A PATTERN LANGUAGE FOR BUILDING MORPHOLOGY IN TRADITIONAL VILLAGES OF WESTERN GUANGDONG UNDER TYPHOON DISTURBANCE RISK: CASE STUDIES OF BAYI AND ZHOUJIA VILLAGES

Abstract

Villages in western Guangdong face an extremely high risk from typhoons, and the resulting impacts vary with village morphology. Existing research has focused largely on describing settlement form, and few studies have linked disturbance risk to morphological types. Using Bayi Village and Zhoujia Village, two nationally designated traditional villages in western Guangdong, as case studies, this study measures typhoon disturbance risk using the tree-fall rate derived from pre- and post-typhoon imagery. High-resolution orthophotos produced by UAV oblique photogrammetry were sampled in 30 m grid cells, morphological elements were delineated by combining the orthophotos with DSM-derived canopy height, and relationship indicators along three dimensions—building–courtyard, building–road, and building–vegetation—were computed following the character–word–phrase–context hierarchy of pattern language; high- and low-risk samples were then clustered separately into morphological types. The high-risk group yielded three phrase types: a dispersed-open type with no distinct courtyard, weak road adjacency, and interstitial vegetation; a clustered courtyard-enclosure type with partial road adjacency and interstitial vegetation; and a dense courtyard-enclosure type with partial road adjacency and sparse vegetation. The low-risk group likewise yielded three phrase types: a dispersed-open type with partial road adjacency and peripheral vegetation; a clustered courtyard-enclosure type with multi-sided road adjacency and interstitial vegetation; and a dense courtyard-enclosure type with partial road adjacency and sparse vegetation. These results provide a typological basis for morphological control, risk-stratified management, and differentiated disaster-prevention planning for traditional villages in typhoon-prone regions.