Metro stations, as essential public spaces, not only serve as vital transportation hubs but also form part of the broader built environment that shapes people’s perceptions of insecurity. An important concern for passengers in these environments is safety, particularly in underground public space where the design and organization of the physical surroundings play a crucial role. Despite various modern renovations in older metro stations, newer stations are generally perceived as safer. To understand this discrepancy, this research compares how visual factors in the built environments of old and new metro stations influence people’s perceptions of insecurity. By examining two cities—Milan and Beijing, which follow distinct urban development models—this research also explores how differences in urbanization processes affect the contrast between old and new stations. This research introduces a novel methodology for analyzing underground public space by integrating 360-degree image capture, an enhanced semantic segmentation process, and predictive modeling using XGBoost and SHAP to reveal the complex relationships between these visual factors and safety perceptions. The results indicate that while factors like artificial light, floor, and the presence of people are significant across all stations, certain factors are particularly influential in specific contexts—for example, exposed pipes are more negatively associated with safety perception in Beijing’s old stations, and platform doors have a strongly positive effect in Milan’s new stations. The findings provide valuable insights for guiding the modernization of metro stations in the future, and offering an innovative approach to studying underground public space.

This study investigates the merits of the cross-disciplinary appropriation of the theory of autopoiesis in Patrik Schumacher’s The Autopoiesis of Architecture. In this two-volume work, Schumacher builds upon Luhmann’s sociological adoption of Maturana et al.’s biological theory of autopoiesis. This lineage of repeated appropriation raises questions about the merits of the cross-disciplinary appropriations of natural-scientific theory in architecture in general and the appropriation of autopoiesis in architectural theory in particular. Specifically, what are the merits of Schumacher’s appropriation of the theory of autopoiesis? In this article, we develop and apply a text analysis method drawing on discourse analysis, close reading, visual interpretation, and “inference to the best explanation” to analyse a set of three pertinent samples from The Autopoiesis of Architecture. Our analysis, using previously established categorisations of language use and merits of theory appropriation, shows that Schumacher employs various modes of language use in The Autopoiesis of Architecture to reference both prior instances of autopoiesis. These ambiguities serve to achieve merits that, in many cases, seem to benefit the author rather than his readers.

China's escalating aging population has made home-based care the primary means of elderly support. However, current residential environments frequently fail to meet seniors' needs. Research on elderly housing lacks comparative studies across different demographic groups. This study employs the Delphi method to identify improvements for Age-Friendly Housing (AFH) and develops a Kano model questionnaire to analyze preferences among various age groups of elderly individuals. Additionally, it evaluates how living arrangements and health conditions impact these preferences. Results show that individuals aged 60-74 prioritize visual connections with the external environment and monitoring the surroundings outside their homes, while those aged 75 and above focus more on bathroom safety and indoor mobility. Seniors aged 60-74 living with children, and those aged 75 and above living with caregivers or in nursing homes, generally exhibit less concern for most design strategies. Conversely, seniors with arthritis, visual impairments, or hearing disabilities tend to favor design improvements more. Policymaking and implementation related to AFH should account for elderly individuals' diverse ages and living arrangements to set appropriate priorities, thereby aiding in optimizing resources and enhancing residents' satisfaction and quality of life.

As the earliest geographical unit of human activities, river basins have nurtured civilizations with distinct local characteristics. The "human-water relationship" is a key aspect of "human-environment interaction," driving the evolution of urban and rural systems through human adaptation to water. Using Yichang as a case, this paper analyzes population and land use changes to explore the evolution of its "mountain-water-city" spatial pattern. Yichang grows incrementally along the river, forming a compact multi-cluster layout. At the same time, influenced by the significant and special event of the Three GorgesProject construction, the city has undergone rapid "leapfrog" development. Amid population mobility and river basin management needs, Yichang should use its "water" feature to integrate function, scale, and structure, focusing on water protection and utilization to ensure national and energy security. Secondly, amidst the general trend of declining total population and slowing growth, it is necessary to reasonably guide the aggregation and distribution of population within urban spaces based on the resource carrying capacity of each river basin. Finally, Yichang should break linear development inertia, focus on dual city centers, and redirect leading industries from rivers/roads to the eastern industrial city.

