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Multi-Level Housing Governance in Rural Settlement Lin & Jia

1. INTRODUCTION In the 20th century, a survey of
The vernacular house is a concept of vernacular houses was conducted all over the
multiplicity, literally and figuratively. On the world, by which various forms of vernacular
one hand, it refers to a human habitat with architecture were recorded [9,10] . Having now
local cultural features where people live that a rather complete documentation of
fulfill the basic requirements of vernacular-built environments, researchers
accommodation and production. On the other focus more on the issues beyond form, to
hand, it is a dynamic complex that assembles explain how the vernacular house forms are
multi-dimension variables of time, space, and generated from specific physical and social
people, in nature. Nothing is constant, things environments [11] . Amos Rapoports
change all the time. Transformations are not demonstrated that socio-cultural factors are
the result of a single factor, be it the political the decisive factors that affect house form
or economic one. Indeed, it is the result of a indirectly. Climate, materials, construction,
composition of various forces including and technology etcetera, as the directly
official and folks. These forces form a modifying factors can also alter house forms
housing governance system that is constantly [12] . Architects and geographers continued to
changing, which then impacts different levels explore the connections between culture and
of built environment, to different extents the built environment, depicting variations
respectively. and distributions of built forms within a
Housing governance is a management particular culture or cross-cultural region [13-
system to control housing practice. It is 16] .
termed and applied firstly in the context of In recent decades, research on vernacular
business and enterprise research. It refers to a houses have increasingly stressed on the
series of rules and set of owned dynamic and processual nature of tradition.
responsibilities to regulate the architectural “The vernacular as process” [17] has been
practice that ensure the integrity and raised clearly that attempts to identify the
[1]
effectiveness of the housing system . The control and authority in vernacular houses.
concept of governance bridges housing form This idea is fundamental to understand
transformation with the agent groups that vernacular in this paper that eventually
control the process that how form generates motivates advanced research on the
and changes. The system of housing transformation of rural housing development
governance is hierarchical, it engages into the context of Chinese vernacular
multiple levels of space and agent groups architecture.
along the lines of architectural practice. It Current studies on the transformation or
provides key clues to explore the dynamic evolution of Chinese vernacular architecture
mechanism of vernacular housing are mainly on the transforming process of
transformation in detail. spatial structure, and the influencing factors
The study of vernacular settlement and of society and culture behind forms. Scholars
houses started from the 19th century. During studied the transformation of rural settlements
the 19th century, “vernacular architecture” in different regions from the perspective of
was used by architectural theorists to refer to social structure. Duan Jin used topology
rural buildings of the preindustrial era, that methods to analyze the spatial structure of
were apparently the houses of yeoman historic town settlements in the Lake Tai
farmers and that seemed not to have been Basin [18] . By establishing an interrelated
“consciously” designed or affected by the research method of traditional space analysis,
intellectual and artistic currents of the space syntax, and historical geography
[2]
Renaissance . The discussion concentrated interpretation, Yan Ruihong carried out
on discovery and peripheral description of graphic analysis on traditional Chinese
shelter types and people, symbolism, and settlements to explore the deep structure and
exotic nature of vernacular forms [3-8] . evolution of spatial forms [19] .

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