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The paper presents further steps of study started by authors in recent years, as part of the widest international research collaboration, which focuses on shared life and regeneration of abandonment of rural settlements as strategies for the development of sustainable territories. This research aims to understand how the regeneration of ancient community buildings impacts on the sustainable development of the local context. To understand these effects, the research considered four traditional typologies of community buildings, from different cultures: Tulou (China), Cascina (Italy), Hacienda (Mexico), and Marae (New Zealand). Among the tens/hundreds of contemporary regeneration interventions, three contemporary projects per each of these typologies have been selected. To assess the territorial impact of the projects a new approach has been defined using Expert Interviews as the methodology, so as to be able to have an assessment directly by experts in the fields of regenerative projects and sustainable development. The Expert Interviews were held based on a questionnaire that assessed the effects of the projects. For the evaluation of the projects, two categories of indicators have been selected: (1) United Nations SDGs, (2) architectural regeneration indicators generated by the study “The Role of Cultural Heritage in Sustainable Development: Multidimensional Indicators as Decision-Making Tool”, by Francesca Nocca, published in Sustainability (2017, 9, 1882). The research outputs show how the urban-architectural regeneration of these historical typologies can be clearly associated with indications of sustainable development. The results also show that in all four cultures the regeneration of historic buildings provides many benefits to local communities by successfully mixing different income groups and the inclusion of marginalized or vulnerable groups.

This paper presents a recent design activism initiative named Open Your Space in Chinese urban context. The project aims to help the urban community acquire a better sense of sustainability, comfortability, and accessibility to public space, where citizens, place managers and local government could connect together through socially engaged and participatory process. The paper advocates the design initiative influence of public space in culture, social context and social system, analyses how to use public space design intervention strategies to modeling resilient community mechanism. By synthesizing ideas of resilience, the paper uses the community-led placemaking approach in order to create the third place and a new paradigm of spatial and social resilience.

This study is addressed to understand: (1) how the Chinese policies for tourism meet the international guidelines for sustainable development promoted by the United Nations, through the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and (2) how the Chinese policies for tourism are applied in reality by design practice. To answer these two research questions, the research considers mainly three groups of reference sources: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Outline for National Tourism and Leisure 2013&ndash, 2020 (ONTL) of the Chinese Government and their analyses from independent sources, the descriptions of architectural interventions for hospitality. According with the two research questions, the research is based on two phases: (1) a comparison between the Chinese policies for tourism development and the international policies for sustainable development, (2) a search of sustainable policies in the design practice, through the analysis of 30 projects for hospitality, realized in China after 2013. The results of both the phases propose a new paradigm in understanding China&rsquo, s role as a country leading sustainable tourism for development.

In regional and urban planning such as in design actions they are usually involved different themes and disciplines; especially when the goal is to improve, restore and re-functionalize existing minor settlements in rural-urban context. For this reason it is necessary to define integrated methodologies able to face inter-scalar issues and interdisciplinary themes. Authors propose a framework for a decision support system based on the treatment of geographical data and on the integration of the data sets that have dissimilar origin, diverse formats (they may be not only digital) and different meaning value. This complete data set refers to various disciplines and it is possible to deduce specific knowledge throughout analytical passages and assessment steps. In the paper authors describe: a methodological approach to support planning activities; the technical support to seek a (dynamic) balance between urban density and rural fragmentation; a Best Practices database to support scenarios in rural-urban context. Authors first expose the application field, then the logical framework of the whole process, then describe some related spatial analysis applications and finally they introduce comprehensive case study of the whole procedure.

The main goal of this paper is to translate the indexing of a projects’ Data Base, based on EU vocabulary on rural urban development, into different lexicons. Built on the groundwork laid in previous researches, the authors want to enlarge the methodology applied in European Union (EU) territory and defined with Rural Architectural Intensification (RAI) and Rural Architectural Urbanism (RAU) to other contexts, in particular People’s Republic of China (PRC) and United States (US), keeping, however, this research at theoretical and methodological definition level. The study of coherences and differences between EU, US and China for rural urban development implies an interscalar and interdisciplinary analysis approach. It must be in complete adherence with national and specific directives and objectives in all the different selected countries. The analysis of main literature and national and federal laws of Europe, United States and China allows the definition of the Strategic Objectives and Main Goals for Rural Development identifying indicators and criteria. They permit to measure intensification’s outcomes in a qualitative way through the description and interpretation of operative tools for architecture and landscape design. Finally, the organized database and the territorial results can be considered as guidelines to support decision makers in rural-urban context. In addition, the whole procedure presented along with the projects’ database is a significant research package for further interdisciplinary applications.

This paper presents project-based research focusing on regeneration for sustainable tourism in a rural village in China, namely Dongjingyu Village, Yuyang Township, Ji County. The research by design approach was applied, introducing to the Chinese context the concept of landscape services, with a particular focus on tradition and the evolution of historical landscape element (HLE) categories and types, whose value is determined by a qualifying relationship between human beings and the environment. The aim was to regenerate and transform the village for uses that are suitable to contemporary ways of coexistence between villagers and the growing tourism industry. Although there are partial limitations to the application of participatory methodologies in the Chinese context, the authors opted for a methodological approach based on research by design in order to foster dialogue and create awareness for both government authorities and citizens regarding potential design solutions, which were determined based on landscape patterns and not only land use. Two outcomes were achieved: (1) the research working package might lead to experimental actions, including changes to land-use models, administration capabilities and considerations of feasibility, and (2) the entire work package can be applied to and implemented in other rural villages in China. Moving beyond environmental scenarios, the outcomes provide evidence that participation and social inclusion might have a deeper and more positive impact on rural village regeneration.

The paper proposes results derived from a national research project (PRIN, Progetti di Ricerca di Interesse Nazionale - Research Projects of National Interest) named “Rural Architecture Intensification” developed in the local unit of the University of Pavia. Authors developed the research considering the different themes and disciplines that are involved in planning and design actions aimed to improve, restore and re-functionalize existing minor settlements in rural-urban context. The entire process is a typical planning and design algorithm. In the paper authors focus on the treatment of geographical data and on the integration of the data sets that have dissimilar origin, diverse formats (they may be not only digital) and different meaning value. They usually belong to various disciplines and together they compose the information set from which it is possible to deduce specific knowledge. Authors first expose the logical framework of the whole process, then describe the specific theme and finally show some related spatial analysis applications.