Searching for Reconnection: Environmental Challenges and Course Changes in Spatial Development Along Shanghai’s Shipping Channels

Waterways played a crucial role in the emergence of Shanghai as a cosmopolitan city and world port. Over the years the spatial and functional relationships between the city and ports and hinterland have been changing continuously. In Shanghai, like other port cities, almost all ports and related industries are placed out beyond the urban fringes...

Fire in the port city: the impact of different population groups on the destruction and revival of Canton city in the nineteenth century

Canton (present-day Guangzhou) has long flourished as a port city. As the city expanded in the nineteenth century, the risks of conflagrations increased; streets became more crowded, buildings were more often made of wood, and there was more use of open fires. The reconstruction of Canton after conflagrations provides an excellent way to...

Port City Architecture: Reading Paintings as an Architectural Design Method

This article addresses the role and the importance of the 19th-century narratives and depictions of port cities in contemporary architectural design with a specific focus on paintings. In the last decades, cities the world undertook a large number of urban regeneration projects along waterfronts. In this way, vacant sites on waterfront areas...