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Advanced Research on Cultural Heritage—2nd Edition
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Advanced Research on Cultural Heritage—2nd Edition

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Building Materials, and Repair & Renovation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 June 2026 | Viewed by 1479

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Emilia Vasanelli

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Italian National Research Council, CNR Institute of Heritage Science-ISPC, Lecce, Italy
Interests: destructive and non-destructive tests for physical and mechanical characterization of materials; analysis of the durability of building materials; evaluation of the performances of consolidating and restoring products
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The importance of cultural heritage preservation, conservation, and dissemination has been recognized worldwide. Cultural heritage tells the story of our past, is part of our origin and identity, and has social relevance. It is our inheritance from previous generations and a legacy for those to come.

Cultural heritage includes a multitude of creative expressions. Among tangible assets, a variety of artifacts belong to cultural heritage: from landscapes and archeological sites to historic buildings and monuments, books, paintings, and artworks. A multidisciplinary approach and a varied group of professionals are called to contribute to solving the challenges that face heritage today. The new cross-disciplinary vision encompasses chemistry, archeology, physics, engineering, and ICT. Technological advances in these fields have provided powerful tools and strategies for analytical and experimental research on historical and cultural artifacts that open new frontiers for their diagnosis, monitoring, and protection.

This Special Issue, “Advanced Research on Cultural Heritage—2nd Edition”, will provide an overview of existing knowledge on new approaches for heritage preservation and conservation. Relevant topics to this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Knowledge, diagnosis, and conservation of heritage artifacts;
  • Conservation of built heritage;
  • Digital technologies for knowledge, conservation, and valorization.

Dr. Emilia Vasanelli
Guest Editor

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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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

  • heritage
  • repair and conservation
  • NDT
  • decay and durability
  • case studies
  • diagnostic tools
  • digital technologies

