Principles for reading structure, morphology and landscape as a unity: the investigation of the "Chinese Traditional Village" of Zhangdaicun Village, Hancheng

Reading and analysis of spatial form is an important content of the study of urban and rural settlements. As an important manifestation of the rural landscape, the tra-ditional village morphology embodies the process and results of human beings adapt-ing to the environment and transforming the environment for a long time. It con-tains all aspects related to traditional social life, traditional cultural concepts, and traditional construction methods, etc. Therefore, from the perspective of tangible her-itage, the decoding and protection of settlement morphological characteristics is of great significance to the overall conservation of Traditional Villages. The spatial mor-phological characteristics of the villages investigated in this study include both overt features and invisible features that need to be interpreted. A comprehensive under-standing of the morphological characteristics of Traditional Villages is the basic pre-requisite for the protection and development of Traditional Villages facing the future. This research focuses on Zhangdaicun Village, a traditional Chinese village in Han-cheng (county-level city) in Shaanxi Province, China. The author first discusses the problems of destruction and decline faced by Traditional Villages in Hancheng, takes morphological investigation as the starting point, combs the research methods of ur-ban morphology and building typology, finds a methodological tool suitable for the re-search of Traditional Village spatial form, and then describes and evaluates the spatial form of Zhangdaicun village from the perspective of "Typo-morphological process". In this thesis, the author always regards the Structure, Morphology and Landscape of the Traditional Village as a unity, combining the morphological characteristics with the heritage value evaluation, and formulating strategies for the conservation and design enhancement of the Traditional Village architectural heritage and the traditional vil-lage space method.