Soundscape represents a step change in the field of environmental acoustics in that it combines physical, social, and psychological approaches. Although the term soundscape was introduced in the 1960s, significant attention to it has mainly been paid in the last decade or so in the community of environmental acoustics by researchers and recently by practitioners including policy makers. This paper explores the current situation and future challenges in soundscape. Starting with a framework on research and practical needs in soundscape and a brief introduction of some recent/current networks, activities, projects, and publications, this paper then presents a systematic review of recent progress in soundscape research and practice. A short review of the soundscape research in China is also given.

China’s mega urban regions are focal points of economic development and environmental concerns. This paper positions four mega urban regions (i.e., the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, the Bohai Bay Area, and the South-eastern Fujian Province) along China’s coast into the national economy and elaborates their development challenges and planning innovations. Mega urban regions in China are spatial consequences of rapid economic transition. They deserve close scrutiny and demands for innovative planning responses in order to maintain their key role in driving economic growth but limiting their greenhouse gas emission.

When a historic fa?ade needs to be preserved or when the seismic considerations favor use of a concrete wall system and fire considerations limit exterior thermal insulation, one needs to use interior thermal insulation systems. Interior thermal insulation systems are less effective than the exterior systems and will not reduce the effect of thermal bridges. Yet they may be successfully used and, in many instances, are recommended as a complement to the exterior insulation. This paper presents one of these cases. It is focused on the most successful applications of capillary active, dynamic interior thermal insulation. This happens when such insulation is integrated with heating, cooling and ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) system. Starting with a pioneering work of the Technical University in Dresden in development of capillary active interior insulations, we propose a next generation, namely, a bio-fiber thermal insulation. When completing the review, this paper proposes a concept of a joint research project to be undertaken by partners from the US (where improvement of indoor climate in exposed coastal areas is needed), China (indoor climate in non-air conditioned concrete buildings is an issue), and Germany (where the bio-fiber technology has been developed).

This paper investigates the staying and moving characteristics of office workers in a non-territorial office using an ultra wide band (UWB) impulse radio sensor network. The differences between office workers’ staying and moving are clarified according to the individual workstation type that they select. The study determines the characteristics of each type of workstation. By clarifying office workers’ preference for staying and moving with regard to individual workstation types and office worker post, the reasons why office workers in different posts tended to select different types of workstations were revealed. Specifically, leaders tended to select workstations at the “inner meeting corner side” most frequently, as they had a greater need to stay in other areas. In contrast, ordinary staff needed to visit office workers in other areas less often, and as such, they tended to select individual workstations at the “middle meeting corner side.” Barring this, they tended to select individual workstations at the “middle corridor side” or “outer-meeting corner side.” Temporary staff members had little need to visit or stay at other places so they tended to select individual workstations at the “window side,” which is seldom visited or stayed at by other office workers and they could be disturbed less often from their solo work.

This essay begins with a reflection on what has been taught in architectural design since the turn of the twentieth century. I shall trace back to the two disciplinary foundations of the French école des Beaux-Arts – parti and poché – in the education of an architect in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. I shall then attempt to superimpose parti and poché on a modern disciplinary framework, say that of mathematics, which leads to musings on a series of architectural problems that include pattern versus type, stability versus mobility, orthogonal versus oblique, confinement versus transparency, and aging versus metallic sheen. These paradoxes, I suggest, demand the education of an architect to address both the instrumental pattern of a building configuration and the ambient felt qualities of a room, rather than vision alone.

In about 1949, there was a large-scale migration of architects from the mainland to Hong Kong, China. Among them were those important figures in the modern Chinese architectural history such as Robert Fan, Su Gin-Djih, and Chu Pin. Their arrival at this colony had changed its architectural practice substantially from professional organization to actually built environment. Their unique contributions to Hong Kong’s modern architecture have been a new research interest in recent years. This paper tells a story about Robert Fan and his design of the Chung Chi College campus in the 1950s with an intention to reveal the multiaspects of the so called “migrant architects” through a single architectural event. The author tries to capture the intertwining relationship between the migrant architects and educators through the reconstruction of the recruitment process for a campus architect by Chung Chi College and to identify Mr. Robert Fan’s concept of campus planning with reference to his early design experience in the mainland of China.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the “Beaux-Arts” “composition” sustained the constitution of design principles for architectural production in China in the last two decades of the twentieth century. “Composition”, a key technique of the “Beaux-Arts” system, is not a simple act of “putting elements together” into a unified whole, but also relates to an array of different “constructions” of architectural knowledge which regulate and sustain the act of design. Through analysing the structure of three “textbooks” published in the early 1980s, this paper examines three aspects of the “constructions”: the setting up of the principles for governing architectural forms, regularisation of design methods and approaches for architectural practice, and the construction of a “tradition” for the expression of “Chineseness”.

