Page 10 - JCAU-6-3

Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Is it a matter of design?

initial numerical assessment. The degree of ecology in of this approach, emphasizing the need for individualized
different riparian situations can be measured and, the planning solutions rather than the homogenization of
study implicitly suggests, transformed. rural landscapes into urban blocks.
Similarly, Wu et al. (2024) focus on landscape Long’s (2023) review of Home Beyond the House:
architecture as a viable conduct toward comprehensive Transformation of Life, Place, and Tradition in Rural
rural revitalization, stressing the role rural green China (Zhao, 2023) introduces us to the theme of
infrastructures can play in cultural environments. Their inhabiting traditional settings from an anthropological
research considers Yulong Village in Hainan, examining and ethnographic perspective, exploring the multifaceted
the modernization of traditional agrarian culture and its meaning of the term jia (家). The review guides the reader
environmental challenges. The study showed how landscape through the pages of the book, drawing attention to critical
design could harmonize historic cultural traditions with points. Through ethnographic fieldwork on the lives of
modern agriculture and biodiversity sensitivity by creating rural residents in Yanxia, a Han village in China’s Zhejiang
favorable conditions for a larger variety of species to province, building surveys, and over 600 photographs, the
proliferate and enhance the local genetic pool. Here, design book uncovers the meaning of home from the perspective
follows the primary investigation methods, which are of underrepresented and underserved rural communities.
bibliographic and cross-disciplinary, to test and possibly Long (2023) emphasized the role of tradition – identity,
validate a proposal consistent with the research premises. kinship, collectivity, social relations, land ownership, and
The findings emphasize the importance of recognizing the rural lifestyle – in shaping the concept of home, a transient
interconnectedness of ecological, economic, cultural, and ideological and pragmatic feature in contemporary China’s
social values in achieving rural revitalization goals. shifting conditions. In this sense, this contribution offers a
significant source of intending and making the domestic
Ramondetti (2023) examines the potential of design space. From the argumentation, it is possible to extract
in envisioning new urbanization plans commissioned by design-oriented clues to inherit tradition and, at the same
local governments. The article discusses the future Shan- time, envision contemporary needs.
Shui City competition held in 2020 by Lishui Municipality
in Zhejiang province by analyzing the three winning 3. Conclusions and openings
projects. Although this competition fits into the larger
plan to urbanize rural areas (Ramondetti, 2022), Zhejiang The design dimension entered the scope of these articles in
province has once again (Tiantian et al., 2020) proven to various ways. For instance, we find, as in the case of Yubai
pioneer innovative transformation methods. Design is Village (Li et al., 2024), the project serves as a technical
addressed in two ways. First, the article outlines the design instrument to materialize the goals abstractly fixed in
process undertaken by the author, explaining the goals and national and local policies. Here, designers perform as
tools used in the competition. Second, the article provided tools of execution, exploring functional and esthetic
the chance for a comparative evaluation of alternative reorganization of public open spaces without questioning
approaches, adopting “what if” premises and consequence the underlying reasons and goals. Such a pragmatic
scenarios. The article explores how policies have influenced approach puts design into a utilitarian dimension,
which, regardless of subjective opinions, efficiently and
current planning activities and addressed themes in urban professionally fulfills the mandate received from above.
projects, providing insights into development in Chinese This top-down implementation constructs artificial images
marginal areas and opening discussions on new visions for and experiences where, while the economic benefits of
rural futures beyond China.
external tourist flows are easily recognizable, the cultural
Meriggi et al. (2023) addressed the challenges faced inheritance inherently becomes subject to negotiation,
by rural areas in the hinterland of Chinese city regions, balancing the will of commodifying the village’s traditional
particularly in conserving architectural and landscape atmosphere with market-oriented transformations,
heritage. They emphasized the vulnerability of rural encapsulating one of the recurrent fragilities embedded
settlements to urban expansion as conventional planning in cultural sites targeted by developmental practices
methods have often failed to integrate both urban and rural (Semprebon, 2022a). The article assessing the ecosystem
features effectively. Starting from the model of the urban- services of riparian zones (Dong et al., 2023) envisions a
rural continuum defined by G. W. Skinner, the article replicable model to evaluate and orient both ex-ante and
proposes a holistic design approach to shape hybrid rural- ex-post design choices. Although the contribution does not
urban settlements into “green cities,” drawing inspiration discuss the contents and methods of any specific project,
from local architecture and rural urbanism. Case studies it provides parallel and complementary instruments for
in Huiyang, Pidu, and Kandun illustrate the application operation in the field of design. While the gaps between

Volume 6 Issue 3 (2024) 4 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.3370