This book includes papers presented at the 6th Arte-Polis International Conference. The theme of the conference was “Imagining Experiences: Creative Tourism and the Making of Place”, and the book brings together studies based on lessons-learned, research and critical reviews related to creative tourism and reflections on placemaking. Covering a broad range of topics, including cultural and experiential perceptions of landscape, sustainable design, urban and rural planning, traditional and vernacular environment, public realm, thematic tourism, as well as heritage preservation and management, it discusses how issues of tourism shape our understanding of and discourse on architecture and landscapes. The book serves as an invitation to more participatory and polyphonic dialogues in the field of architecture, art and planning.

Design and the Vernacular explores the intersection between vernacular architecture, local cultures, and modernity and globalization, focussing on the vast and diverse global region of Australasia and Oceania. The relevance and role of vernacular architecture in contemporary urban planning and architectural design are examined in the context of rapid political, economic, technological, social and environmental changes, including globalization, exchanges of people, finance, material culture, and digital technologies. Sixteen chapters by architects designers and theorists, including Indigenous writers, explore key questions about the agency of vernacular architecture in shaping contemporary building and design practice. These questions include: How have Indigenous and First Nations building traditions shaped modern building practices? What can the study of vernacular architecture contribute to debates about sustainable development? And how has vernacular architecture been used to argue for postcolonial modernisation and nation-building and what has been the effect on heritage and conservation? Such questions provide valuable case studies and lessons for architecture in other global regions -- and challenge assumptions about vernacular architecture being anachronistic and static, instead demonstrating how it can shape contemporary architecture, nation building and cultural identities.

This volume presents the refereed papers given at the International Conference on Managing the Asian Century, held in Singapore in July 2013. The proceedings of this conference include original papers contributed by researchers from many countries on different continents. The papers cover multi-disciplinary areas such as management, the social sciences, development economics, banking & finance, engineering management, and education, all in connection with the development of countries in Asia. Further, the papers are based on the 9 tracks at the conference: Transnational Education Antecedents of Asia’s Competitiveness Emerging Trends in Banking, Finance and Accounting Business and Revenue Models in the Gaming Industry Psychological Issues in Asia Emerging Retail and Service Industries Entrepreneurship, Creativity and Innovation Systems Thinking and Systems Practices Tourism Initiatives, Relationships and Issues in the Asia-Pacific Region