Architectural heritage protection is closely linked to residents, but there is a lack of in-depth research on evaluation systems that integrate public feedback. This study used Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) to explore residents' evaluations of local heritage protection in historic cities of China. Public survey data was used to assess a multi-dimensional framework for architectural heritage protection, covering aspects such as architecture, urban planning, economics, social factors, and property. The results show that while residents' overall evaluations of heritage protection dimensions are generally consistent across regions, significant differences exist in their assessments of specific indicators within these dimensions. This study integrates social exchange theory with heritage protection, creating a system to evaluate public perceptions, filling a research gap on resident participation and feedback in heritage protection. These findings offer crucial data support for policymakers, highlighting the importance of resident participation in developing sustainable and effective heritage protection strategies.

Chengyang Eight Village is renowned as a gathering site for the Dong ethnic group and the most prominent area for wooden architecture. Drum tower is an extremely important representative of wooden architecture that can influence the economic and tourism development of the region, providing functions of public activities, communication, and ethnic identity. However, widespread issues such as damage, abandonment, or disappearance threaten drum towers, which are crucial spiritual centres for Dong villages. Despite the social and functional significance of drum towers, there is a lack of comprehensive understanding of how people interact with them. This study aims to analyse Dong people’s choice preferences in drum tower design, to examine the importance of 84 practices and influencing factors and propose a research path for study choice preferences. This study selected five villages among the Chengyang Eight Village as the research sites. Based on data from literature, field investigations, questionnaires and statistical analysis methods, this study analysed the choice preferences of local villagers regarding drum tower design. Five steps, 24 elements and 84 practices of drum towers were studied, and the impacts of the four influencing factors (Practicality, Economy, Decoration, and Belonging) on the three levels of the 84 practices were examined. Results showed that drum towers are a part of a complex, mutually reinforcing system where villagers and the towers mutually promote and influence each other. Villagers exhibited ambivalence towards drum tower design, navigating between deep-rooted traditions and evolving functional needs in contemporary contexts. Drawing on the Space-Behaviour Interaction Theory, this study examined the interaction between villagers and drum towers through a comprehensive approach of qualitative and quantitative methods, and established a research path for choice preferences. This study significantly enriches the discourse on minority village studies and traditional architecture, and provides valuable references for cultural heritage preservation and policy formulation.

Accessibility is a crucial indicator for evaluating the spatial rationalization of commercial facilities in an area, impacting both commercial development and service efficiency. The objective of this research is to analyze the commercial space layout of Maotai Town in Guizhou Province, China, and to design an evaluation system for commercial space accessibility to enhance the efficiency of commercial space use. Firstly, POI (Point of Interest) Data Visualization Analysis will be employed to identify major commercial hotspots and areas not covered by their service reach. Secondly, the spatial accessibility of commercial spaces will be evaluated using Space Syntax and the Cost-Weighted Model in the topological grid dimension and geometric grid dimension. Finally, we will establish a Minimum Cumulative Resistance Model (MCR Model) based on the analysis results obtained to identify the resistance paths that tourists navigate within the research area. This method will provide a precise framework for evaluating the accessibility of commercial spaces throughout the area.

Settlements serve as the tangible carriers of civilization, with historic urban blocks reflecting distinct cultural attributes that are essential for analyzing settlement types, exploring urban form characteristics, and refining spatial planning ideologies. Thus, this study focuses on the block as the fundamental morphological unit and introduces a structured research methodology from the typo-morphological perspective, comprising the following stages: Block Morphology Quantification, Block Pattern Types Extraction, Settlement Type Division, and Planning Ideology Discussion. This methodology can efficiently enhance the understanding of morphology and planning ideologies of heritage settlements by applying quantitative approaches to clustering settlements based solely on block pattern. For method validation, 37 typical colonial heritage settlements in the Americas is conducted as empirical study through the following process: first, quantifying block morphology; second, identifying block pattern types by K-means clustering; third, applying hierarchical clustering referring to the proportion of block pattern types within each case, resulting in the identification of four categories of “strategic core”, “corridor node”, “resource spot” and “overseas new town”; lastly, three key planning ideologies—“order”, “efficiency” and “practicality”—that shaped these settlements are derived from classification results accordingly. As empirical study result, the effectiveness of classifying heritage settlements using block patterns is validated.

