The term and the aesthetic sensibility of the picturesque have been used for some time in the fine arts and architecture. Supported by Tongji University, this research project seeks to determine their origins as a term as well as the earliest artistic manifestations embodying this sensibility across cultures and disciplines. Experts from across the globe will be asked to join this project to contribute to a more accurate understanding of both the idea and the sensibility's legacy. In Fall 2024, the project held two colloquia and one conference centered around the origins of the picturesque in various cultures. In 2025 further conferences will be held, one in the Werner Oechslin Library in Einsiedeln, Switzerland, the others at Tongji University. A publication with the results of the research is planned for 2026/2027.

The term "picturesque" is in wide and often loose use in many fields of artistic production, most notably in architecture. Critics of irregular forms apply the term in a pejorative way, yet the general movement towards a less formal appearance of not only architectural designs but of all of life's expressions on an international scale gives the "picturesque" a hitherto unknown significance. The picturesque is not only an aesthetic sensibility, in the context of dominant global ordering systems, of technological rationalism and limited personal space, the picturesque expresses a longing for the unconstrained other, for the innate energy of the natural.