As Found Houses

In rural China, an informal wave of
building catalysed by economic and social developments has rendered some
villages unrecognisable. This building boom, taking place in a context
of limited regulations, has created densities more often found in urban
areas. At the same time, the rapid transformation of rural villages has
generated some remarkable hybrid experiments where rural builders use
generic construction methods to adapt, modify, graft, cleave and wrap
traditional vernacular typologies. These typologies have existed for
hundreds of years and represent an accretion of localised building
knowledge and cultural identity. Where often these typologies are
preserved and maintained as tourist destinations, this book looks at
those instances where families transform them to account for new ways of
living.


By looking closely at these transformations, As Found Houses
identifies innovative, informal design responses that negotiate between
traditional housing forms and the changing conditions of the rural
village. The book presents the intelligent and surprising solutions
applied to house typologies conceived by builders in 4 regions of rural
China. Using photographs, axonometric drawings and interviews with the
villagers who live in these hybrid experiments, the book situates design
solutions within the context of their larger human narratives, thereby
challenging ossified understandings of vernacular architecture that
treat historical and cultural tradition as static.


The book argues
that the manifold evolution of the vernacular is part of the every-day
practice of the villagers' lives, and that architecture for them is very
much still a home. As Found Houses is a guide
to the surprising design decisions found in the domestic architecture
of rural China and a resource for thinking about contemporary design.