The research presented in this book examines Guizhou ethnic minority settlements located in the eastern part of Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, in the southwest of China. The specificity and the relevance of these settlements, therefore, refers to a combination of anthropological, architectural, environmental issues. Guizhou is a province of ethnic groups since thousands of years engaged in farming or semi-nomadic production. These ethnic minority settlements were self contained and balanced communities which gradually developed their own specific and unique culture of farming, settling and inhabiting. As many precious and valuable historical human settlements still standing around the world, whose architecture and urban features are not easily replicable for culture, skills, social and economic conditions, the Guizhou ethnic minority settlements are tangible architectural heritage – including intangible values – experiencing high risks due to their unavoidable physical decay, demography, urban development pressure.

International openness is one of the fundamental characteristics of the DiAP Department of Architecture and Design, which sees its members active in 57 bilateral collaboration agreements (without counting the Erasmus agreements) with countries in which today there is a demand for architectural design that looks at Italy as a model, not only for studies of historical architecture, but also for contemporary architecture designed in the existing city and for the new building, including complex landscape and environmental systems.

The Scientific Society Ludovico Quaroni was founded in Rome in 2010 as a tribute to Ludovico Quaroni, the Italian Master of Urban Architecture. Its purpose is “the study of the contemporary and historical city and architecture; the study of the design and theoretical works of the leading architects and scholars of architecture, the city and the territory”. To achieve these goals, the Scientific Society Ludovico Quaroni has founded the present electronic review, “L’architettura delle città – The Journal of the Scientific Society Ludovico Quaroni”. The title is a reminder of Ludovico Quaroni’s earliest book entitled L’architettura delle città (Ed. Sansaini, Rome 1939).

The city of Durban is one of the most intriguing for architects and urban designers, due to its cultural and economic diversity on one the hand and its political evolution since its colonial formalisation, apartheid influences and its post-apartheid evolution, on the other. It is a city that expresses complex narratives in architectural form and expression, seemingly chaotic, yet within and upon a cogent overall structure. Perhaps, it is that very cogency in urban structure which facilitated its complex evolution, or perhaps not. This paradox forms the crux of the studies and applied research part of this book, and which defined the sites of focus for a collaborative studio workshop. Durban is a modern city which expresses the complex dynamics of an African city emerging from a historically colonial foundation. This provided an interesting context for engagement of the UNESCO Chair for Sustainable Urban Quality and Culture, notably in Africa. The institutional agreement between the UNESCO Chair, Sapienza University of Rome and the Durban University of Technology (DUT) was formalised in the year 2013, prior to an international workshop in China and the UIA 2014 in Durban, South Africa. The focus of the Chair and the curriculum outcomes of DUT, with regard to urban culture and the evolution thereof, created a mutually opportune association, with the possibility for contribution to the UIA 2014 conference in Durban. After deliberations and the necessary paperwork, the UNESCO Chair, in Association with DUT, were granted official space on the UIA Programme for presentation at the conference. This was received with much enthusiasm, which drew further interest and participation from students and Professors of Sapienza University of Rome and Tsinghua University of Beijing in China. Further representation of academics from Manipal University in India, School of Architecture University of Florida and Hosei University in Japan added much value to the collaboration in Durban.

This book is about mountainurbanology grounded in Southwest China, where mountain is a typical landform for many towns and cities. From the multi-disciplinary perspective in a dynamic changing context, it presents a comprehensive framework including the location of mountain city, planning, design, building, transportation, disaster, aesthetics and governance in building up mountain cities based on investigation of natural, social and economic studies. The book also emphasizes ecological planning method based on topography in mountainous area through the lens of teaching and practice on urban planning for over half a century in Southwest China. It is a highly informative book providing academic insight for senior undergraduates, graduate students, lecturers, research professionals and decision makers with an interest in urban planning, ecology, planning and design in mountainous region development. Prof. Guangyu Huang is regarded as Founding Pioneer of mountainurbanology in China, a sub-discipline of urban planning.

