Regeneration of vernacular architecture: New rammed earth houses on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River

In rural areas of western China, most of the vernacular architectures are made of earth. In the process of urbanization, few residents like to build their houses with earth because the old traditional earth house cannot meet their requirement for higher standard of living. As a result, much more energy will be consumed if industrial building materials are used instead of earth. The regeneration of the traditional earth house, therefore, becomes a challenge in new village construction. This paper briefly describes a project about creating a new prototype of earth house for the migrants along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River to shed light on finding an appropriate approach for regenerating the traditional earth houses with the concept of low-energy housing. It includes an investigation of the traditional earth house and the environment condition of the new settlement, the new house design process, and the quantitative evaluation of the living quality of the new house. © Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag 2009.