CC-BYXie, JiayuZhao, ZhiqingZhu, Meilin2024-11-262024-11-262024978-94-64981-82-7https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14235/2167Game changer? Planning for just and sustainable urban regions, Paris, 8-12th July 2024Harbin is a city historically shaped by its railway heritage. The construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway, a railway linking Europe and China, has rapidly transformed Harbin from a fishing village to an international metropolis in just half a century. The railway brought expatriates to Harbin, as well as European planning concepts to China. In the process of rapid modernization, Harbin's unique urban form is based on a Western urban texture, overlaid with localized planning ideas. Thus, understanding the historical development and preserving the spatial morphology of Harbin's historic core are key research goals. This research employs the spatial syntax framework to decode the urban axis model of Harbin across four distinct developmental epochs. By quantifying the local integration indices of these axis models, our investigations divulge that the burgeoning expansion of Harbin's urban footprint and the establishment of novel districts have not fundamentally disrupted the historical urban axes. This study contributes to our understanding of urban adaptation and suggests ways to preserve these unique urban features. Keywords: Urban morphology, Urban evolution, Space syntax, Characteristic conservation strategy, Harbin historic areaEnglishopenAccessconferenceObject3344-3351