In Chinese, "CHUAN CHENG" ( 传承 ) is used to describe the idea of inheritance.
"CHUAN" denotes teaching, while "CHENG" denotes learning.
传承
Building With EARTH
A Mutual-educational Approach towards Sustainable Rural Revitalization
Empowered by Traditional Wisdom
Challenges and Responses
Lost of Traditional Wisdom
With China's rapid urbanization over the past decades,
the decline of rural areas and the demise of traditional
building technology, has become a crucial issue for
most villages. The value of these traditional construction
wisdoms in terms of sustainability is often greatly
underestimated. Building with earth is one of the most
historical and widely-spread construction traditions in
China. However, the locals progressively abandoned
this method and conceptualized it as a symbol of poverty
and backwardness. Earth buildings, as a locally sourced,
life-cycle ecological technology with a broad range of
applications, continue to have a significant advantage
over concrete-brick buildings in terms of sustainability,
economy, and climate adaptivity. The first issue we must
face is how to empower the villagers through scientific
innovation of traditional technology to assist them in
building a climate-smart, affordable, and safe structure
that they can pass on and be proud of.
Gaps in Architectural Education
How to achieve sustainable development goals through
effective education is a major challenge in China for
university-based architecture education today. Firstly,
present design curricula are primarily based on paper
and model work, missing opportunities and platforms to
combine hands-on practice with theoretic and tectonic
understanding. Secondly, there is a lack of deep
exploration of traditional architectural wisdom. Most of
what is taught stays on the level of culture and form.
Finally, given the rapid advancement of building science
and technology, continuous access to the most up-
to-date technologies should be incorporated into the
educational process. The second issue we must address
is bridging the gap in architectural education between
theory and practice, traditional and modern, through a
feasible and manageable pedagogical approach.
Back to Earth
Since 2011, based on systematic research, validation
work, and extensive on-site practice of earth-based
construction, our team has developed a localized
rammed-earth construction system that is more
affordable, anti-seismic, and sustainable.
In this process, a model of collaborative mutual
education is gradually established, benefiting both the
local villagers and architecture students. A number of
participative training programs have been developed,
to offer them a platform to learn about the potential of
rammed-earth for a sustainable future. In response
to the challenges that rural communities and current
education system are facing, it could be an exploration
for a feasible education mode by the integration of
research, practice and education.