Study maps three paths for localising foreign architecture in Jiangnan

A mixed-method study of 83 foreign public buildings in modern Jiangnan, China, identifies three pathways for architectural localisation: cultural integration, precise adjustment, and flexibility and variability. The analysis focused on Jiangsu Province and Shanghai between 1840 and 1949, a period marked by the proliferation of foreign-influenced architecture. The authors describe the resulting eclectic building forms as a postcolonial paradox, in which Western colonial influence and indigenous cultural subjectivity became increasingly difficult to separate.

To investigate how foreign architecture was adapted, the researchers combined three analytical components. First, they reviewed 179 representative publications from the preceding two decades, identifying nine architectural elements that constitute building form. Second, they used an entropy weight method on the sample of 83 foreign public buildings to determine the weights and variability of those elements. Third, they selected typical buildings for case study analysis, using the cases to interpret the three measured localisation paths and the selection logic behind them. The mixed-method design was intended to connect the broader quantitative pattern with interpretation of individual buildings and to offer a replicable framework for comparable research in other regions.

The study classified four features as a stable form of localisation with high weight and low entropy: the building’s main material structure, plan shape contour, plan spatial form, and building roof material structure. The authors associate this pattern with cultural integration. In the study’s analytical terms, these elements occupy a stable position within the sampled architectural system. The findings do not provide a causal account of why each feature received a particular weight or entropy value, but they do show that the four elements differed from the façade and proportional features classified into the other pathways.

A second path, described as precise adjustment, was associated with the façade shape contour. This element was characterised by medium weight and medium entropy, placing it in an intermediate category between the stable and differentiated features. The case study analysis was used to verify this pathway and elaborate its underlying selection logic. Because the supplied findings do not report the names or detailed characteristics of the case-study buildings, the broader pattern cannot be linked here to a specific structure or site.

The third path, characterised as flexibility and variability, was associated with plan proportion, façade proportion, the material structure of doors and windows, and façade decorative pattern. These four elements had low weight and high entropy in the analysis, distinguishing them from the façade shape contour and the four elements assigned to cultural integration. The results therefore present localisation as a differentiated process at the level of individual architectural components: four elements formed the stable category, one occupied the precise-adjustment category, and four were assigned to the more variable category. The study’s scope is the analysed corpus of 83 foreign public buildings in the Jiangnan region during 1840–1949; the reported findings do not establish that all foreign buildings in the region followed the same patterns. By combining literature analysis, entropy weighting, and case studies, the authors offer a structured way to examine how imported building types were localised within a postcolonial architectural context.

Subject of Research: Mixed-method analysis of three architectural localisation pathways in 83 foreign public buildings across modern Jiangnan, China.

Article Title: Autonomous paths for the localisation of foreign public buildings in the modern Jiangnan region, China, based on a mixed method

Article References: Wang, X., Liu, C., Yang, Z., & Guo, W. (2026). Autonomous paths for the localisation of foreign public buildings in the modern Jiangnan region, China, based on a mixed method. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-09467-z

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1057/s41599-026-09467-z

Keywords: architectural history, foreign architecture, Jiangnan, cultural localisation, entropy weight method, postcolonial architecture, case study analysis, building form, China, architectural heritage, Autonomous, paths