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This article is abstracted from A Research Perspective on Asian Construction History, published on the Heritage Spectator Issue.2 (Authors: Yiting Pan, Mahdi Motamedmanesh). See the full article here: http://jlbri.suda.edu.cn/jlbri_en/6e/b1/c27182a487089/page.htm

On November 2021, a group of scholars based in Asia and/or researching on Asia virtually gathered on 2 November 2021, and foundedthe Asian Construction History Network (ACHN). The first Asian Construction History Virtual Group meeting gatheredthe founding members from/based in China, Singapore, Iran, Japan, India, Turkey, Australia, and Europe to share their experience, expertise, and ideas for collectively deciding the start-up work. In the near future, it is expected that more Asian scholars become involved in the ACHN.The initiators, as well as the advisory board chose “What is your vision of Asian networking on Construction History?” as the theme for the first virtual meeting.

Participants of the first virtual meetingdiscussed the challenges associated with the establishment and operation of ACHN platform. Some of the main issues comprise:

- The difficulty of identifying unique/new research directions, especially when dealing with Asian construction history

- The existence of limited educationalcourses or training workshops, as well as publications (particularly in local languages) on construction history at Asian universities

- The lack of a transnational platform for sharing resources on the history of construction in Asia

- The difficulty of building cross-national and cross-regional connections (in terms of preparing research content & creating areas of collaboration)

- The intense occupation of academics with their main job at research centres

- The existence of various red lines (in terms of socio-cultural parameters, politics, etc.) in different regions of Asia that should not be crossed.

Attention to these remarks guarantees the functionality and performance of ACHN, despite geographical origins, cultural differences, and personal interests of the members.

Having these concerns in mind, there is a scholarly consensus on the followings:

o   Research: focus on identifying cutting-edge research themes/methodologies

o   Resource: focus on establishing and managing a shared platform for resource (e.g. updating the ACHN Webpage, conference notifications, preparing a bibliographical list of publications on the building techniques of Asia);

o   Education: focus on defining the best practice of teaching the Construction History

o   Networking: focus on managing new members and pursuing innovative models of networking

o   Advisory: receiving advice on the development of the Group in all aspects

Fig. 1. Discussion on the possible mechanism of ACHN, the first virtual meeting of Asian Construction History (Source: Authors)