The adaptive application of the typological map: from the Italian approach to Chinese historic areas

Exaptation in Transitional Urban Morphologies: First Notes on the Dynamics of Urban Form Read through the Theories of Natural Evolution

“…In this case, the urban fabric, already very clear in its original constitution, disintegrated and then recomposed not by following plans of adaptation to new and different functions, but by evolving according to complexes processes dominated by fortuitous phenomena. Understanding these phenomena today is a challenge that is especially occupying scholars and designers involved in the regeneration of those urban areas, that is in understanding whether it is possible to trace in the processes of variation followed in the past methods and systems of transformation to be used in designing and planning for the future [26][27][28][29].…”

Exaptation in Transitional Urban Morphologies

“…Understanding these phenomena today is a challenge that is especially occupying scholars and designers involved in the regeneration of those urban areas, that is in understanding whether it is possible to trace in the processes of variation followed in the past methods and systems of transformation to be used in designing and planning for the future. [16,17,18,19] The Chinese courtyard house (siheyuan) has been organized since very ancient times through the development of a quadrangular courtyard overlooked by two single-story building blocks (maximum two floors): the access one and the actual living area. In the microcosm of the traditional courtyard house of the Ming era (1368-1664) and then of the Qing era (1644-1912), this system is replicated three times in line, giving rise to a sequence of three courtyards connected to each other via the residential blocks.…”