The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931—1945) witnessed the relocation of China’s Construction Center from downstream Yangtze River cities such as Shanghai and Nanjing to the inland city of Chongqing. This study examines three construction types undertaken by the Kwan, Chu and Yang Architects & Engineers (Kitai) in wartime Chongqing, revealing their adaptive strategies amid constraints of material scarcity, population surge, and wartime bombing, as well as the developmental modes behind these approaches. Within the brick-timber system, the strategies of structural reduction, enclosure grafting, and appearance imitation were explored to achieve cost-effective and aesthetically pleasing buildings. In the single-story timber (bamboo) system, the integration of Western-style trusses with local construction methods enabled the creation of stable structures and column-free interior spaces. In reinforced concrete air-raid shelters, the strategic placement of steel reinforcements balanced structural solidness with spatial efficiency. These construction strategies exemplified three predominant technical patterns: “transplantation-grafting,” “grafting-integration,” and “transplantation-tracking.” These construction types illustrated an alternative modernization path for Chinese architecture, distinct from that of the coastal regions, driven by regional interactions within China rather than external Western influence. The study enriches the understanding of the diversity in China’s architectural modernization and offers insights into the adaptability and innovation of construction in late-developing regions.

Architectural murals, as integral elements of built heritage, preserve rich cultural, religious, and social narratives. However, the passage of time and inadequate protective measures have led to severe degradation, resulting in frequent issues such as peeling, cracking, and mold, which hinder accurate measurement, documentation, and evaluation. The inherent characteristics of indoor architectural environments limit the lighting intensity during on-site mural photography, often leading to low-illuminance digital images. This poses serious challenges for the identification, analysis, and restoration of damaged mural surfaces. To address these issues and improve on-site conservation efficiency in architectural settings, we propose a Multi-layer Interactive Siamese-Filtering Enhancement and Restoration (MISFR) network with a two-stage strategy. This model not only effectively enhances the visual quality of mural images captured under suboptimal lighting conditions but also demonstrates superior performance on multiple evaluation metrics compared to existing methods. This work presents a novel solution specifically tailored for measurement and restoration scenarios of architectural mural images. We hope this work will contribute significantly to the conservation, restoration, and sustainable transmission of mural art within architectural heritage.

This study presents an unsupervised image clustering approach to support expertled analysis and tagging of traditional Thai architectural photography. This study evaluates how effectively deep-feature clustering derived from pre-trained CNN embeddings reveal meaningful groupings within Thai stupa photography without relying on existing labels. A subset of 824 images depicting stupas was selected from an original academic archival 7696-image dataset in order to investigate the feasibility of clustering based on deep features extracted from four pre-trained Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs): VGG19, ResNet50, DenseNet, and InceptionV3. These embeddings were clustered using the K-means algorithm, and results were validated qualitatively by a domain expert. Among the models, ResNet50 achieved the lowest rejection rate and highest alignment with expert interpretations. Notably, the expert’s engagement with the clustering outputs led to the revision of prior annotations, revealing instances of label noise and enhancing intra-cluster specificity. These findings suggest that CNN-based clustering can mitigate the limitations of expert-dependent tagging, namely incompleteness, subjectivity, and inconsistency while offering a generalizable framework for similar heritage datasets with sparse or noisy labels. The study contributes a hybrid human-AI methodology for visual cultural heritage analysis and highlights opportunities in supervised style classification and automated archiving workflows.

High-vitality metro station areas significantly enhance public transit efficiency, reduce energy consumption, and improve public life. With walkability closely linked to station area vitality, pedestrian-friendly environments are fundamental to developing vibrant nodes. While research on built environments and urban vitality is extensive, studies specifically examining walkability-vitality relationships in metro station contexts remain limited. Existing research mainly focuses on functional and accessibility aspects, overlooking the effect of public spaces and building forms that shape walking experience while neglecting potential nonlinear effects. This study takes 274 metro stations in Shanghai as examples and applies the GBDT machine learning model to explore the non-linear and synergistic effects of walkability on station area vitality from four dimensions: land use, street network, public space configuration, and building form. Results demonstrate that diverse and high-density POI, adequate squares and pedestrian malls, and short street lengths constitute the primary factors enhancing metro station area vitality. The influence of floor area ratio, motorway width, and quantity of squares on vitality exhibits pronounced non-linear characteristics, with optimal threshold ranges significantly augmenting station area vitality. Additionally, synergistic interactions are observed among several walkability indicators. The research integrates these findings into specific station area optimization strategies, further discussing the practical application value of the research findings, such as developing targeted urban renewal strategies.

