Cultural communication and art heritage represent a repository of highly condensed information of past time that depends not only on the expansion of emerging digital media but also on the transformation of language and knowledge. In this course, students try to extract single elements from the traditional Chinese cultural patterns and redesign them, then combine them into existing buildings, attempting to balance the coherence, heterogeneity of space, and the uniqueness of projects. It provides favorable conditions in the new era for the traditional patterns to be re-activated. It is a combination of technology and art. The purpose of this course is not to discover new theories or new technologies but to provide morphological possibilities under the existing digital techniques in cultural symbols. We try to build new ideas and innovative digital expressions for traditional Chinese patterns, realize the collision of culture and technology from experimental trials on the existing architectures in other unimagined forms. It is not only the research reproduction of traditional patterns but also brings new vitality and fresh ideas for architecture design.

This study investigates the role of Midjourney intelligent drawing software in architectural design education, particularly its impact on design efficiency and creativity among sophomore architecture students. While Midjourney serves as a powerful tool for rapid visual concept generation, it does not replace traditional design skills but complements them by enhancing the visualization process. The study also identifies some key limitations of Midjourney, especially in areas of functionality and sustainable design, which require students to integrate additional tools for a more comprehensive design approach. The recommendation to expand the use of intelligent drawing technologies like Midjourney in future research is supported by the observed improvements in student performance, including enhanced creative expression and efficiency in design processes. These conclusions are based on qualitative data derived from student feedback, as well as quantitative measurements of their design outcomes before and after using the software. Furthermore, it highlights the need to broaden the scope of studies to include a wider variety of educational contexts and source materials to improve understanding of the software’s potential in design education.

The Liyuan courtyard buildings are considered as contemporary architectural symbols of the spirit in Qingdao, China. The sustainability potentials embodied in the building is evaluated by building performance simulations analysis based on field investigation in this case study. Two models with optimization refurbishment were made through building simulation software. One model with façade supplemented in the insulation layers of the envelope walls and the other model with further upgrade with consideration of recycling materials mixed were discussed and estimated with building performance simulation method. The energy performance in the building and both scenarios designed can improve the energy efficiency, while the advanced model could achieve better result in the building energy behavior dramatically. Technologies innovation are proved to be good tools to improve energy performance the existing buildings by renovation actions such as insulation improvement and so on. It is concluded the sustainability regain its authentic appearance while achieve energy efficiency embodied within contemporary buildings through adaptational renovation strategies. Multicriteria considerations might influence the balanced between different factors when making decisions in the building restoration project, it is also expected to empower the fresh glory in the development of building protection and restoration.

This study focuses on the transfer of architectural facade styles. Using the node-based visual deep learning platform ComfyUI, the system integrates the Flux Redux and Flux Depth models to establish a modular workflow. This workflow achieved style transfer of building facades guided by deep perception, encompassing key stages such as style feature extraction, depth information extraction, positive prompt input, and style image generation. The core innovation of this study lies in two aspects: Methodologically, a modular low-code visual workflow has been established. Through the coordinated operation of different modules, it ensures the visual stability of architectural forms during style conversion. In response to the novel challenges posed by generative AI in altering architectural forms, the evaluation framework innovatively introduces a “semantic inheritance degree” assessment system. This elevates the evaluation perspective beyond traditional “geometric similarity” to a new level of “semantic and imagery inheritance.” It should be clarified that the framework proposed by this research primarily provides innovative tools for architectural education, early design exploration, and visualization analysis. This workflow introduces an efficient “style-space” cognitive and generative tool for teaching architectural design. Students can use this tool to rapidly conduct comparative experiments to generate multiple stylistic facades, intuitively grasping the intrinsic relationships among different styles and architectural volumes/spatial structures. This approach encourages bold formal exploration and deepens understanding of architectural formal language.