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'Beautiful Villages' gives a comprehensive review of rural construction practices in contemporary China through a number of projects, such as the intervention of artists and art exhibitions, industrialisation efforts, and the creation of new social landscapes. In order to explore the social and historical significance of recent architectural work in rural areas, the book presents around 40 projects, most of which are the works of some of the most influential architects in China. The perspective of 'Beautiful Villages' on rural development provides valuable insight for both government officials and architects alike.

As a nineteenth-century commercial development, the alleyway house was a hybrid of the traditional Chinese courtyard house and the Western terraced one. Unique to Shanghai, the alleyway house was a space where the blurring of the boundaries of public and private life created a vibrant social community. In recent years however, the city's rapid redevelopment has meant that the alleyway house is being destroyed, and this book seeks to understand it in terms of the lifestyle it engendered for those who called it home, whilst also looking to the future of the alleyway house. Based on groundwork research, this book examines the Shanghai alleyway house in light of the complex history of the city, especially during the colonial era. It also explores the history of urban form (and governance) in China in order to question how the Eastern and Western traditions combined in Shanghai to produce a unique and dynamic housing typology. Construction techniques and different alleyway house sub-genres are also examined, as is the way of life they engendered, including some of the side-effects of alleyway house life, such as the literature it inspired, both foreign and local, as well as the portrayal of life in the laneways as seen in films set in the city. The book ends by posing the question: what next for the alleyway house? Does it even have a future, and if so, what lies ahead for this rapidly vanishing typology? This interdisciplinary book will be welcomed by students and scholars of Chinese studies, architecture and urban development, as well as history and literature.

\"This book takes the unique housing typology of the Shanghai alleyway house and discusses its role in Shanghai life. Gregory Bracken examines the architecture and history of the alleyway house, its part in the city's cultural and social development, it's portrayal in Chinese film and literature and the future of this unique urban dwelling as Shanghai's rapid redevelopment threatens to destroy the alleyway house, and therefore a slice of Chinese architectural and cultural history, altogether\"-- Provided by publisher.

As a nineteenth-century commercial development, the alleyway house was a hybrid of the traditional Chinese courtyard house and the Western terraced one. Unique to Shanghai, the alleyway house was a space where the blurring of the boundaries of public and private life created a vibrant social community. In recent years however, the city's rapid redevelopment has meant that the alleyway house is being destroyed, and this book seeks to understand it in terms of the lifestyle it engendered for those who called it home, whilst also looking to the future of the alleyway house. Based on groundwork research, this book examines the Shanghai alleyway house in light of the complex history of the city, especially during the colonial era. It also explores the history of urban form (and governance) in China in order to question how the Eastern and Western traditions combined in Shanghai to produce a unique and dynamic housing typology. Construction techniques and different alleyway house sub-genres are also examined, as is the way of life they engendered, including some of the side-effects of alleyway house life, such as the literature it inspired, both foreign and local, as well as the portrayal of life in the laneways as seen in films set in the city. The book ends by posing the question: what next for the alleyway house? Does it even have a future, and if so, what lies ahead for this rapidly vanishing typology? This interdisciplinary book will be welcomed by students and scholars of Chinese studies, architecture and urban development, as well as history and literature.

The region of the Himalayas and the adjoining Tibetan plateau is known for its unique and characteristic vernacular architecture and housing culture which is slowly but surely disappearing.The first part of the book analyses 19 traditional houses in the region that respond in diverse ways to the specifics of their location and local climate.

Vernacular architecture, optimized over centuries to create comfortable thermal environments using sustainable design strategies and local materials, can offer valuable insights for contemporary eco-friendly architectural design. This research investigates the sustainable design strategies of vernacular architecture in southwest Hubei, focusing on the First Granary of Xuan’en County as a representative case study. Through field investigations of indoor environments, this study explores how traditional architectural practices have addressed the region’s complex mountainous terrain and hot, humid climate. Major sustainable design strategies include rational site selection and layout adapted to the terrain, building forms and spatial organizations tailored to the environmental conditions, and the use of a \"double-skin\" envelope structure to enhance thermal insulation and ventilation. The results demonstrate that the average temperature of the grain depot does not exceed 25°C without active means, meeting the quasi-low temperature storage standard. Through comprehensive field research and analysis, this study demonstrates how these traditional design strategies not only improve indoor thermal comfort and energy efficiency but also align with local economic levels and modern living requirements. By leveraging passive design techniques rooted in local cultural and environmental contexts, this research provides a framework for integrating these strategies into contemporary sustainable architecture.

Vernacular dwellings are the carriers of cultural inheritance, and their living conservation plays an important role in social development. With the continuous advancement of China’s urbanization, the crisis faced by vernacular dwellings is increasing. Therefore, the living conservation and cultural inheritance of vernacular dwellings are urgent. Combining the method of grounded theory with traditional surveying and drawing research, this paper takes five vernacular dwellings in China’s northern Jiangsu as the research object, excavates their cultural background, finishes their drawing, and constructs the strategy model of living conservation and cultural inheritance of vernacular dwellings on the basis of in-depth interviews. Lastly, it puts forward specific improvement measures for the five vernacular dwellings in terms of living conservation and cultural inheritance, so as to provide case support for the subsequent conservation and inheritance of vernacular dwellings in China’s northern Jiangsu.

