ECO-GENE IDENTIFICATION AND ATLAS CONSTRUCTION OF HUIZHOU ARCHITECTURE FROM A MULTIDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVE
Keywords:
Huizhou architecture, Eco-gene, cultural landscape gene, Gene atlas, Multidisciplinary perspective, Traditional ecological knowledgeAbstract
Traditional settlements worldwide constitute repositories of ecological wisdom accumulated through millennia of human-environment coevolution, yet the systematic decoding of ecological genes embedded within traditional architectural morphologies remains substantially underdeveloped, particularly within rigorous multidisciplinary frameworks. Huizhou architecture, an exemplary manifestation of Chinese vernacular heritage inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list, exemplifies a sophisticated teleological alignment between built form and ecological substrate; nevertheless, extant scholarship has predominantly remained at the descriptive and conservation-oriented level, lacking ontological precision in identifying and taxonomizing its constituent eco-genes. Addressing this epistemological lacuna, the present study develops an integrated multidisciplinary methodology for identifying, classifying, and visualizing eco-genes embedded within Huizhou architectural typologies. Drawing upon extensive field investigation, dialectical synthesis across philosophy, art theory, design science, and ecology, and GIS-based cartographic visualization, this research constructs a three-tier eco-gene taxonomy—encompassing macro-structural, meso-configurational, and micro-material genes—and proposes a comprehensive atlas framework for their spatial representation, combinatorial analysis, and evolutionary mapping across the Huizhou region. The findings reveal that Huizhou architecture embodies a complex ecological epistemology manifested through topological adaptation to mountainous terrain, thermodynamic optimization via grey-brick and black-tile envelopes, and synergistic hydrogeological integration through courtyard drainage systems. By advancing cultural landscape gene theory through ontological clarification of architectural eco-genes and epistemological standardization of identification protocols, this study contributes substantively to heritage conservation theory, enriches the conceptual vocabulary of cultural landscape studies, and provides a hermeneutic foundation for contemporary sustainable design practice.References
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