Presently, the rapid urbanization in contemporary cities in China has resulted in more buildings of low cultural value and high energy consumption. Many traditional Chinese villages exhibit special spaces that have been optimally adapted to the climatic and environmental features of the area using vernacular methods. The buildings in these villages can maintain the environment more sufficiently for the intended programs and consuming a lower level of resources. The construction technics and the artistic features in these spaces are invaluable and inspiring for contemporary architectural practices. This study aims to establish a pedigree of the artistic features exhibited in traditional Chinese villages to support sustainable development. This is to be achieved through thoroughly exploring the spatial design of these villages archived in a big-data resource. The pedigree integrates the dynamics (cultural changes over a certain period of time) and static (spatial features at a fixed time) of how the spaces in these villages have evolved. It is concluded that both a high level of sustainability and exceptional artistic quality have been achieved over a long history in many of these villages where traditional construction methods and design principals were employed.

In current urban regeneration, the conservation and reuse of traditional village space are significant measures to activate urban-rural development. Traditional villages in the Jiangnan region of eastern China represent the typical vernacular culture of urban-rural settlements, which affects the dynamic development of urban regeneration. Aiming at the disadvantages of the decentralization of research objects and the simplification of spatial characteristics in the research of traditional villages in the Jiangnan region, this paper will construct the spatial pedigrees of villages. This study takes 728 traditional villages in the Jiangnan region as cases. First, through on-site research, the spatial pattern of villages in isolated areas was mapped and drawn. Then, on the basis of on-site review, this study labeled the village space, summarized village space information, and used ArcGIS and BIM to create a 3D model of the village. In ArcGIS platform through SOA to establish criterion framework for recognizing the types of village pedigree. Finally, the classification of villages was spatially visualized, and a pedigree was constructed according to the type context. The research result indicates: (1) The aggregation mode of traditional villages in the south of the Jiangnan region presents the characteristics of local aggregation and partial dispersion, which are directly affected by factors such as elevation, water system, and road system. (2) Analysis of the spatial pedigrees of traditional villages through spatial types and spatial growth patterns revealed four pedigree types, including spatial environment pedigree, the spatial organization pedigree, spatial morphological pedigree, and architectural form pedigree. (3) The pedigree shows and distinguishes independent developmental context and evolved form, presenting an extended pattern of prototypes and sub-types.

The WHO estimates that, with the development of urbanization, 25% of the population is suffering from psychological and mental distress. Preliminary evidence has suggested that aquatic environments and riparian areas, i.e., waterscapes, can benefit psychological and mental wellbeing. The aim of this study was to identify the processes of waterscape psychological and mental health promotion through aliterature review. We propose a design framework of waterscapes for achieving psychological and mental health in the general population that often visits waterscapes, which has the function of therapeutic landscapes through values of accessibility, versatility, habitats, and biodiversity. According to theories, waterscapes can improve psychological and mental health to divert negative emotions through mitigation (e.g., reduced urban heat island), instoration (e.g., physical activity and state of nature connectedness), and restoration (e.g., reduced anxiety/attentional fatigue). By accessing water (e.g., streams, rivers, lakes, wetlands, and the coast) and riparian areas, people can get in close contact with nature and spend more time in activities (e.g., walking, exploring, talking, and relaxing). Waterscapes with healing effects can enhance psychological resilience to promote people’s psychological and mental health. Future research should focus on ensuring an adequate supply of waterscapes and promoting the efficiency of waterscape ecosystem services on mental health. Moreover, fora deep understanding of the complexity of nature–human health associations, it is necessary to explore more consistent evidence for therapeutic waterscapes considering the characteristics and functional mechanisms of waterscape quality, in terms of freshness, luminescence, rippling or fluidity, and cultural value, to benefit public health and biodiversity conservation.

The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal carries unique social and cultural significance as a world cultural heritage, but with the acceleration of global urbanization, it has potentially severe environmental risks under continuous anthropogenic disturbances. Therefore, to protect the ecological and cultural values of the Grand Canal, it is necessary to assess the corresponding relationship of water quality to land use and the perception of ecosystem services that focus on cultural ecosystem services (CES). This study aims to analyze the water quality response to land use in the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, describe the land use types closely related to water quality, and propose corresponding management strategies for enhancing CES. This study investigated the impacts of land use structure and landscape pattern on water quality by calculating the correlation between land use structure and landscape pattern indices and water quality in buffer zones of different distances on both sides of the canal. The results show that green land dominates the land use structure and can effectively reduce water pollution in the canal. On the other hand, urban impervious surfaces showed a significant positive correlation with pollution contributing to low water quality. We accessed the impact of water quality on the perception of CES in the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and proposed optimization strategies for promoting CES. Both content analysis and thematic analysis were applied to analyze the impact of the water environment quality of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal on the perception of CES. We found that the perceptions of CES along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal are associated with the public’s opinions on its cultural heritage services and artistic inspiration services. The perceptions of CES are closely related to the quality of the water environment and riparian greenness, which affect the values of cultural heritage and conservation of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.

As populations age, indoor community public spaces play an increasingly important role in supporting older adults’ daily activities, social interaction, and well-being. This study uses Pubei Community in Changzhou as a case study and develops age-friendly renewal strategies tailored to the community context. Through interviews and questionnaire surveys, the study systematically identifies older residents’ needs regarding the use of community public spaces. The Affinity Diagramming (AD) method is first employed to categorize and organize the information collected from the field investigation, followed by the application of the Fuzzy Kano (FKANO) model to screen and identify core user needs. The Precedence Chart (PC) method and CRITIC weighting method are then integrated to calculate combined weights for the evaluation indicators and rank them, thereby establishing the priority of user needs. Subsequently, user needs and design requirements are incorporated into Quality Function Deployment (QFD) to construct a House of Quality (HOQ), which informs age-friendly renewal strategies and design solutions for Pubei Community’s public spaces. The results indicate that, after four need indicators were excluded, safety needs (0.099), health and emergency needs (0.091), and spatial convenience needs (0.084) ranked among the highest in terms of combined weight. Based on these user needs, 15 design requirements were identified, among which barrier-free access (0.096), health and emergency facilities (0.091), and handrail facilities (0.088) had high relative weights, indicating that these elements should be prioritized in the age-friendly renewal of community public spaces.