Building density is an important factor affecting both urban morphology and urban habitat. Recently, “compact cities” with high density have become the main trend in urban sustainable development. Yet, how to promote effectively high-density city construction through spatial measures remains a challenge. This paper investigates the central urban zones of high-density cities in Asia. The construction scale and block size of 29 central zones in 17 international cities were quantitatively studied to compare their respective relationships with building density; other related factors were also considered (geographical features and urban nature). No direct correlation between construction scale and building density was found. However, a block’s size was strongly correlated with its building density. In general, smaller block size was associated with a higher building density. Based on the results, we conclude that simply compressing scale will not effectively improve building density. Instead, the development of a small-size block may promote high-density spatial construction, thereby, facilitating the realization of compact cities and sustainable urban development.

建筑密度是影响城市形态和城市人居环境的重要因素。近年来，高密度的“紧凑型城市”已成为城市可持续发展的主要趋势。然而，如何通过空间措施有效促进高密度城市建设仍是一个挑战。本文调查了亚洲高密度城市的中心城区。定量研究了17个国际城市29个中心区的建设规模和地块大小，比较了各自与建筑密度的关系；还考虑了其​​他相关因素（地理特征和城市性质）。未发现建筑规模与建筑密度之间存在直接相关性。然而，街区的大小与其建筑密度密切相关。一般来说，较小的街区大小与较高的建筑密度有关。根据结果​​，我们得出结论，简单地压缩规模不会有效地提高建筑密度。相反，小街区的发展可以促进高密度的空间建设，从而有利于实现紧凑型城市和可持续的城市发展。