After 150 years of urban development, Shanghai's inner city has become a hybrid pattern of different building types. These different building types reflect their own social, economic, cultural and technical background in history and play various roles in forming urban space,and influencing citizens' lives in contemporary Shanghai.

Although a great deal of attention has been given to the social and spatial urban development history of Shanghai, few studies have been conducted from a typomorphological perspective. In order to fill this gap, this paper adapts the typomorphological analysis approach to analyze three main building models – traditional shophouse, colonial Linong, and modern building – in Shanghai Old Town, which is the original settlement of Shanghai. This paper aims to help us understand Shanghai Old Town's urban spatial regeneration development not only through time, but also from other perspectives, such as the comparison of forms, uses, and configurations found in different building types. Furthermore, it aims at revealing the way in which these three building models together shape the city in the urban growth and transformation process.