Regenerating tradition

Green infrastructure is an approach to land planning that aims to restore and manage the natural environment within human contexts. Its widespread use in post-industrial urban and peri-urban settings recognizes the need to reconcile environmental issues and regenerate social and cultural connections with the natural landscape. However, green infrastructure is seldom discussed in rural contexts, where efficient production practices increasingly dominate agriculture, invariably overwhelming cultural associations with land and its environmental qualities. In China, a government policy has been introduced to revitalize rural areas in response to the deleterious environmental effects of industrialized agriculture. Green infrastructure, in this context, offers the potential to usher in a new transformation toward more ecologically sustainable rural environments that embrace environmental, social, and cultural connections. This research considers the role of traditional rural cultures in facilitating this transformation. Through a case study of Yulong Village and its agricultural fields in the middle reaches of the Changhua River in Hainan, this paper maps the modernization of the traditional Li family’s agrarian culture and its legacy of ecological dilemmas. In projecting forward, this article describes a design research process that deploys new and established cartographies and speculates on the role of landscape design in integrating ancient cultural traditions with modern agriculture. The findings suggest a path for the realization of the goal of rural revitalization, emphasizing the importance of recognizing the relationship between ecological, economic, cultural, and social values

Archaeology · China · Geography · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation

• Is it a matter of design

  Open Access•Gerardo Semprebon•Journal of Chinese Architecture…•2024

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