From an integrated perspective of “vernacular quyi and spatial forms,” this study organizes the spatial morphology of Ba shu opera stage courtyards through documentary research, field research, and oral history to clarify the cultural and technological background. Based on typological theory, it summarizes design parameters through technical examination of their planer layouts, facade order, unit combinations, and space correlation, elucidating the hierarchical principles. By applying cultural space theory, the study deciphers typological compositions through cultural interpretations of archetypes, interfaces, fields, and spaces, to reveal the socio-cultural mechanisms. The findings demonstrate that these courtyards are geopolitical cultural products shaped by spatial patterns and temporal evolution within the Ba shu cultural geography as performance-spectating spaces for Sichuan opera and quyi. Their spatial forms crystallise regional vernacular quyi culture and indigenous geographical wisdom, becoming integral to concepts, structures, regulations, and customary practices of quyi. This research provides technical references for the conservation and restoration of the architectural heritage of Ba shu opera and the sustainable utilization of quyi cultural heritage. It supports efforts to secure UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site status for the Sichuan Ancient Road cultural route.

Despite previous calls for a more integrated approach to behavioural research in architecture, studies on housing design and behaviour have remained largely fragmented. While post-occupancy evaluative studies today constitute a significant part of housing design research, behavioural outcomes of housing design, remains largely under studied and represents a key research gap. It is against this backdrop that this literature review seeks to outline how the interaction between spatial design and behaviour is investigated by reviewing 32 recent architectural research publications. In addition to identifying critical gaps and challenges, this paper suggests that housing design and architecture scholars can draw upon studies from different disciplines as well as valuable data beyond academia. More importantly, it is also imperative to recentre theoretical and conceptual discussions when studying and analysing the relationship between housing design and behaviour. The methodological approaches and theoretical frameworks highlighted in this review can be useful points of departure for developing a more holistic approach to housing design research, which would in turn lead to better housing design that matches the changing needs and behaviours of the residents.

Understanding the intricate relationship between the built environment and living street vitality is crucial for guiding the revitalization of street life. Traditional linear models often oversimplify this relationship, while machine learning models fail to account for spatial heterogeneity. To overcome these limitations, this study proposes a hybrid framework, geographically weighted-gradient boosting decision trees (GW-GBDT), which integrates geographically weighted regression (GWR) with gradient boosting decision trees (GBDT). Using Xiamen Island as a case study, we examined the nonlinear effects of built environment features on both the intensity and stability of living street vitality across four dimensions, including transport accessibility, built environment quality, daily service facilities, and morphological features. Results reveal that daily service facility density and floor area ratio are the most significant characteristics shaping intensity of vitality, while daily service facility diversity and green view ratio play dominant roles in stability of vitality. Furthermore, built environment features exhibit spatially varying threshold effects across different functional zones. These findings offer actionable insights for urban planners, emphasizing the need for localized, context-specific strategies to enhance living street vitality.

Dynamic photovoltaic shading systems (PVSDs) that can automatically adjust PV angles according to solar altitude and azimuth to enhance solar energy utilization, have become an important research focus in building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV). The geographical and climatic characteristics of different cities have a significant impact on the optical performance and power generation efficiency of PVSDs, yet prior studies generally lack systematic cross-climate evaluations and regional correlation analyses. To address this gap, this study assessed the daylighting performance of dynamic PVSDs in six representative Chinese cities under diverse climatic conditions and conducted a regional correlation analysis. The results showed that, regardless of dynamic or static control strategies, south-facing PVSDs consistently achieved the highest annual electricity generation, followed by west-facing PVSDs. Compared with horizontal static systems, dynamic systems significantly increased annual power generation by 16.1%—29.9%. Using the south-facing configuration as an example, Beijing’s dynamic PVSDs yielded the highest annual power generation at 240 kWh, while Chengdu recorded the lowest at 110.54 kWh. In addition, during summer, dynamic PVSDs effectively met indoor lighting demands and improved illuminance uniformity; for instance, in Harbin, illuminance uniformity increased by 1.1%. Overall, dynamic PVSDs balanced power generation and daylighting objectives across different urban contexts, demonstrating practical value and broad applicability for building energy conservation and indoor daylighting environment optimization.

