The South Architecture journal was founded in 1981. Initially, the journal focused on the south of the Five Ridges and oriented to the whole of China. It has exerted positive and extensive influences on architectural creation theory. In 2008, the School of Architecture, South China University of Technology, took over South Architecture and carried out a comprehensive revision under the leadership of Professor He Jingtang, an academic of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Comprehensive reforms were implemented from various aspects, including the principle and purpose, review and edition, layout and printing.

South Architecture has retained the original intention to be a first-class architectural journal in the past decade since the revisions. It has been positively promoting the propagation and communication of Chinese and foreign architectural circles and insisting on the spirit of “emphasis on research, emphasis on theory, emphasis on innovation.” It aims to be a high-level academic and research journal that can timely reflect original achievements of architecture, urban-rural planning, landscape architecture and other disciplines at home and abroad. By standing at a subtropical zone and orienting to great national needs and academic frontiers, it reports important theoretical innovations, records significant engineering practices of the age, publishes high-level scientific research results, and develops main fronts for theoretical studies of architecture, becoming a leading domestic and internationally renowned professional journal of architecture.

South Architecture pays close attention to academic frontiers, keeps up with hotspots of the age, maintains close relationships with high-level authors and reviewers, and provides 12 high-quality issues every year, covering more than 150 academic papers annually. It has established strict peer review systems and review rules and trained a stable author team. More than 500 articles are submitted spontaneously every year, with the first review by the editorial department, anonymous review, second review, and final review by experts thousands of times. More than 200 experts participate in the review process. All articles are screened several times and revised repeatedly to improve the quality of article sources and standardize the manuscript review and format. The acceptance rate of manuscripts is about 15%.

The School of Architecture at the South China University of Technology has a long history and comprises the Architecture Department, Urban Planning Department, Landscape Architecture Department, State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Architectural Science, Architectural Design and Research Institute, and South Architectural Editorial Department. It ranks in China’s top five architectural universities in terms of comprehensive strength, has the only national key laboratory among all eight old architectural universities, and possesses strong subject advantages.

He Jingtang, an academic of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and honorary president of the School of Architecture, South China University of Technology, assumes the role of chief editor and director of the editing committee of South Architecture. The editing committee has more than 30 academics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering, the national master of engineering survey and design, more than 40 professors and chief architects from famous design institutes, and overseas editors from Australia, and the USA. Such a strong editing committee contributes ideas and directs the journal’s orientation, reviews, and submitted manuscripts, and also plays an important role in guaranteeing the academic quality of the journal.