Huizhou Ancient Roads serve as a vital linear heritage carrier for inheriting Huizhou regional culture and supporting rural cultural revitalization. By analyzing the spatial pattern of Huizhou Vernacular Architecture and its correlation with ancient roads, this study provides a scientific basis for the systematic conservation, integrated development and sustainable utilization of Huizhou cultural heritage, as well as the promotion of cultural sustainability. Employing nearest neighbor index, kernel density analysis, and geographic detector, the results reveal that: (1) The spatial distribution of Huizhou Vernacular Architecture shows significant clustering and imbalance, forming a spatial pattern featuring “one main center, two cores, and extension along roads”, with the most intensive distribution in Shexian and Jixi counties. (2) Ancient road density, settlement density and freight volume are the dominant factors. Ancient road traffic and social culture are the most influential dimensions affecting the spatial distribution of Huizhou Vernacular Architecture. The formation and layout of Vernacular Architecture rely on multi-factor synergy, emphasizing multi-dimensional coupling. (3) Ancient road density and settlement density present the highest spatial variability, while elevation and slope show the lowest spatial variability. Mean elevation, mean slope, ancient road density, settlement density and cultural resources are all positively correlated with the distribution of Vernacular Architecture.

This article engages with the role of sacred architecture as an embodiment of the conflicts, within a Chinese Muslim ethnic minority group, determined by the dispute upon religious hegemony. Vernacular architecture of a minority group has significant socio-cultural implications and can serve as a tool to measure its integration in the mainstream society. Through an ethnographic study focusing upon the Hui, a Muslim minority community of Xi’an, in Communist China and their sacred architecture, it indicates that the architectural archetype of a mosque quite precisely concretizes the religious hegemony, intra group dissonance and acculturative or retentionist trends of Hui community. It demonstrates that certain architectural features, such as the presence or absence of minaret and dome or a Chinese styled roof with carved animals, in the mosque clearly mirror the loci of religious authority of its adherents. It proposes that architectural characteristics can play the role of preservers and charters of cultural identity of a minority group and can equivocally serve as symbols of retention or acculturation in the mainstream society. By applying a socio-architectural approach, it is meant to explore that how mosques architecture in today’s China reflects the intra group dissonance of the Hui community and how shifting paradigms of religiously oriented hegemony are working to eradicate the Sino-Muslim historical architectural relics.

As a form of living cultural heritage, local residential landscapes manifest the essence of long-term, resilient human–land interactions. The Wuling Corridor, a vital ethnic and cultural passage connecting the Central Plains with Southwest China in Chinese history, serves as a crucial region for the mixed residence and cultural exchange of Tujia, Miao, Dong, Han, and other ethnic groups. Within this region, Ganlan stands as both the most representative vernacular architectural heritage and a residential form that is still extensively used, constituting a continuous and unique residential landscape. The spatial distribution patterns of Ganlan are the physical witness of the history of ethnic groups adapting to the complex topographic and cultural conditions. Current research focuses on the case description of single Ganlan forms, failing to systematically investigate the spatial formation mechanisms of Ganlan as a residential landscape from a geographical continuum perspective. Therefore, this study establishes a geographical database encompassing 9425 Ganlan samples from the Wuling Corridor. It integrates the geographic information system (GIS) with clustering algorithms to systematically identify the distribution patterns of Ganlan within specific geographic–cultural units and their coupling relationships with natural environments. It conducts quantitative analysis on the key driving factors concerning the emergence and evolution of Ganlan in the study area; the findings reveal the following: (1) Ganlan buildings exhibit a spatially aggregated distribution pattern along major water systems, demonstrating characteristics of multi-ethnic sharing and spatial interweaving. (2) Their distribution is constrained by natural geographical factors and influenced by the transmission pathways of construction techniques during ancient ethnic migrations to the southwest China. (3) Within multi-ethnic settlement structures, inter-ethnic cultural interactions (particularly with Central Plains culture) serve as a key driving force for the typological evolution of Ganlan. (4) The evolutionary lineage of “full-Ganlan,” “semi-Ganlan,” and “courtyard-style Ganlan” systematically demonstrates the dynamic adaptive capacity of local residential systems. Additionally, by integrating massive Ganlan heritage data with multiple spatial analysis methods, the study serves as a typical case study illuminating the adaptive strategies and resilience mechanisms of Ganlan as a local residential landscape formed in response to the environmental conditions and social changes. Also, it provides a scientific basis for the holistic conservation of architectural heritages shared by multiple ethnic groups and the integrated development of local cultural tourism industries.