, N3-S3, N4-S4 and N5-S5,
and three major canals of east-west direction shown by E1-W1, E2-W2, and E3-W3
in Fig.2. Other canals connected with these major canals. The small canals
dividing the city into different rectangles gathered at the center of the city.
In that time, the length of
all the canals was about 82 km.
2.2 Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)
Based on ‘Suzhou’s General
Irrigation Map’ (1600), we drafted a canal system of Ming Dynasty shown as Fig.
3. Compared Fig.3 with Fig. 2, we can see that there were nearly no changes, but the canal density of Ming
increased. The amount of length of Ming canals was the longest in its history.
On Fig. 3, we use the broken lines to indicate newly created canals and dotted
lines to express disappeared canals.
2.3 Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)
Fig. 4 is a canal system of Qing
Dynasty that we made corresponding to ‘The Complete Map of Suzhou’ (1769).
Fig. 4 shows that small canals dividing areas in the west and the center of
the city disappeared mostly, but some one in the east remained. And one of
major north-south canals which was indicated by heavy dotted lines N3-S3 disappeared.
One of the reasons why the canals vanished was that canals had not been dredged
for nearly 50 years since 1746 to 1797 so that lots of canals blocked up,
moreover, residential buildings occupied canals [2].
The remained major canals formed the old city’s dimension of ‘3-Horizontal
and 4-Vertical’ grid at that time.
The total length of Qing
canals was about 57 km.
2.4 Modern Times (1949- )
From the ‘Project of 1989-2000
Suzhou Gardens and Trees Planting’ (1989), we extracted the canal system shown
as Fig. 5. We can find that one north-south major canal (N4-S4), half of the
east-west major canal (E3-W3) and some inner canals were filled up, the
northern outer inner moat and middle part of eastern inner moat also
disappeared which is indicated by dotted lines. The main aim of filling these
canals was in order to renovate the environment of the old city and to satisfy the
needs of city development from 1949 [2]. The city style becomes ‘3- Horizontal
and 3-Vertical’ grid (The E3-W3 was replaced by E3’-W3 to see Fig. 5). Compare
Fig. 2 with Fig. 5, it is evident that the canal systems formed from Song
Dynasty disappeared at that time.
The total length of canals is
about 35 km at that time. The main canals forming the city style mentioned
above account for 51% of the total length and the other small canals account
for 49%[8].
Fig. 6 is the newest figure of
canal systems that is made by the 1997’s ‘Suzhou Map’. Compare it with Fig. 5,
we can see that some canals are reconstructed or revamped indicated by the
broken lines.
From above analyses of the
changes of canal system in every period, the following statements can be
obtained.
1) The old city of Suzhou is
different from other all cities, which are set by the road networks. Over the
centuries it has been seen that the canal systems are the main urban structure
in Suzhou. Canals restrict the location and direction of roads and buildings, influence
the layout of the whole city and build the physical fabric of the old city.
This is a real implication of water-oriented city.
2) The development of Suzhou’s
canal networks can be divided into four periods. The first is a forming period
from 514 BC to Tang Dynasty. The second is a prosperous period including Song
Dynasty and Ming Dynasty. The third is a declining period from Qing Dynasty to
1970’s; The forth is a redeveloping period from 1970’s to now.
3) There are two great changes
in the history of the old city canal systems. One was in Qing Dynasty, a lot of
small canals disappeared. Other was after 1949, one and a half of the major
canals and some inner moats were filled up. This is the reason why Song’s canal
system can not be seen now.
4) The present ‘3-Horizontal
and 3-Vertical’ city grid formed since 1970, after the two great changes of the
canal networks.
5) The canals’ location of
present situation has not changed practically since Song Dynasty.
6) Canals that were left over
by history were nearly the major canals of Song canal systems, though other
small canals disappeared mostly.
7) The canal systems of Song
Dynasty are not existing now, but the canal fabric of Song Dynasty is still
existing. After two great changes the canals’ total length decreases rapidly,
from 82km (Song) to 36km(Now). It is equal to say that the more than half of
canals disappeared. But for the most major canals remained and the locations of
most canals changed not, the canals of today still control the whole city,
limit the shape of road networks and building blocks of the old city. The city’s
physical fabric did not change.
