Abstract
Hengdaohezi is a key node town along Chinese Eastern Railway in Northeast China. It has a century of history with hundreds of historical buildings and cultural heritage. With the change of times, Hengdaohezi Town faced various challenges brought by the transformation of the social and natural environment, space requirement and the migration of residents. The famous "Garden Town" in those days is fading away due to the lack of humanism. As a systematic tool throughout the whole process of planning, urban design and its theory can coordinate the contradiction between the protection and development of historical towns from the aspects of ecology, economy and society culture. At the same time, the humanism of urban design makes it play an important role in the integration of three-dimensional space of historical town and the shaping of unique, diverse and vibrant areas. Based on the concept of humanism, this paper introduces three design visions of Hengdaohezi Town: improve the space environment, inherit historical culture and pursue fairness and efficiency. On this basis, the protection work of Hengdaohezi Town was started, including using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) remote sensing image data to delimit the ecological control-line, building infrastructure to meet the daily needs of local residents, continuing the spatial texture of historical towns and strengthening the control of landscape color planning to promote the harmony of the man-land relationship. In addition, some important spatial nodes with humanistic value, such as Orthodox Church and Hengdaohezi Engine House, were renovated to reshape the cultural landmarks of the town. In addition, public participation was also emphasized to enrich the business forms and enhance the attraction of heritage tourism of the town. As a result, the quality of life of residents in historical towns has been greatly improved through the cooperation among local governments, educational institutions, private entities, experts and local residents. Demonstrating a sound understanding of both locality and function, the project reinstates and sustains the spirit of place of the historic urban industrial landscape. The conservation work was carried out in a restrained manner, respecting the historic patina and functional character of the buildings and their setting. Because of these efforts, Hengdaohezi Town was awarded 2018 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation.
