Italian perspective on the planned preventive conservation of architectural heritage

This paper tells us a complex story on the historic evolution of preventive conser vation of architectural heritage in Italy.Firstly,it introduces Cesare Brandi's Theory of Resto ration,pointing out the peculiar sense of the word Restoration in Brandi's system other than the common sense in the international discourse,the limits of Brandi's theory to architectural conservation and his prophecy on preventive restoration.Then it talks about the differentframework and practices of preventive conservation in the field of built heritage compared to the museum sector,the milestone of Giovanni Urbani's pilot project on programmed conser.vation and the leading role of the Risk Map of Cultural Heritage.Finally,based on the discus-sions of the durable change in the architectural conservation field after the Venice Charter,including the teaching in Milan School,the debate and re-definition of architectural conserva-tion and the advance definitions of conservation,prevention,maintenance and restoration in the 2004 National Code of Cultural Heritage and Landscape,it gives us an agenda for futuretrends of planned conservation with aims to conserve the material authenticity and promote.the co-evolutional strategy.

Morphology of quarters in traditional Arab Islamic city:A case of the traditional city of Damascus

Studies on the quarters of traditional Arab Islamic cities have stressed the idea of an urban structure that corresponds to social groupings and to a collection of local regions or even of,,inchoateM neighborhood units.This spatial model has often provided the rationale for the intervention in these cities and in the design of new housing layouts.This study aims to examine this issue through syntactic measures and observations to describe and analyze the structure and morphology of quarters through connectivity and visibility analysis of pedestrian move ment through space syntax.Whether the structure of these cities presents a global whole in contrast to the assumptions of physical subareas of social groupings is discussed.The city of Damascus is used as a model of analysis in which the urban morphology of quarters is described and characterized.This study reports several findings that are potentially relevant to the understanding of traditional laws that relate the physical layout of quarters to the social structure and their local subareas to the global whole that dominate and unify the parts.On this basis,the design approach in these cities may be better understood.

A pragmatic approach to church construction in Northern China at the time of Christian inculturation： The handbook ＂Le missionnaire constructeur＂, 1926

In 1926, French Jesuit missionaries from Darning published at Xianxian （Hebei province） a little handbook for church construction in Northern China： “Le missionnaire constructeur, conseils-plans” （“The missionary builder： advice-plans”）, containing 67 pages of text and 54 plates. After a short introduction about handbooks and pattern books of churches, this paper describes and analyses the handbooks content and its different practical aspects about building materials, masonry, roofs, etc. The book, however, is more than a compilation of technical hints and reveals a lot about the missionaries＇ perception of Chinese building traditions as well as the transmission of Western techniques to Chinese workers. The paper also contextuatizes the handbook and tnes to identify both the authors and the addressees. In the mid-1920s, the Vatican launched the Christian inculturution process in China, which concerned architecture too. Nevertheless, many missionaries resisted, preferring Gothic or Italianate architecture to a new Sino-Christian style. The handbook participated in this debate.

Framework for capacity based sustainable design ■ development: towards resilient communities

The most fundam ental struggle for realizing a sustainable built environm ent still lies in the use of non-renew able resources in its articulation.Although efforts have been taken to increase the use of sustainable materials the vast majority of the building sector still relies heavily on depletable resources.This article debates that the most fundam ental contributors to sustainable developm ent are the evaluation and incorporation of inhabitant capacities.Evaluating the available natural materials,inhabitant skills and tools could play a fundam ental role in creating sustainable solutions.However,inhabitant capacity-models insufficiently cover all instrum ental capacities into one model(both inhabitant and community).Therefore,this article describes:a framework for evaluating inhabitant capacities;how to map available resource capacities;how these capacities can be incorporated into sustainable housing development and planning.The framework was developed as a part of a support tool,which helps designers and engineers to evaluate inhabitant capacities.To describe the fram ework and support tool a rural Sub-Saharan community is used,as their capacities are relatively less com plicated com pared to a‘western’context.The article concludes that the framework shows great potential in reducing the use of unsustainable materials.Furtherm ore,that it could enable social sustainability by creating self-reliant and resilient communities.

Architectural education at the crossroads

In a world undergoing globak changes at a scale and kind never encountered before, a wortd not only of unprecedented technological innovation, economic might, and global acces- sibility, but also a world of unparalleled socio-environmenta[ crises, are our schools of architecture providing the right know[edge reauired for design and construction？