Urban form in special geographical conditions: a case study in Kenting National Park

Abstract

[EN] Since the land surface is heterogeneous, the natural landscape as an essential element in contemporary morphological studies becomes the initial factor in the formation of a settlement. Moreover, the interaction with natural landscape, built form and the boundary matrix can illuminate ecological perspective on the form of the city. (Scheer, 2016) To understand the urban form under special geographical conditions, a case study is conducted in Kenting National Park, which is a tropical area with rich landscape such as moutains, lakes and rivers, plains, basins, and surrounded by seas. An analytical approach based on Historico-Geographical approach (Kropf, 2009; Oliveira, 2016) is applied in this paper. After identifying the scope of 42 settlements, there are three outer shape types such as compact, scattered, linear. Then, three kinds of morphotopes (Conzen, 1988) can mainly be figured out by comparing the combination between streets, buildings and plots: i) Detached, duplex houses on small plots along the access road; ii) Attached buildings on small plots along the main road; iii) Villas or hotels on large plots along the main road. Finally, the relationship between the larger plan units (Conzen, 1960) and the geographical conditions shows that the homogeneous configuration of plan units corresponds to the certain landscape. On the other hand, this article seeks to find out the impacts and changes caused by special geographical conditions in consequence of the landscape affects not only the formation of urban form but the evolution because its influence on socio-economic context.