Temporary housing is one of the most important elements in disaster recovery and reconstruction activities in emergency situations. This study predicts that post-disaster housing and social life needs can be improved through user satisfaction analyses and underlines that user experiences can guide the achievement of better design solutions in temporary housing. In this context, the case study is based on an evaluation of the changes and/or transformations that took place as a result of the Lagoon Hobby Houses campus, built in the Kahramanmaraş Expo area, being opened to the use of disaster victims as temporary housing after the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquake. The findings suggest that improvements can be made in evidence- and experience-based design and post-disaster temporary housing design criteria by creating reserve areas for residences, designing common areas that encourage socialization and interaction, and providing access to green areas to overcome post-earthquake traumas more easily.

With the implementation of the “rural revitalization” strategy, many traditional villages face the challenges of renewal and revitalization. A scientific and effective understanding of these renovation strategies is crucial in the renewal design process. This study integrates eye-tracking technology and subjective evaluation methods to construct a research framework for assessing cognitive preferences regarding architectural renovation strategies in traditional villages. Three villages in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China—She Village, Lixiang Village, and Sujia Ideal Village—were selected as case studies. Subjective evaluation scores were obtained using a semantic differentiation (SD) questionnaire, and the weights of various evaluation dimensions were determined based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Eye-tracking experiments recorded subjects’ observation processes of different remodeling spaces, producing focus heatmaps, areas of interest (AOI) maps, and corresponding eye movement data. The comprehensive analysis of these two aspects provides a more thorough understanding and evaluation of renovation strategies in traditional villages: (1) In architectural renovation, the most effective strategies are ranked as follows: block addition, facade renovation, juxtaposition of old and new, and overall reshaping. (2) The metrics of richness and recognizability show significant correlations with eye-tracking data, suggesting their importance in comprehensive analysis. (3) Both high and low subjective evaluation scores attract attention, indicating the need to integrate subjective evaluation results with eye-tracking data for accurate judgment.

In planning and design, the concept of “place” has always been fundamental. Current patterns show a greater emphasis on influencing and improving community dynamics through altering the “experience” and “feeling” of locations, especially in local commercial centers and markets that play an important role in the economic growth of cities. The research focuses on the significance of placemaking, a critical component in design, for boosting economic activity in the market(s) and simultaneously fostering a place for social engagement and cohesion. A mixed-methods approach was employed to strengthen the connection between placemaking and the local informal economy in urban areas. This research through a case study outlines the placemaking principle that can convert local commercial areas into more socially cohesive, diverse, and vibrant public spaces. It is recommended that this design-based study be instrumental for local and national marketplaces in Pakistan.

The increasing impacts of human activities on sustainable development have promoted the use of spatial planning as an essential policy tool to governing human activities patterns. However, the effect of spatial planning on such patterns remains insufficiently unexplored. In this study, we used Point of Interest (POI) data and spatial statistical methods to analyze the spatial patterns of human activities in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) Urban Agglomeration in China between 2018 and 2022, and then evaluated the conformance between these patterns with the planned spatial patterns outlined in the YRD Urban Agglomeration Development Plan. The results show that while the development plan is effective on promoting spatial integration of human activities, it has not fully achieved the intended patterns. Shanghai’s prominence as a business center has strengthened over time, though its population and industrial centers have eroded. The Su-Xi-Chang metropolitan area illustrated a high level of spatial integration and has emerged as a key industrial function zone. However, many peripheral cities, including those in Anhui Province, northern Jiangsu Province, and southern Zhejiang Province, remain poorly integrated into the YRD Urban Agglomeration. To conclude, we recommend wider application of social sensing data on plan evaluation and highlight a diverse set of collaborative strategies to strengthen spatial integration between central and neighboring cities, as well as between metropolitan areas within the agglomeration.

The preservation of linear cultural heritage currently stands as a critical issue within the realm of global cultural heritage protection. The integration of cultural and ecological factors, as well as protection policies and implementation strategies, are facing great challenges. In 2019, the linear heritage “the Great Tea Route” was added to the Tentative List of China’s World Cultural Heritage, underscoring its cultural and ecological significance. This study presents the construction of an expansive cultural and ecological corridor network across the Shanxi Province section of the route, employing morpho-spatial pattern analysis, the Max-Ent model, and the MCR model to effectively integrate cultural and ecological resources. And explores the establishment of cultural landscape nodes and the enhancement of cultural and ecological services, advocating a community co-construction model. This not only facilitates the development of a corridor-based economy but also addresses administrative challenges, thus promoting the preservation and management of cultural and ecological resources. The network developed comprises 43 cultural ecology points, 86 cultural source points, and 21 ecological sources, forming a foundation for the corridor’s conservation and use. This study aims to provide new insights for the sustainable management of linear cultural heritage and promote the comprehensive protection of resources.

