Research on sustainable renewal of historic blocks based on urban catalyst theory

Currently, cities in China have entered the development stage of stock renewal. Urban renewal has become the focus of urban development, and optimization of stock space has become the main aspect of urban design. At the same time, applying the concept of micro-renewal of historic blocks in recent years has also put forward new requirements for the renewal mode of old blocks. This paper discusses the possibility of micro-renewal and transformation of historic Chinese blocks in the new era from the perspective of catalyst theory. Through streetscape recognition technology and crawling of Point of Information (POI) data, the existing problems of blocks and the potential vitality points of blocks are determined, which changes the traditional research that often lacks quantitative judgment and only uses qualitative judgment. Through the intervention of quantitative technology, the problems existing in the perspective rate of commercial streets and the business model of historical blocks were found. Analyzing from the perspective of space, function, and culture, and then, selecting catalyst elements, which promotes the transformation of the historic blocks from a top-down transformation pattern to a bottom-up transformation pattern.