With at least 15% of children meeting the diagnostic criteria as neurodivergent, inclusive preschool environments are crucial for supporting engagement in education and a smooth transition to mainstream schooling. Although Universal Design for Learning has advanced inclusive pedagogical approaches, its intersection with the design of inclusive physical environments, particularly in early-year educational settings, remains underexplored. This study addresses this gap by drawing on insights from ten experts in education or built environment design, using a qualitative Delphi method to identify spatial features and design processes that support neurodivergent preschoolers aged three to five. Findings highlight sensory and spatial considerations, such as managing smell and noise in dining areas, reducing clutter through cabinetry and storage, providing flexibility with visual structure, and protecting personal space in circulation zones and classrooms. Experts emphasised the importance of aligning inclusive pedagogies with spatial design by developing competencies through spatial predictability and diversity and supporting self-regulation with transitional and retreat spaces. The study also critiques reliance on special-purpose spaces, which may unintentionally reinforce segregation. Finally, it underscores the importance of co-designing with educators and children―both to inform design and retrofitting, and to raise awareness of how different spaces can accommodate diverse needs in inclusive preschools.

The spatiotemporal heterogeneity of the impact of BE on urban transportation remains underexplored, especially in nonlinear dynamics and the comprehensive effects of CEs and spatial configuration in sustainable transportation systems. Using smart card and multi-source urban data, this study analyzes Beijing’s mobility patterns under CEs and NTs, modeling 20 BE factors with XGBoost to uncover nonlinear BE-UM relationships, outperforming conventional OLS. The SHAP value is further introduced to quantify the nonlinear threshold effect of BE on UM, supporting local interpretation to global multi-scale analysis. The results show that (1) Plot ratio and network centrality drive UM, but their effects show significant temporal and spatial differences. CAC relies on high plot ratio development to improve commuting efficiency, while NTs promote um through high network centrality. (2) Non-workday mobility exhibits stronger sensitivity to the mixed degree of functions than workdays, reflecting BE’s adaptive demand for flexible travel patterns. (3) The impact of BE on UM has an apparent threshold effect, thus requiring differentiated planning strategies aligned with CEs’ and NTs’ functional roles. These findings inform multicentric urban optimization and sustainable transport strategies, guiding new towns’ core function decentralization through built environment threshold-based planning.

Outdoor thermal comfort in urban residential blocks significantly affects residents’ quality of life and health, and this effect varies seasonally. Severely cold regions experience harsh winters, and with global climate change, thermal environment problems in summer are also emerging. However, there is a lack of research on the seasonal outdoor thermal comfort in severely cold cities. This study takes 156 real residential blocks in Harbin as research cases. Through numerical simulation and statistical analysis, the influence of local climate zone (LCZ) types, block layout types, and morphological parameters on the outdoor thermal environment in winter and summer is explored. The Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) is used to evaluate thermal comfort. The results show that the influence of block morphology on UTCI in winter is significantly greater than that in summer, and wind speed has a major impact on outdoor thermal comfort. Compact blocks provide better thermal comfort in both winter and summer. The seasonal thermal comfort level of blocks with hybrid layout type, which is mainly courtyard layout, is higher. This study is of great value and scientific significance for improving the urban living environment and guiding the planning and design of blocks in severely cold regions.

No one could have anticipated the tremendous changes that occurred to the natural and built environment throughout the last few decades. Climate change, the spread of pandemics, natural disasters, the increasing rates of Carbon emissions, and the AI revolution are among the critical issues that have radically impacted architectural thought. The question is: Are architects today prepared to design buildings and cities that can withstand these changes? The problem lies in the shortage of comprehensive knowledge of the theoretical foundations that can guide architects in addressing these variables. This paper, therefore, aims to produce a comprehensive theorisation chart for contemporary architectural trends, generated and developed between 2000 and 2025. Based on qualitative methodology, the paper begins with a literature review defining the meanings of Architectural Trend, Contemporary Architectural Trend, and Theorisation, then identifies the significant twenty-first-century variables. The paper demonstrates previous readings and concludes a framework of analysis. The research analyses six case studies, followed by a detailed comparison. In the discussion, the paper reaches the new theorisation ‒ evolutionary tree ‒ chart. As a result, this chart may provide a new classification that guides architects, critics, and students in comprehending the reflections of twenty-first-century variables on architecture.

