Collage Community: Design strategies for peri-urban areas with heterogeneous morphologies—A case study of Xinglong Town, Chengdu, China

Under rapid urbanization, peri-urban communities emerge as transitional zones characterized by spatial heterogeneity, where traditional settlements, new developments, and vacant land coexist. This complexity challenges conventional paradigms of community integrity, functional diversity, and cultural continuity. To address these issues, this study introduces the Collage Community framework, grounded in the principles of Collage City theory, and operationalized through four interrelated strategies: spatial morphology collage, functional integration collage, cultural narrative collage, and temporal evolution collage. Employing a research-by-design methodology, the study investigates a representative case in the Chengdu peri-urban context to evaluate the framework's adaptability and spatial response mechanisms. Findings indicate that the proposed approach effectively reconciles spatial diversity with functional synergy and cultural continuity, fostering incremental and adaptive renewal in complex peri-urban environments. This study advances both theory and practice by offering a systematic strategy for managing heterogeneous urban growth while preserving local identity and promoting long-term resilience, contributing to global discourse on inclusive and adaptive peri-urban planning.