Research on the Sustainable Renewal of Architectural Heritage Sites from the Perspective of Extenics—Using the Example of Tulou Renovations in LantianVillage, Longyan City

Fujian Tulous in China are important international architectural heritage sites that reflect precious human cultural heritage. Currently, only a small number of Tulou buildings have been listed as world cultural heritage sites, resulting in a lack of attention and financial support for most Tulou buildings. Thus, it is difficult to effectively renovate and repair Tulou buildings to adapt to modern life, and therefore they are facing the severe challenge of abandonment and desolation. Due to the special conditions of Tulou buildings, there are significant limitations in renovation and repair work, with a number of problems such as the lack of innovative renovations. Therefore, through a problem model analysis of a design system for Tulou renovations, in this study, we adopt the methods of divergent tree, conjugate pair, correlative net, implied system, and split-merge chain analyses in extenics to carry out extension transformation and solve the problem and we verify its feasibility using the example of the Tulou renovation projects in Lantian Village, Longyan City. We explore an innovative methodology for scientific renovation of Tulou buildings, and we establish a design system for Tulou building renovations that enriches and supplements original renovation methods; thus, we provide a basis for the repair and reuse of Tulou buildings, to extend their service life and to realize the sustainable development of Tulou buildings. The research results show that extenics can be implemented in innovative renovations of Tulou buildings, and it is concluded that the essence of achieving sustainable renewal in Tulou building renovations is to solve contradictory problems, including contradictions in conditions, objectives, and design. This study verifies the possibility of applying extenics in the design of Tulou building renovations, makes corresponding contributions to the application of extension methods in the renovation and renewal of Tulou buildings, and also contributes to the renovation, renewal, and protection of other types of architectural heritage sites.