Wash Ivanovic, G., Miyazaki, S., 2016.

Visualizing Patterns of Occupation in the Old Pugao Village

The old Pugao village is one of the most representative examples of vernacular architecture linked to rice agriculture in Yunnan Province, China. While this village has been widely studied from the perspective of history and heritage, we believe that there are still lessons to be learned from it that could be have implications and applications in contemporary architectural design. In order to find and visualize these hidden qualities we visited the village, were we surveyed some of its unique architectural characteristics and recorded patterns of occupation by local residents. By using a proposed methodology for visualizing the collected information (ACM; Activity Counter Maps) we argue that it will be possible to geographically and graphically represent some of these qualities by creating activity maps which will allow us to see clear spatial dynamics otherwise hidden. Finally, we discuss how the introduced methodology can offer new perspectives from which to understand and study vernacular villages and self-built environments.