The
reasons why the canals reduced from 82 km to 35 km for near 700 years can be
summarized as the following 3 points.
1) Lack
maintains and dredge. The history of China was full of wars. It was impossible
to maintain and dredge canals for wars. Some canals were filled up by mud and
vanished gradually.
2) Invaded and occupied.
With the development of old city and increase in population, more space was
needed for dwellings and city facilities. Some canals were filled up for
getting more land.
3) Pollution and Loss of
main functions. The main functions of canals were transportation and living water,
but now the former is instead by other traffic and the latter is replaced by
waterworks. So people didn’t mind the quality of water again that has been very
important in their life before. The pollution of canal water become more
seriously and more seriously. And the increase of population aggravated the
pollution too. Some canals had to be filled up for getting a clean environment.
By above
analyses, we can get a result that the canal systems are integral part to the
historic character of the old city of Suzhou as they shape the city by control
the road networks and street blocks inwardly. It is imperative to preserve the canals
and the canal networks. And it can be seen that government control and
administration are very important preserve the canals from above reasons.
We showed the change and the distribution of canal systems in different periods above. Here, we consider the formation of canal spaces, which is defined as the region within 30m from the edge of canal on both sides.
According to the relation of
canal, street and building, we can divide of the canal spaces into three
patterns as I, II and III shown as Fig.7 [9]. Pattern I is ‘Canal
without Street’, the canal is existing with building
walls aligned with the canal bulkhead on two sides. Pattern II is ‘Canal with
One Street’, one side of canal is building and the other side is street.
Pattern III is ‘Canal with Two Streets’, there are two streets on both sides of
the canal.
In this
paper, we analyze the canal spaces of Ping-jiang Canal, Sheng-jiadai Canal,
Dao-qian Canal, Shi-quan Canal and Gan-jiang Canal respectively as followings.
Fig. 8 is the configuration images of those canals.
3.1 Ping-jiang canal
Ping-jiang Canal is
the north-south canal that is indicated by N1-S1 in Fig.6, one of major horizontal
canals in the ‘3-Horizontal and 3-Vertical’ grid. By the analyses of canal
networks above, it can been seen that the most canals around Ping-jiang Canal
were remained from song Dynasty. We could find some Ming or Qing Dynasty’s
canal bulkheads in Ping-jiang Canal when we investigated in Suzhou. There are
many distinct historical buildings such as one or two stories along the canal.
The historical character of water-oriented city of Suzhou could be find here.
The space of this canal belongs to Pattern II.
3.2
Sheng-jiadai Canal
Sheng-jiadai Canal
was linked with Ping-jian Canal formerly, located in the south of Ping-jian
Canal and whose space is similar to Ping-jian Canal. But there are some new
condominiums of three or four stories beside the western street of the canal,
built in 1996. The streets along the canal are wider than Ping-jian Canal’s.
The scale of space is also different between Sheng-jiadai Canal and Ping-jiang
Canal. The space of this canal is Pattern III.
3.3
Dao-qian Canal
Dao-qian Canal is the
east-west canal shown by E3-W3 (the half part in west) in Fig.6, one of major vertical
canal in the ‘3-Horizontal and 3-Vertical’ grid. Traditional houses are in the
south of the canal, in the north of the canal there is a modern city road whose
width is 12m. There is green-space between the road and canal, but in the past
there have been residences in there. There is a path in the green-space. Northern
side of the path is row of trees, southern side of the path is lawn with trees,
shrubs and also has benchs in it. The road and the green-space are constructed
in 1985. The space of the canal belongs to Pattern II.
3.4
Shi-quan Canal
Shi-quan Canal is the
east part of E3’-W3 in Fig. 6. The southern street of the canal is a shopping
street formed by two or three stories buildings built in 1995, and the southern
canal bulkhead also was revamped at the same time. In the north of the canal
there are old buildings of one or two stories. It forms a strong contrast
between new and old on both sides of the canal. The space of the canal is
Pattern I.