Against the backdrop of urban-rural integrated development and intensifying landuse conflicts, there is an urgent need for constructing public columbaria in China. However, these facilities currently lack effective design paradigms, while interdisciplinary and sectoral barriers impede spatial integration, resulting in fragmented spatial organization. Focusing on the core functional unit―the ash interment chamber―this study analyzes the Public Columbarium Project Series in Jiangning District, Nanjing, and proposes a spatial module centered around an inner courtyard. This module integrates natural and cultural elements while addressing multiple needs, including facility layout, spatial configuration, environmental quality, safety evacuation, and ritual processes. It establishes a coherent multi-scale relationship spanning “niche — shelf unit — building module — site”. Leveraging its high integration efficiency and spatial adaptability, this approach provides an integrated design methodology for public columbaria in high-density urban-rural environments, promoting the future development of compact and vertical ash interment practices.

While the “3D” principles―density, diversity, and design―remain central to Transit-Oriented Development (TOD), their effectiveness in metro station areas is increasingly constrained by the complex interplay of natural and built environmental factors. Among these, wind conditions are critical yet often overlooked. This study proposes a zoning optimization framework based on a dual-dimensional model combining wind speed (aerodynamic force) and the Frontal Area Index (FAI, morphological resistance). Using WRF/CALMET simulations and GIS-based modeling, localized wind data were obtained for 146 metro stations in Nanjing. K-means clustering and spatial autocorrelation analyses identified four representative wind environment types. Key findings: the mean station wind speed is 3.08 m/s―pedestrian-comfortable yet slightly below the city mean―and the mean FAI is 1.01, indicating generally high aerodynamic resistance. About 50% of stations fall within FAI 0.79—1.21; higher FAIs cluster in historic cores, elevated values occur in both flat and hilly terrains via different mechanisms, and lower values appear near large open spaces. Clustering yields four wind-environment types from “low-speed—high-FAI” to “high-speed—low-FAI.” The resulting wind-zoning map provides a robust basis for differentiated zoning and climate-responsive TOD planning.

Seeking an explanation for some striking formal characteristics of classical Greek temples, the author hypothesize that the temple (naos in Greek) derives from an upturned rowing ship (naus) stored on supports, which ancient sailors may have used to camp overseas and to gather in their Greek homeland. Examples are provided showing that this practice has been widespread in various maritime cultures. Next, the freeboard of the galleys of the Geometric and Archaic periods, well known from the clay model found in Gytheion, are formally compared with Doric and Ionic entablatures. Ten similarities are found, arranged vertically in reverse order, which explain their origin and function. Further on, the existence of two entablatures is explained as the result of an enlargement, which gave rise to the peristyle. Other characteristics of the temple are subjected to the hypothesis. The internal consistency and explanatory scope of the hypothesis lead the author to conclude that Greek Doric and Ionic temples do indeed imitate upturned rowing ships in their entablature and roofs, and that elements traditionally considered ornamental originally had a functional role in the ships they were intended to reproduce. Finally author suggests that further research be conducted on written sources and field archaeology.

As a paradigm of civil charitable organizations, charitable estates in Southern Jiangsu emerged as a unique cultural phenomenon in China since the Northern Song Dynasty, encapsulating the clans’ spiritual ethos of self-support, benevolence and philanthropy. With architectural space as the central focus, this paper investigates the millennium-long evolution of charitable estates in Southern Jiangsu (960—1949) from the combined perspective of history, sociology and architecture. With the core features including charitable fields, ancestral halls and charitable schools, charitable estates in Southern Jiangsu established an ethical framework integrating economic relief, clan management and education. Over the course of a thousand years, the architectural site selection, functional arrangements, spatial layouts, structures, decorations and governance models of these charitable estates profoundly responded to state policy adjustments, economic structure transformation, cultural transformations and social environmental changes, thus forming a unique developmental logic of “adaptive coexistence and innovative transformation”. This study reveals the dynamic architectural evolution of charitable estates in Southern Jiangsu, which may contribute to the analysis of such a unique architectural heritage, and supplement the research on the historical context of civil charity and the complex changes in grassroots society in China.