A number of ethnic minorities are being distributed in southwest China. Yunnan Province is an area inhabited by multi-ethnic groups. For a long time, the ethnic groups have been interacted by others in the cultural aspect, while retaining their own ethnic traditions. The performances of ethnic groups’ dwelling houses are similar as determined by natural and cultural elements of the same area. This paper mainly analyzes decisive factors behind similar appearances by the way of field research on two minorities, Nu ethnic group and Li-su ethnic group, in the Fugong county, Nujiang Li-su autonomous prefecture. Moreover, the paper tries to summarize the commonality and individuality of the minorities in order to provide useful theoretical reference for the minorities building of new socialist countryside in the future.

The severe problem of rural vernacular houses in northwest china is low thermal comfortableness with high consumption of energy in winter. Under such circumstance, the appropriate technologies that create comfortable living environment under the inclement local weather by low cost should be encouraged. In Ningxia Province, Jianfuqiao village, the ecological technologies are presented. By comparing with traditional buildings, the testing and thermal environment analysis verified the effectiveness of the passive used solar technologies.

Polyvinylchloride (PVC) panel is one of the most favorite decorative materials that has been popularly applied as finishing of ceiling in residential buildings. It is about five years that the people incline to redecorate the ceiling of old buildings with PVC panel in big cities of Iran, such as Mashad. In this study, the influence of ceiling PVC panel on the cooling and heating loads of studied apartment were determined by software DeST-h. In addition, the summer natural ventilation of the mentioned apartment is investigated by determining the wind speed into the apartment through the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software. The evaluation of environment indoor wind velocity showed that most of the apartment space is a comfortable zone. The results of studied building analyses demonstrated that using PVC panel on the ceiling can decline the energy consumption of the penthouse (fifth level) of the investigated building, which is about 3.7% and 7% for studied methods of without and with air layer, respectively. In addition, although the existence of air layer can decline the cooling and heating loads, the increase in air layer thickness did not show significant decrease on building energy consumption. However, the PVC panel is expensive and is not suitable to be used for ceiling thermal insulation, but adding a thin layer of air between ceiling and PVC panel can be a good step toward sustainable building, when the people are inclined to utilize it as a decorative ceiling.

Research on quantificational methods for chromatic-light emotion is an effective way of finding out the laws of light cognitive impact and the solution to the problem on application of light color in landscape lighting. This paper took chromatic-light-induced-emotion towards architectural wall coatings in landscape as the research object. The methods in use were real-state simulation and laboratory quantitative study. Consequently, the study successfully extracted light emotional factors and the rule of predictability to assist landscape light professionals.

Comfort standards (ISO 7730, ASHRAE 55) specify the exact physical criteria for producing acceptable thermal environments, such as temperature, air movement, and humidity limits. These, however, are often difficult to comply with, particularly in hot humid and cold wet seasons in Nanjing, China. Changing expectations of comfort is important in evaluating comfort, since naturally conditioned buildings in Nanjing are not typically air-conditioned. For this objective, a field study was conducted during the summer of 2000 and the winter of 2001. A total of 600 participants each answered a subjective questionnaire. Analyzing these field data shows that in natural conditions, the influence of gender and age on people’s thermal sensations is insignificant compared with six main variables. In addition, people’s thermal discomfort rapidly increases along with growth in relative humidity. Further, the variation of people’s hot or cold sensations is in proportion to that of air movement, and the effect in winter is greater than that in summer. The range of acceptable temperatures in hot humid and cold wet Nanjing is between 14.14°C and 29.42°C.

As the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry is marching into the sustainable and low-carbon era, the performance of architecture has drawn more attention than ever. Simulation technology has made quantified analysis of architectural performance possible and, therefore, directly enables architects and engineers to incorporate performance analysis into the design work flow. It is argued that performance-based and performance-driven architectural designs differ in that the latter involves computer-aided optimization technique so that the performance can be used as the criteria to truly “drive” the design. The paper starts with a brief introduction of performance issues in architectural design, followed by a review of the evolution of performance-based architectural design. The concept of performance-driven architectural design is presented, and some design projects and research work are reviewed. The driving engine, i.e., optimization technique, and its application in architectural design is discussed. Challenges to making performance-driven design a common practice are explained, and a schematic of integrated performance-based/driven architectural design software is proposed.

New technologies are becoming today’s basic building blocks. This paper presents a case study of the Shanghai Corporate Pavilion for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. From the shape of the building to the use of solar energy, the Shanghai Corporate Pavilion incorporates the state-of-art technologies to convey the spirit of the architecture. It addresses the pressing issue of energy, environment, and sustainability and reflects the spirit of Shanghai as a historically progressive yet still fast moving international metropolis.