Enlightenment on Modern Urban Planning of the Traditional Construction Wisdom in Lingnan Region

This paper explores how the traditional construction wisdom of Lingnan region deals with urban planning to gain better human comfort. The traditional construction wisdom of Lingnan region adopts unique design techniques such as layout, ventilation and heat insulation, which not only adapts to the hot and humid summer climate in southern China, but also realizes the effect of “natural air conditioning” in urban planning. The traditional construction wisdom has a history of thousands of years and are the quintessence of the wisdom of Chinese traditional culture. This author makes a field measurement of the thermal environment in Donghuali community, Foshan city (in Guangdong province, PRC), extracting such the thermophysical parameters as air velocity, wind direction, temperature, relative humidity, and conducting an analysis of human comfort, to discuss through the data how the traditional construction wisdom of Lingnan works. The paper focuses on whether the traditional wisdom can be tested in a scientific way, and what kind of design inspiration it brings to contemporary urban planning. The breakout of COVID-19 is not only a test for all mankind, but also a reflection on urban planning. In the post-coronavirus era, urban planning should not only stay in the temporary state of simply preventing the recurrence of the epidemic. The potential risks that blocks, communities and cities may face should be analyzed more systematically to comprehensively improve the sustainable development of the building. The conclusion of this paper is that the traditional construction wisdom of Lingnan region can effectively solve the problem of hot and humid climate in summer in southern China without active energy sources assistance, better meet the requirements of human comfort, and play a positive role in the sustainable development of urban planning in the post-epidemic era.