Urban vacancy, often seen as a challenge, offers unique opportunities for ecological and social enhancements in cityscapes. This study explores the role of small green spaces in urban resilience, particularly in high-density metropolises, through a social-ecological lens. We began with a critical review to develop and validate a questionnaire, drawing on theoretical frameworks and confirming the derived criteria with twenty-two experts. Key resilience attributes identified for urban landscapes included flexibility, efficiency, activity, connectivity, and diversity. Utilizing the Best-Worst Method (BWM), we discerned the most and least significant of these attributes. The study then employed Hierarchical Bayes analysis via XLSTAT software to analyze questionnaire responses (n = 386, 60.36% female) and calculate the part-worth utility and importance ratings for each attribute. Results highlighted water presence, high tree density, and activity areas as vital attributes for small urban parks. These insights are crucial for landscape architects, emphasizing attributes that enhance park visitation and usability. Additionally, the innovative methodological approach of this study offers a new pathway for research in urban planning and the built environment.

In recent decades, rapid urbanization has introduced significant challenges to urban planning, exacerbated by ongoing urban expansion and population growth. Among these challenges is the critical need to enhance public safety and the living environment, driven by principles of human-centered design and sustainable urban development. To address this, this paper introduces a novel multi-objective optimization framework for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) facility layout, integrating multi-source data to support urban planning and manage public safety risks effectively. This framework uses corroborative multi-source data to analyze current EMS facilities and suggests improvements through preservation, expansion, and new facility introduction, carefully considering construction costs, resident usage efficiency, and access equity. A multi-objective evolutionary algorithm calculates Pareto optimal solutions for site selection, allowing for a balanced consideration of conflicting EMS siting objectives. Further solution set clustering enables decision-makers to quickly identify and refine strategies aligned with their preferences. We demonstrate the applicability of our framework through a quantitative and qualitative case study in Dangtu, China. The results reveal that our approach not only aids urban planners in making informed decisions that improve EMS facility accessibility but also ensures equitable use and enhances public safety in alignment with sustainable urban development goals.

Historical buildings influenced by multiculturalism exhibit characteristics of stylistic integration and cultural complexity. Research on multicultural architecture is significant for understanding the collision and fusion of diverse cultures. Currently, studies in this field primarily focus on the qualitative descriptions of architectural styles. In this study, we analyze the floor plans of historical buildings located in the World Cultural Heritage site of Gulangyu Island. Utilizing methods such as typology, spatial schema, space syntax, cluster analysis, and regression analysis, we investigate their gene mapping and formation mechanisms. The results indicate the following: The gene mapping of multicultural plan variants (denoted as "V"), can be expressed as follows: V = L×X% + F×Y%, where "L" represents the local planar prototype, and "F" denotes the foreign planar prototype, and X + Y = 100). These variants can be classified into three types. Multicultural plan variants include three generative mechanisms: "Imitation," "Compromise," and "Variation." The spatial layout, central positioning, and traffic flow lines reflect the "Imitation" of local planar prototypes. Connectivity and integration illustrate the "Compromise" between local and foreign planar prototypes. Topological structures and topological depth represent the "Variation" influenced by foreign planar prototypes.

The urban morphological system, developed over multiple phases, exhibits complex cross-scale characteristics, with significant scale discrepancies among morphological elements at the same hierarchical level, which suggests that the cross-scale sliding model holds the potential to reveal additional characteristics of urban morphology. This paper introduces a multifractal method that integrates Spacematrix morphological classification for the analysis of detailed urban building data within defined boundaries. Using the Nanjing Old City in China as a case study, the results reveal a dense yet balanced urban form, showing annular differentiation characterized by fragmented fringe belts at the macro level and a uniform mixture of diverse land use types and building types at the micro level. The typical scale invariance and multifractality are not consistently observed across single-type analyses. The study identifies height uniformization and spaciousness differentiation in the scaling of urban morphology, attributing the multifractal mechanism to the interweaving and transformation of multiple types across scales. This enhanced multifractal approach improves spatial mapping capabilities, aiding in the elucidation of the formation mechanisms of urban morphology.