An investigation on the impact of urban renewal on historical and cultural elements of Dongguan Street based on a space syntax approach

The present study investigates the urban design elements and image of the city. The effective growth is accompanied by continuous progress of urbanization, the issues in China’s urban renewal construction have gradually become apparent. The overall renewal construction lacks comprehensive planning, the city’s highlights and urban development does not match well with land resources, and there is relatively limited existing research addressing such issues. Furthermore, relevant studies have found that the “road network construction, spatial environment, image presentation, and historical culture” of the inner-city historical and cultural districts have a high level of congruence with the five urban elements proposed by Kevin Lynch, consisting of paths, edges, districts, nodes and landmarks. The study employs a space syntax approach to evaluate the Dongguan Street Historical and Cultural District in Dalian as case studies. This study combines historical data analysis to trace the developmental trajectory of urban districts and employs space syntax axial analysis to examine the morphological evolution characteristics of the district. The study finds that, improving traffic organization , strengthening landmark districts, clarifying functional zoning, revitalizing and renewing node space, enhancing creative displays of landmarks, and supplementing with spatial syntax integration, connectivity, choice, and intelligibility, can contribute to effective improvements while maintaining the integration and accessibility of the Dongguan street’s road network.