Huxiang Culture Characteristics’ Application On Architecture Environment Of Higher Education Institutions

Colleges and universities of China are built and developed under the big context of traditional Chinese culture and hence the built environment design of their campuses share the same cultural origin on the one hand and exhibit distinctive regional cultural characteristics on the other. It is under the specific natural conditions and social circumstances of Hunan province that Huxiang Culture has formed and flourished. The thesis aims to explore the employment of Huxiang culture and its characteristics in colleges and universities’built environment and the corresponding techniques and methods involved. It is claimed that such an investigation will contribute to the cultivation of a strong flavor of regional cultural characteristics in the design and construction of built environment in those colleges and universities.In accordance with the research requirements and content, the thesis has conducted some field survey on some campuses which have explicitly taken into consideration of specifics of Huxiang Culture and have been obviously influenced by it. Then by employing the theories and methods of architectural symbols and city image such as architectural symbols, roads, borderlines, regions, nodes and landmarks, the thesis further conducts some case studies and contrastive analysis and generalizes the following employment and techniques of Huxiang cultural characteristics in colleges and universities’built environment based on the data collected:1. Huxiang Culture is a regional culture which has formed and developed over a long period of time in Hunan. It features prominently innovation and creativity as well as the creed of whole-hearted dedication to the people and the country. Huxiang Culture advocates the idealist philosophy, social administration and pragmatism along with personal practice upheld by the Confucian school. All these tenets have been highlighted and readily manifested in the built environment design and plan in Hunan’s colleges and universities.2. Natural factors, such as the geography of Hunan, the climate type and vegetation, altogether influence every specific concerning the buildings in Hunan’s colleges and universities, such as their site selection and planning, use of building materials and equipments, campus vegetation and landscaping, technologies with regard to roof drainage and rain shelter, the spatial structure for heat radiation and dehumidification, the wall structure that is wind-proof and moisture-proof for adapting to the climate of Hunan, that is, humid in winter and hot in summer.3. Besides, social factors such as politics, economy, history, ethnography and religious beliefs also exert influences on the built environment of colleges and universities. For example, Authors participated in the design for Hunan Hengyang Normal University science building on the design and layout demonstrate the relative degree of influence and adoption of the folklore of Hunan.The research of this thesis, that is, the employment and techniques and methods involved of Huxiang cultural characteristics in colleges and universities’ built environment, intends to further explore and complement the employment and influence of Huxiang cultural characteristics. In the meantime, it is hoped that the thesis will give some insights to the plan and design of built environment of colleges and universities in other regional cultures as well.