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The relevance of research and preservation of Chinese historical gardens with small forms is due to several factors. The unique heritage of Chinese landscape design, represented by the gardens of Suzhou, is today listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is an international tourist attraction. It is a source of research on traditional Chinese landscape design techniques based on the principles of Feng Shui, Taoism, Buddhism and Confucian doctrines. All Chinese gardens had been developed with the use of established rules and techniques, among which the authors have described eight main ones that are present in the gardens of Suzhou. The scientific novelty of the research consists in analyzing and concretizing a list of the main techniques of traditional Chinese landscape design and argumentation of the revealed techniques with specific examples of gazebos in the gardens of Suzhou. The methods of figurative expressiveness of pavilions in different regions of China are systematized. Comparison of historical and modern Chinese pavilions demonstrated the narrowing of figurative means, the use of a narrow range of historical prototypes (mainly in the east and southeast), in which the national features of the small-scale architecture are vividly pronounced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a study of the typology of medieval urban layouts in historical Lesser Poland in the context of their conservation requirements. It describes identified urban layouts in medieval Lesser Poland, namely the nine-square model, the turbine, the pseudo-oval (Silesian), and the orthogonal model enclosed within an oval or a circle. An analysis of current conservation measures, presented through the exazmple of ten well-preserved historic towns in former Lesser Poland, coupled with the authors' research findings, indicate the necessity of improving the protection of historic urban layouts. An amendment to monument protection law is proposed so as to include the need to establish an additional form of conservation, namely a historic town list or register. Furthermore, the authors note that a more system-based heritage site management is required, in accordance with international recommendations by the ICOMOS and UNESCO e.g. HUL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]