During the modern period of China (1840—1949), foreign public buildings in the Jiangnan region (represented by Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang) exhibited a diverse range of architectural styles. To investigate how the architectural language of these foreign buildings was absorbed and integrated into local building typologies, this study employed a multidimensional clustering method to analyse their formal characteristics, aiming to reveal potential differences in the processes of localisation. Through data coding and decoding, two clustering patterns emerged: (1) cluster A: modern-localised, dominated by Western modern architectural prototypes; (2) cluster B: classical-localised, dominated by Western classical architectural prototypes. Further analysis identified two distinct localisation paths: (1) cluster A by modern-localised follows a deepening localisation path, indicating increasing cultural integration; (2) cluster B by classical-localised follows a weakening localisation path, reflecting a persistence of foreign influence. Situated within the broader historical context of modern Chinese architecture, these findings illustrate the evolving architectural discourse on the interplay between locality and foreignness from 1840 to 1949, offering a new perspective for studying the localisation of foreign architectural forms.

As cities densify, integrating biodiversity into architecture has become a growing concern for design and ecological practice. Yet few buildings place biodiversity at the core of conception rather than treating it as an environmental add-on, and even fewer are evaluated ecologically over extended periods. The School of Sciences and Biodiversity in Boulogne-Billancourt, France, combines an intensive green roof conceived as a mosaic of habitats for local species, inspired by the woodlands of île-de-France, with a bioreceptive façade intended for spontaneous colonization with minimal maintenance. This article presents a ten-year evaluation of the project, combining species surveys with post-occupancy observations of use and maintenance. It examines how ecological, design, and user data collected over time can be interpreted to extract adaptive management strategies within architectural practice. Over the decade, 345 species were recorded, including 207 plants, 100 invertebrates, 20 birds and a few reptiles and bats, at levels comparable to nearby parks. The results show that ecological persistence on buildings depends strongly on design choices, user practices, and maintenance. Conflicts between access and conservation required spatial reorganization. The study offers practical insights for future ecosystemic buildings, emphasizing habitat heterogeneity, long-term monitoring, and adaptive management as key design and operational principles.

Speculative urbanism, defined by the practice of purchasing land with the expectation of realizing a profit when urban value is generated in the future, is becoming more prominent in structuring cities in the Global South. In this paper, this phenomenon is discussed with a view of understanding how transport infrastructure improvement through the construction of the Nairobi railway line impacted on change in the use of physical space and the physical form of urban areas. Using survey data, structural equation modelling, and land use analysis, the study reveals the factors that led to change in the chosen urban before, during and after the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR). This paper contributes to speculative urbanism literature by empirically demonstrating how state-led infrastructural investment intersects with market-driven land speculation, reshaping urban form in Nairobi. It is among the first studies to apply Structural Equation Modelling to map the relational effects of planning, speculation, and urban growth in a Global South context. Based on the results, it can be concluded that land privatization is the primary influence on the land-use changes supported by speculative investments and planning frameworks. The final policy considerations are directed at increasing the connectivity of transport infrastructure and urban design.

In an era of pervasive alienation, examining spatial alienation and its potential positive roles has become essential for understanding the evolution of human settlements and the built urban environment. This study focuses on the exterior spaces of large-scale public buildings in Shanghai and designs an empirical investigation based on the presumed correlation between spatial vitality and multi-alienation. The findings demonstrate that vibrant exterior spaces are inherently multi-alienated environments. Human behavior and perception show a high degree of consistency in this regard, suggesting that the core of spatial vitality lies in dynamic occupation grounded in publicness.

This paper introduces architectonic writing, a computational method of architectural inquiry emerging from interactions among general AI, domain-specific datasets, curated biases, and code-based loops. Positioned in an era shaped by artificial intelligence and synthetic textual systems, architectonic writing transcends traditional authorship by orchestrating relational structures—connecting specialized libraries, computational systems, and architectural concepts. The methodology integrates large language models such as ChatGPT, characterized by associative, synthetic articulation, with custom-built models like Alice_ch3n81, which introduces deliberate biases and architectural lineage. Demonstrated through an experimental framework generating 100 synthetic poems on architecture, the paper argues that this approach opens up new speed, scales, and complexity of architectural articulation. Supported by House of Coded Objects (Studio Zwei, UIBK) and Studio Meteora (Digital Architectonics, ETH Zurich), the project contributes to ongoing conversations about artificial intelligence, authorship, and knowledge in architecture.