Climate-adaptive Design of Historic Villages and Dwellings in a Typhoon-prone Region in Southernmost Mainland China

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the adaptive design of historic villages and dwellings in response to the typhoon climate of the Leizhou Peninsula. A field investigation involving 917 historic villages was conducted. The physical features of the villages were superimposed with the visualized spatial trajectories of the cyclones. Case studies were also adopted to reveal their windproofing mechanisms. The results show that villages are safeguarded through systematic approaches. First, planting windbreaks with appropriate densities and locations was a first line of defence. Second, dwellings were arranged to form a dense-alley pattern, through which the windward faces were reduced and rapid drainage was achieved. Third, the courtyard layout, strengthened exterior walls, and a set of roof protection technologies were applied to increase the stability and integrity of the building. Traditional wisdom was identified in that villages and dwellings were built with the philosophy of reducing the possibility of a disaster in an ordinary windstorm situation through appropriate rather than excessive windproof construction to achieve a balance between survival and development under resource constraints. This knowledge complements the traditional technologies of wind protection developed in other regions of the world and has modern significance for building climate-adaptive and environmentally friendly settlements and buildings.

KEYWORDS:

• Architectural design
• detailed design
• Leizhou Peninsula
• typhoon
• village pattern

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Huichen Feng, Weiqi Zhao, Juan Chen, Hua Wang, Chen Zhang, Wenjing Gao, Jingjuan Ji, Buqing Liang, Shixian Huang, Jian Liang, Wenyi Du, Qian Li, Feiyang Chao, Haoyang Feng, Jiaping Huang, Ying Sun, Lulu Liu and Yan Zeng for their contributions to the field survey and data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Notes

¹ “Bogu” is a traditional Chinese wooden shelf originally used to display a variety of antiques. It is characterized by an asymmetrical and balanced composition that creates separation. Bogu gradually became part of the traditional culture and was extended to many other fields. The roof ridge of traditional architecture is a typical example. The “dragon boat” comes from an ancient Chinese legend. It is a long narrow wooden boat, with the traditional image of “dragon” in the head and stern. In addition, there are special dragon boat racing activities in the Duanwu Festival. The roof ridges of historic dwellings on the Leizhou Peninsula imitate the form of dragon boats, so they are called “dragon boat ridges”.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Programme of China [Grant Number: 2019YFD1100903]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant Number: 51878283; 51778232]; Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province [Grant Number: 2020A1515010683]; Key projects of Guangzhou Science and technology plan [Grant Number: 201804020017]; and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [Grant Number: x2jz/D2190720].