TENSILE MUD DWELLINGS - SUSTAINING RURALITY IN CHINA

by Urangua Sodnomjamts

Tensile Mud Dwellings researches into the existing methods of earth construction, studying its parameters to design a process of constructing tensile reinforcements to enable thin, curved mud structures, with reduced construction material waste. It does this through defining a minimal mesh that can be computationally designed and built with minimal specialised equipment. Transforming a tensile construction into a compressive final form.

Sustaining Rurality in China investigates the existing rural societies and their transformation into urban settlements. Yaodong underground dwellings sustained China’s farming communities. Today they are being abandoned and rebuilt into megacities and china’s rurality is being forgotten and rapidly becoming inefficient. Megacities use intense amounts of energy to build and maintain, and thus displace existing vernacular communities. To work against generic development and to empower local communities, Tensile Mud Dwellings works to re-skill the existing rural communities in earth construction and works to re-establish their investment in agriculture.