The influence of ancestral temple on the landscape of traditional Chinese villages: based on landscape pattern analysis and spatial syntax approach

Abstract

The modernization process in rural areas negatively impacts on local traditional cultural landscapes, and some spatial elements in villages are of great significance in maintaining traditional cultural landscapes. However, it is unclear about the impact of ancestral temple on the landscape pattern of rural villages. In this paper, we take the ancestral temples and the other buildings of 25 traditional villages in Zhejiang Province of China as research objectives, applying landscape pattern analysis and spatial syntax approach to explore the ancestral temple’s association with village landscape. The results show that the ancestral temple has impacts on the landscape of traditional Chinese villages. In addition, although all ancestral temples in the 25 villages are currently within walking distance, those at village edges are more likely to have lower accessibility. Therefore, in heritage conservation, we need to protect the key spatial elements and their surrounding buildings; in village planning, we need to set sensible boundaries for the villages, and plan new construction areas and the road network reasonably in order to maintain or enhance the accessibility of key landscape elements.