From the earliest museums established by Western missionaries in order to implement religious and political power, to the role they have played in the formation of the modern Chinese state, the origin and development of museums in mainland China differ significantly from those in the West. The occurrence of museums in mainland China in the late nineteenth century was primarily a result of internal and external conflicts, Westernization and colonialism, and as such they were never established solely for enjoyment and leisure. Using a historical and anthropological framework, this book provides a holistic and critical review on the establishment and development of museums in mainland China from 1840 to the present day, and shows how museums in China have been used by a wide range of social, political, and state actors for a number of economic, religious, political and ideological purposes. Indeed, Tracey L-D Lu examines the key role played by museums in reinforcing social segmentation, influencing the economy, protecting cultural heritage and the construction and enhancement of ethnic identities and nationalism, and how they have throughout their history helped the powerful to govern the less powerful or the powerless. More broadly, this book provides important comparative insights on museology and heritage management, and questions who the key stakeholders are, how museums reflect broader social and cultural changes, and the relationship between museum and heritage management. Drawing on extensive archival research and anthropological fieldwork, as well as the author’s experience working as a museum curator in mainland China in the late 1980s, Museums in China such will be of great interest to students and scholars working across museology, heritage studies, tourism studies Chinese culture and Chinese history.

This book studies human settlements in China in terms of Human Settlements Trialism in 5 typical human settlement types: river valleys, water networks, hills, plains, and arid areas. Focusing on 3 elements of Trialism—(1) natural and constructed environments, resources, and visual landscapes in human settlements background; (2) survival strategies, customs, culture, and values in human settlements activity; and (3) the layout of time and space as well as the planning and design of the urban, the country, and the wilderness in human settlements construction—the book analyzes the evolution of human settlements and predicts future trends. Presenting academic researchers and graduate students in various fields with insights from landscape architecture, urban planning, architecture, geography, forestry, art, and psychology, the study discusses the principles of interactive physiological thinking and systematically theoretical philosophy related to professional physiology, planning and design principles, and traditional and modern methods and technologies in urban and rural construction. The innovative multi-discipline study promotes the planning and design of 5 types of human settlement, which is helpful to the judgment of value, activity rule, and living style of human settlements, and also discusses the development of human settlements in the new millennium.

In 1200, what is now southwest China--Guizhou, Yunnan, and the southern portion of Sichuan was home to an assortment of strikingly diverse cultures and ruled by a multitude of political entities. By 1750, China’s military, political, sociocultural, and economic institutions were firmly in control of the region, and many of the area’s cultures were rapidly becoming extinct. One purpose of this book is to examine how China’s three late imperial dynasties--the Yuan, Ming, and Qing--conquered, colonized, and assumed control of the southwest. Another objective is to highlight the indigenous response to China’s colonization of the southwest, particularly that of the Nasu Yi people of western Guizhou and eastern Yunnan, the only group to leave an extensive written record.

Human Settlement Development is a component of Encyclopedia of Institutional and Infrastructural Resources in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. The Theme on Human Settlement Development deals, in nine parts and four volumes , with a myriad of issues of great relevance to our world such as: Urban Sustainability and the Regional City System in the Asia Pacific; Peri-Urbanization: Zones of Rural - Urban Transition; Urban Sustainability: Theoretical Perspectives on Integrating Economic Development and the Environment; Rural Sustainability; Using Foreign Direct Investment to Improve Urban Environmental Infrastructure and Services- The Case of Hanoi, Vietnam; The Long Road Towards Sustainable Cities: The Dutch case; Urban Dimensions of Sustainable Development; Rural Development: Participation and Diversity for Sustainability; The Cities, the State and the Markets: In Search of Sustainability These four volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers and NGOs.

This book offers an essential introduction to a new urban planning and design methodology called Data Augmented Design (DAD) and its evolution and progresses, highlighting data driven methods, urban planning and design applications and related theories. The authors draw on many kinds of data, including big, open, and conventional data, and discuss cutting-edge technologies that illustrate DAD as a future oriented design framework in terms of its focus on multi-data, multi-method, multi-stage and multi-scale sustainable urban planning. In four sections and ten chapters, the book presents case studies to address the core concepts of DAD, the first type of applications of DAD that emerged in redevelopment-oriented planning and design, the second type committed to the planning and design for urban expansion, and the future-oriented applications of DAD to advance sustainable technologies and the future structural form of the built environment. The book is geared towards a broad readership, ranging from researchers and students of urban planning, urban design, urban geography, urban economics, and urban sociology, to practitioners in the areas of urban planning and design.​