Uncovering Latent Socio-Cultural Rules in Traditional Chinese Courtyard Dwellings: A Hybrid Space Syntax and Deep Learning Approach to Investigating Siheyuan Morphology

Uncovering Latent Socio-Cultural Rules in Traditional Chinese Courtyard Dwellings: A Hybrid Space Syntax and Deep Learning Approach to Investigating Siheyuan Morphology | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Uncovering Latent Socio-Cultural Rules in Traditional Chinese Courtyard Dwellings: A Hybrid Space Syntax and Deep Learning Approach to Investigating Siheyuan Morphology Yuyang Wang, Sheng Liu This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7330146/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The morphology of traditional Chinese courtyard dwelling embodies centuries-old socio-cultural rules that are often lost in contemporary renovation and new-build projects. This study proposes an artificial intelligence assisted cultural computing framework that integrates space syntax indicators of accessibility and visual perception with convolutional and graph neural networks to reveal these tacit design rules underlying Siheyuan at scale. A dataset of 483 Siheyuan plans extracted from the 1750 Qianlong Capital Map and a measuring survey was processed through Convex Map and Visibility Graph Analysis to generate four quantitative socio-cultural indicators. A hybrid deep learning algorithm is employed to extract morphological features from the socio-cultural indicators, which are represented in the form of images and graphs. The extracted feature vectors are reduced to two dimensions, and the samples are clustered into 9 groups based on an elbow analysis. Based on correlation and comparative analyses on the samples of the 9 groups, latent design rules underlying Siheyuan morphology are identified. The resulting two-dimensional feature map offers conservation architects a quantitative, similarity-based reference system for renovation and culturally legible new design of Siheyuan. The framework is transferable to other building types, which advances architectural morphology from ideal type description to data-driven pattern recognition. Architectural morphology Traditional Chinese Courtyard Dwelling Graph and Image Socio-Cultural Characteristics Identification Artificial Intelligence Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7330146","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":503208153,"identity":"006005cc-887e-43cb-9b7e-eeeeac59abb6","order_by":0,"name":"Yuyang Wang","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA9UlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACgxsJIPK/HD+IAgsdIEpLAbOxZAOQc4AYLZIzQFo+MCduOABTTUgLv0Tys4dfDNgSN58/Y1D8sY1Bju9GAuPnAjxa2KTTzI1lDHiMt93IMTA42MZgLHkjgVl6Bl4tCWbSEgYSsttu8G4AaUnccCOBjZkHr5b0b0AtBoyb+8+CtdQT1iL/xkzyg0GC4gaGXLCWBAOCWmTelEkDQ9dY4kb+B4Mz5yQMZ5552CyNV4tE+jbJH38OyPH3H0szqCizkec7nnzwMz4tIABzBhsw9iWANGMDAQ1AJT+gWh8QVDoKRsEoGAUjEgAAP0lPSDalNN4AAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"Southwest Jiaotong University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yuyang","middleName":"","lastName":"Wang","suffix":""},{"id":503208154,"identity":"de55d548-1579-433d-8626-ee7e3e1a4981","order_by":1,"name":"Sheng Liu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Southwest Jiaotong University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Sheng","middleName":"","lastName":"Liu","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-08-08 20:53:25","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7330146/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7330146/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":98430509,"identity":"458e8747-ff96-4c48-a6a3-f298f1c7b68d","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-12-17 16:45:36","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1981199,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7330146/v1_covered_b2093a32-d686-4637-9b2a-9ff181a4d2eb.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Uncovering Latent Socio-Cultural Rules in Traditional Chinese Courtyard Dwellings: A Hybrid Space Syntax and Deep Learning Approach to Investigating Siheyuan Morphology","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Architectural morphology, Traditional Chinese Courtyard Dwelling, Graph and Image, Socio-Cultural Characteristics Identification, Artificial Intelligence","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7330146/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7330146/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThe morphology of traditional Chinese courtyard dwelling embodies centuries-old socio-cultural rules that are often lost in contemporary renovation and new-build projects. 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The resulting two-dimensional feature map offers conservation architects a quantitative, similarity-based reference system for renovation and culturally legible new design of Siheyuan. 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