Urban Heritage and Spatial Regeneration in the Age of Intelligence
A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Architectural Design, Urban Science, and Real Estate".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2026 | Viewed by 211
Special Issue Editors
Interests: urban design; landscape urbanism; historic urban landscape
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: local culture; cultural landscape heritage; artificial intelligence; landscape perception; heritage tourism
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: urban cultural heritage; historic districts; artificial intelligence; spatial perception
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Against the backdrop of rapid advancements in digital technology and artificial intelligence, the intersection of urban physical space and social logic has reached unprecedented complexity. Urban heritage conservation and regeneration have evolved beyond physical restoration, becoming a systemic transformation involving digital modeling, behavioral analysis, interest negotiation, and social justice. A key challenge in global sustainable urban development is how to leverage cutting-edge technologies to enhance governance efficiency while preserving historical identity and ensuring spatial rights for diverse social groups.
"Intelligent digitalization" offers a novel perspective for understanding the complexities of urban systems. By integrating big data, artificial intelligence, digital twins, and non-invasive neural monitoring, we can more accurately analyze the evolution of urban heritage and simulate the social impacts of urban renewal. This shift from "technological rationality" to "intelligent empowerment" not only provides scientific support for the revitalization of historical spaces but also offers data-driven decision tools to address gentrification and achieve spatial justice.
This Special Issue focuses on the synergy between "technology–human–space," emphasizing methodological innovations across disciplines to tackle practical challenges in urban regeneration. We examine not only how digital tools can optimize landscape design and heritage protection, but also how these technologies capture spatial behavioral decisions and psychological responses to foster more inclusive, equitable, and emotionally resonant urban places.
This Special Issue aims to establish a cutting-edge academic platform that brings together global scholars to share innovative research in intelligent heritage, computational urban design, behavioral geography, spatial justice, and environmental psychology, exploring new pathways for urban landscape transformation in the digital age.
This Special Issue welcomes (but is not limited to) the following topics:
- Applications of AI and digital technology in heritage conservation;
- Data-driven urban regeneration methodologies;
- Heritage tourism and virtual/augmented reality;
- Neuro-urbanism, environmental psychology, and spatial behavior studies;
- Policy and governance innovations for sustainable urban regeneration;
- Regional technological practices in a globalized context.
Prof. Dr. Weizhen Chen
Dr. Yue Cheng
Dr. Yinying Tao
Dr. Pan He
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- urban heritage
- urban regeneration
- artificial intelligence
- spatial justice
- behavioral spatial decision-making
- gentrification
- landscape planning and design
- digital twin
- social equity
- environmental psychology
- heritage tourism
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