From Cofferdam to New City: A Research on Morphology Transformation of Rural Settlements and Polderscapes in Xiaoshan, Zhejiang

The Nansha area, located in the north of Xiaoshan in Zhejiang Province, was hit by the Qiantang River waves all the year round. As a result, it has formed a plain landscape distinctly different from the traditional geomorphological pattern of Zhejiang, which is reputed for the “70% of mountains, 20% of waters and 10% of field”. The formation of the Xiaoshan landscape, so different from other places of Zhejiang, was also the basis of shaping the settlements in Xiaoshan. Having become a sub-center of Hangzhou metropolis, Xiaoshan provided considerable land resources for urban expansion. The landscape of Xiaoshan has evolved in constant “palimpsest” since the late Qing Dynasty. The local people’s attitudes towards the land have gone through several stages, which are treatment, resistance, utilization, expansion, occupation and high value-added utilization. On this basis, a unique crisscrossed plain settlement structure has been formed, which gives birth to massive spontaneous construction worthy of documenting and studying. The research not only documents the formation process of the research contexts, but also clarifies the process of interpretation and provide reflections for the urbanization process in the same period.