Place-Based Urban Landscape Design Planning: Theory, Methodology and Practice
A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Land Planning and Landscape Architecture".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 October 2025 | Viewed by 1293
Special Issue Editors
2. College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Interests: human settlement environment theory and methods; landscape perception; human settlement landscape architecture and microclimate; urban green space systems engineering
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: urban design; landscape urbanism; historic urban landscape
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In the context of accelerating globalization and urbanization, urban landscapes are undergoing profound transformations and reconstructions. While urban development brings improvements to the physical environment, it also faces numerous challenges, such as cultural homogenization, intensified social differentiation, and the loss of local identity. How to safeguard urban uniqueness amidst modernization and achieve social equity and cultural continuity in development has become a critical issue in contemporary urban landscape planning.
Concepts such as "place" and "sense of place" have been significantly advanced by scholars like Tuan (1977) and Relph (1976). "Place" is not merely a geographical concept but also a cultural one. It refers to a specific spatial location or site constructed by the culture of human groups living within a particular spatial range, imbued with unique cultural, emotional, and sociological value. In contemporary urban planning practice, "place" not only reveals the deep connection between humans and their environment but also provides a critical theoretical foundation for addressing the erosion of locality in the rapid urbanization process.
Place-based urban landscape design planning emphasizes the perspective of "local identity, culture, and society," focusing on issues related to local culture, heritage landscapes, landscape justice, and place perception. This requires a reexamination of the relationship between planning design and local development, exploring more inclusive and sustainable development pathways. How to balance the interests of various stakeholders, how to revitalize historical and cultural resources, and how to create meaningful urban spaces—this new planning paradigm demands that we transcend the traditional paradigm of technological rationality and understand the complexity of urban landscapes from multiple perspectives.
Meanwhile, the rapid development of new technologies brings fresh opportunities for local landscape research.Research achievements in frontier fields such as artificial intelligence and neuroscience are transforming how we understand and shape urban spaces. These new methods not only improve the efficiency and precision of planning design but also provide innovative tools for local identification, evaluation, and preservation. These changes present multiple challenges for place-based urban landscape planning, including theoretical construction, methodological innovation, and practical exploration.
This special issue encourages scholars from diverse geographical backgrounds and disciplinary perspectives to explore the multidimensional implications and implementation pathways of locality in urban landscape planning. By consolidating diverse research findings, we aim to establish an academic platform that advances theoretical progress and practical innovation, supporting the realization of place-centered urban landscape design visions.
This Special Issue will welcome manuscripts that link the following themes:
- Theoretical and methodological applications from a local perspective
- Urban memory and landscape narrative exploration
- Studies on urban gentrification and landscape justice
- Inheritance, revival, innovation, and development of local culture
- Research on environmental psychology, spatial perception, and place experience in local landscapes
- Conservation, revitalization, and sustainable development of local landscape heritage
- Applications of new technologies in locality and urban landscape research
- Comparative studies of place-based landscape planning and design cases across different regional contexts
We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.
Prof. Dr. Binyi Liu
Prof. Dr. Weizhen Chen
Dr. Yue Cheng
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 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. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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
- locality
- sense of place
- local culture
- place attachment
- landscape design and planning
- cultural landscape heritage
- urban memory
- urban gentrification
- landscape narrative
- landscape justice
- environmental psychology
- landscape perception
- place experience
- interdisciplinary approaches
- sustainable development
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