3.5
Gan-jiang Canal
Gan-jiang Canal is the
east-west canal shown by E2-W2 in Fig.6, which has been filled up and re-created
in 1993, so it is a completely new canal in the old city. On the two sides of
the canal, there are modern city roads of 12m width and there are no any
buildings. Between the canal and roads, there is green-space of lawn but where
people are forbidden to enter. The lawn green-space was a place of buildings
before. The space of the canal is Pattern III.
Only using
above three patterns to analyze the space of canal is not enough to represent
them. The canal spaces encompass many plentiful variations. In addition to the
elements of canal, street and building, there is also other element such as
open space like green-space, which is “static” space but different from the
street or road that is ‘active’ space. The static and the active spaces play
different roles in the sensation given to one and the landscape. Therefore, we
furthermore divide the three patterns of canal spaces into 10 types by
considering the static space. Fig. 9 shows the 3 patterns and 10 types. For example,
IC is one of Pattern I but it has the type C of ‘street-house-canal-house-street’, IIB’ is one of Pattern II and has the type B’ of ‘street-greenspace-canal-house-street’
and IIIA” is one of Pattern III and has the type A” of ‘street-greenspace-canal-greenspace-street’.
According to above
classification, based on the plane map of canals, we show the spaces of each canal
longitudinally in Fig. 10 where the lengthwise
variations of each canal can be found clearly.
From Fig.10, some characteristics
about the spaces of canal can be summarized as the followings:
1) There is surely a street paralleled
with canal on one or two sides of every canal. It can be seen clearly that the
structure of the water-oriented city is the ‘canal-street’ pattern. This is the
main historic feature of the city’s physical fabric.
2)
By the frequency of change of canal spaces, we arrange
the canals as the order as followings. Ping-jiang Canal (14 major changes),
Shi-quan Canal (9 major changes), Sheng-jiadai Canal (6 major changes), Dao-qian
Canal (2 major changes) and Gan-jiang Canal (only one type). Except Dao-qian
Canal and Gan-jiang Canal, the average distance between two major change of
canal space is about 143m. In other words, there will be a big change once
on the canal spaces every 143m.
There are also many tiny
changes in every major change of these canals.
3) Buildings beside a canal
have great influence on the changes of canal spaces. The more the buildings
beside canal change frequently along a canal, the more the space of the canal
changes variously such as Ping-jiang Canal. If the buildings have no change and
keep one state along the canal, there will be no change on the space of the
canal as Gan-jiang Canal.
4) About Dao-qian Canal, there
are only two main changes whose pattern-type are IIB’ and IIA’. But as Fig.10
Shown, the green-space is not pure space of lawn, also including path and
trees. The changes of canal space ought to be evaluated by the path rather than
the road in the north of the canal. The green-space on the right of the path
also has changes, like the tiny changes in every main change.
5) Gan-jiang Canal, which only
has one type as IIIA”, is really a canal without any changes. And to enter the
green-space is forbidden. The canal becomes a space unrelated to people, only
cars running on its two sides.
6) Tree is an important
element on changes of green-space.
Dao-qian Canal and Gan-jiang
Canal have modern green-space in common, which are not belong to old canal
spaces and were constructed recently. But Dao-qian Canal’s green-space has
various changes, Gan-jiang Canal’s has not. The difference between Dao-qian
Canal and Gan-jiang Canal on the green-space is that Dao-qian Canal’s green-space
has trees in the lawn and Gan-jiang Canal’s green-space has lawn only. That is,
tree is the different point for the two green-space. Tree can covers one’s
eyes, can be felt as block like building. So the existence and density of trees
are influential in the canal space as the effect of building.
4. CONCLUSION
Urban regeneration is taking place around the world.
The old city of Suzhou is the historical water oriented city and is
redeveloping. To retain and preserve historic feature is very important for
creating local characteristics of the old city of Suzhou. In this paper, we
analyzed the changes of canal networks in different periods, and defined and
evaluated the spaces of existing major canals. We
pointed out that the spaces of canal are integral part of water oriented city’s
structure and it is imperative to preserve the character of canals.
As further
research, we will analyze the elements of canal spaces to find out the
composition of water-oriented landscape. We hope
the results of the study are helpful in seeking a rational and feasible
recommendation between preservation and new redevelopment.
(This research won support from the Foundation of
River Environment of Japan, the authors would like to thank their both
financial and spiritual encouragement.)
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