Developing an Evaluation System Suitable for Coastal Rural Houses’ Characteristic Style and Its Inspiration for Rural Revitalization: Case Study of Rongcheng in Shandong Province

The characteristic style of rural houses is an important manifestation of the historical and cultural values of rural areas and is the key focus of the implementation of the strategy for the construction of beautiful China and the revitalization of rural areas. Taking 17 villages in the Rongcheng of Shandong as an example, this article integrated multidimensional data, including geospatial data, survey data and socio-economic data, and constructed a suitable index system to evaluate the characteristic style of coastal rural houses in 2018 and put forward the characteristic style regionalization of coastal rural houses. The results show that the characteristic style of coastal rural houses can be measured by the overall village environment, coastal architectural value and traditional folk culture, among which the coastal architectural value is the most critical. Two villages scored over 60 points in the comprehensive evaluation, namely the Dongchu Island village and Dazhuang Xujia Community. Different dominant characteristic styles of rural houses were identified according to single-factor evaluation. Based on the evaluation results and factors such as location, nature, social economy and the status quo of protection and development management, characteristic styles of rural houses in the research area can be divided into four continuous areas: historical and cultural characteristics, folk customs and industrial development characteristics, natural scenery characteristics and folk customs characteristics. Combined with regional positioning and development planning, the construction direction of different regional types was defined, and then the protection and improvement measures of rural residential features were put forward. This study not only provides a certain basis for the evaluation, construction and protection of the characteristic features of coastal rural dwellings in Rongcheng City but also provides guidance for the implementation of rural construction planning.