Yun Gao
Dr. Yun Gao is a Reader in Architecture at the University of Huddersfield. Her academic research explores design of socially responsible and environmentally sustainable built environment, place-based sustainable living, traditional and cultural changes reflected in architectural and urban development, and cross-cultural architectural design and education.
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Papers by Yun Gao
Southwest China, and the interface between the urban and the rural in peri-urban studies. One village was transformed from a collective landholding system into a village shareholding company. In this case, villagers’ self-construction and redevelopment activities significantly changed the built environment in the settlement. The second village was transformed into a new urban residential community by property developers. In this process, villagers also had their hukou [household registration] status altered from ‘rural’ to ‘urban’. The study illustrates the variable transition processes between rural and urban in this particular region and highlights the relationship between villagers and their surrounding environment. It is argued that peri-urban spaces in Southwest China retained their distinctiveness and certain rural characteristics despite the integration through the urbanisation process, and that the relationships between villagers and their surrounding built environment are constantly being re-appropriated and reinvented.
Southwest China, and the interface between the urban and the rural in peri-urban studies. One village was transformed from a collective landholding system into a village shareholding company. In this case, villagers’ self-construction and redevelopment activities significantly changed the built environment in the settlement. The second village was transformed into a new urban residential community by property developers. In this process, villagers also had their hukou [household registration] status altered from ‘rural’ to ‘urban’. The study illustrates the variable transition processes between rural and urban in this particular region and highlights the relationship between villagers and their surrounding environment. It is argued that peri-urban spaces in Southwest China retained their distinctiveness and certain rural characteristics despite the integration through the urbanisation process, and that the relationships between villagers and their surrounding built environment are constantly being re-appropriated and reinvented.
comfortable dwellings. The paper describes how the situation might be dealt with in the township of Jijel. A number of stakeholders are being consulted and the key results of in-depth interviews with architects are reported. The findings from the review of the existing housing areas and survey are then interpreted to make suggestions for development in the future.
the rapid changes that have taken place since the 1980s and identifies the way contemporary procurement processes leave out the final fit-out and decoration/refurbishment. A range of stakeholders were interviewed, and access was gained to drawings and other technical data that indicated how the secondary processes were carried out. These are largely ungoverned by regulation in the same way necessary for initial design. The key group is the occupants who drive the fit-out and decoration according to personal and cultural requirements, but often with less than perfect understanding of sustainability. The interior design industry has
developed rapidly over the same period and was initially lacking in professional knowledge and understanding (something which can still be found). Advice provided to dwelling occupants was based more on appearance than function and efficiency. Over the same period, beneficial modifications to construction processes have been introduced in relation to structural design, and it should be possible to do the same for sustainability-related design issues. The paper advocates: more regulation; better assessment techniques; more information and guidance for home-owners; and a greater focus on energy issues.
First, vernacular architecture in these pre-industrial societies cannot be reduced to static, timeless objects, but is varied and has been both cumulative and changing over time. This point addresses the more basic issue of the preservation of traditions within the contemporary world. Second, the cultural and material constraints in pre-industrial societies must be understood in terms of the cultural logic of these societies, and not interpreted according to ideas which emerged from entirely different kinds of society. Thirdly, specific cultural conceptions and symbolization affecting local architecture are extraordinarily diverse and complex in various areas in China. Therefore, simple and undifferentiated models of “Chinese vernacular architecture” are not adequate to describe the vernacular architecture of these specific regions.
In this book, four related sections form the primary discussion of the Dai house. The first addresses Dai religious cosmology, which is a mixture of largely Theravada Buddhism and “animism”. By examining concepts of time, space and classification of spirits in the Dai cosmology, this part reveals how a traditional Dai house is constructed as part of an idealised order. In the second part, historical influences are taken into account to show how Dai houses in Xishuangbanna and Dehong, sharing identical social and climatic backgrounds, finally evolved into two different forms. The third part deals with the Dai social categorisation which was largely reflected in the spatial arrangements of the houses. The social categorisation considered in this section includes both asymmetrical relationships within the household within a house, and the hierarchical relationship between the lower domestic unit, the village, and the higher level, the state. The final part considers the effects of modernisation on Dai houses. This section demonstrates the tension between respect for local customs and calls for the abandonment of “old and backward ways” reflected in the Dai houses. At the same time, it is argued that the contemporary Dai house shares more common features in its spatial arrangement and structural system with Han vernacular houses than the houses of other Tai groups in South-East Asia do.
The framework and conceptual tools for the analysis of the house in the book derive from many anthropologists and architects. One contribution of this work may be to complement studies of the relationship between houses and societies in South-East Asia.