Concept and Practice of Traditional Garden Heritage Conservation: A Report of 2020 Asia-Pacific Region Historic Buildings Protection and Restoration Technologies Senior Talent Seminar

Abstract

In December 2020, the WHITRAP-Suzhou Branch jointed Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University that successfully held a 9-day “2020 Asia-Pacific Region Historic Buildings Protection and Restoration Technologies Senior Talent Seminar and Yangtze River Delta Region Classical Gardens Talent Seminar.” During the event, Chinese professors and overseas scholars gave a series of academic lectures in the on-off line interactive way to 30 trainees from all over China. Furthermore, through the field inspections and in-depth on-site workshops in classical Suzhou Gardens, the participants discussed the garden historiography and the meaning of landscape painting in the gardens, and summarized the skills and principles for rockery-making in the gardens. Moreover, the participants also presented the principles for garden heritage conservation. The Internet-of-Things-based method was introduced as an effective tool for monitoring the health of classical gardens. Although this training course was during the prevention and control of the COVID-19 Pandemic, it still demonstrated the promotion of the Yangtze River Delta region in heritage conservation, and provided a reference to the heritage training, promoting the Suzhou Gardens history research, and the interaction between historical research and heritage value.