随着中国城市规划和建筑史的考察进入到理论提升层面和深入研究阶段，本课题意在补充和完善学科中城市设计和城市空间历史的研究。课题以近代北京、南京和欧美其它都城建设为背景，以近代具体城市空间（街道和广场）为研究对象，一方面强调将空间设计和分析作为城市和建筑学科领域的重点，梳理城市公共空间的类型、形态和特征的变化；另一方面探索将空间分析融入近代社会政治、经济、社会史的大脉络中，阐述现代性和空间权力视角下城市空间的设计和使用如何作为一种重要手段参与到民族-国家首都地位和政治象征之中。通过借鉴西方比较成熟的理论和框架，特别是空间的三维辩证法，综合文献解读、案例研究、空间形态学和类型形态学以及比较研究的方法，本课题分为三部分：物质空间、国家空间和日常空间。试图说明这三者的互动关系导致了空间变革的不同策略、过程、方式和结果，并揭示出中国都城城市空间的本土特征和现代化的特殊路径。

Along with the research on urban planning and architectural history of Chinese cities has developed further and deeper, specifically on theoretical level, this study tries to fill the gap on two aspects: history of urban design and history of urban space. The study would trace the construction process of both Chinese and Western capital cities, specifically taking Beijing and Nanjing as case studies, and take spatial elements, including the streets and the squares, as study objects. On the one hand, based on the spatial analysis and the interpretation on the relative urban designs, the study reviews the typological, morphological and characteristic changes of urban public space. On the other hand, it intends to integrate the spatial analysis with modern political, social, economic indicators, and further to reveal the fact that, from the perspectives of urban modernization process and the spatial contests, the design and the use of urban space has been implemented as an important tool involved in the competition of the national capital status and political symbols. Learning from Western theories and methods, specifically Lefebvre’s theory of space of production, the study would apply literature review, case study, typological and morphological study, and especially comparative research method. It would be divided into three parts. The first part is to analyze the physical aspects of spatial form, the second part focuses on the reform and transformation of the state space, and the last part would emphasize on the everyday space. The study suggests that the interactions among these three parts produced different strategies, processes, patterns and results of spatial transformation, and ultimately, produced the local characters and the distinctive modernization process of Chinese urban space.