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

30 pages, 19034 KB  
Article
Multidimensional Assessment and Planning Strategies for Historic Building Conservation in Small Historic Towns: A Case Study of Xiangzhu, China
by Jiahan Wang, Weiwu Wang, Cong Lu and Zihao Guo
Buildings 2025, 15(19), 3553; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15193553 - 2 Oct 2025
Viewed by 331
Abstract
Historic and cultural towns in China are crucial carriers of vernacular heritage, yet many unlisted historic buildings remain highly vulnerable to urbanization and fragmented governance. This study takes Xiangzhu Town in Zhejiang Province as a case study and develops a multidimensional evaluation framework—integrating [...] Read more.
Historic and cultural towns in China are crucial carriers of vernacular heritage, yet many unlisted historic buildings remain highly vulnerable to urbanization and fragmented governance. This study takes Xiangzhu Town in Zhejiang Province as a case study and develops a multidimensional evaluation framework—integrating value, morphology, and risk—to identify conservation priorities and guide adaptive reuse. The results highlight three key findings: (1) a spatial pattern of “core preservation and peripheral renewal,” with historical and artistic values concentrated in the core, scientific value declining outward, and functional diversity emerging at the periphery; (2) a morphological structure characterized by “macro-coherence and micro-diversity,” as revealed by balanced global connectivity and localized hotspots in space syntax analysis; and (3) differentiated building risks, where most assets are low to medium risk, but some high-value ancestral halls show accelerated deterioration requiring urgent action. Based on these insights, a collaborative framework of “graded management–classified guidance–zoned response” is proposed to align systematic restoration with community-driven revitalization. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of the value–morphology–risk approach for small historic towns, offering a replicable tool for differentiated heritage conservation and sustainable urban–rural transition. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Research on Cultural Heritage—2nd Edition)
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0 pages, 4051 KB  
Article
Cross-Cultural Perceptual Differences in the Symbolic Meanings of Chinese Architectural Heritage
by Guoliang Shao, Jinhe Zhang, Lingfeng Bu and Jingwei Wang
Buildings 2025, 15(19), 3506; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15193506 - 28 Sep 2025
Viewed by 450
Abstract
Architectural heritage, as a highly symbolized medium of cultural expression, plays a vital role in transmitting collective memory and shaping intercultural tourism experiences. Yet, how visitors from diverse cultural backgrounds perceive and emotionally respond to Chinese architectural symbols remains insufficiently understood. This study [...] Read more.
Architectural heritage, as a highly symbolized medium of cultural expression, plays a vital role in transmitting collective memory and shaping intercultural tourism experiences. Yet, how visitors from diverse cultural backgrounds perceive and emotionally respond to Chinese architectural symbols remains insufficiently understood. This study addresses this gap by integrating architectural semiotics with cross-cultural psychology to examine perceptual differences across three visitor groups—Mainland China and Hong Kong/Macau/Taiwan (C), East and Southeast Asia (A), and Europe/North America (UA)—at eleven representative Chinese heritage sites. Drawing on 235 in-depth interviews and 1500 online reviews, a mixed-methods design was employed, combining semantic network analysis, grounded theory coding, and affective clustering. The findings reveal that memory structures and cultural contexts shape symbolic perception, that cultural dimensions and affective orientations drive divergent emotional responses, and that interpretive pathways of architectural symbols vary systematically across groups. Specifically, Group C emphasizes collective memory and identity, and Group A engages through structural analogies and regional resonance, while Group UA favors aesthetic form and immersive experiences. These insights inform culturally adaptive strategies for heritage presentation, including memory-anchored curation, comparative cross-regional interpretation, and immersive digital storytelling. By advancing a micro-level model of “architectural symbol–perceptual theme–emotional response–perceptual mechanism,” this research not only enriches theoretical debates on cross-cultural heritage perception but also offers practical guidance for inclusive and resonant heritage interpretation in a global tourism context. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Research on Cultural Heritage—2nd Edition)
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0 pages, 6194 KB  
Article
Study on the Evolution Mechanism of Cultural Landscapes Based on the Analysis of Historical Events—A Case Study of Gubeikou, Beijing
by Ding He, Hanghui Dong, Shihao Li and Minmin Fang
Buildings 2025, 15(19), 3495; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15193495 - 28 Sep 2025
Viewed by 540
Abstract
The cultural landscape of Gubeikou, with distinct historical stratification and event-relatedness, bears unique value. Against the backdrop of increasingly prominent themes of cultural heritage development and transformation, research on Gubeikou’s cultural landscapes remains fragmented and lacking in depth. This research explores its evolution [...] Read more.
The cultural landscape of Gubeikou, with distinct historical stratification and event-relatedness, bears unique value. Against the backdrop of increasingly prominent themes of cultural heritage development and transformation, research on Gubeikou’s cultural landscapes remains fragmented and lacking in depth. This research explores its evolution mechanism via historical events to fill gaps. This study takes Gubeikou Town as the research object, applies the text analysis method to sort and categorize 302 historical events, summarizes 12 event types, identifies 19 landscape elements, and constructs a data matrix based on co-occurrence frequencies. It performs clustering analysis on these using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering (AHC), while integrating historical and geographical data. Findings: (1) The landscape evolution of Gubeikou can be divided into four main stages: the military embryonic period, the functional expansion period, the system maturity period, and the multi-element integration period. (2) The dynamic evolutionary trajectory of the correlation between its landscapes and events shows that the core factors affecting the evolution of cultural landscapes in each period not only maintain the dominance of military elements throughout the evolutionary process but also integrate diverse elements like economy, culture, and folk customs with social development, presenting the characteristics of composite evolution. (3) The landscape evolution is driven by the “primary–secondary synergy” dynamic structure composed of four types of activities: military–political, transportation, production–trade, and construction. It is the product of the coupling effect of political goals, social operation, and geographical conditions. This study provides a basis for the sustainable protection and utilization of Gubeikou, and also offers a reference for other regions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Research on Cultural Heritage—2nd Edition)
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