Peak at China’s Construction for a Beautiful Countryside

Professor Hu’s research has been primarily focused on eco-friendly vernacular architecture with a keen interest in preserving the Chinese cultural heritage. Her field of research is multi-interdisciplinary and intersected by architectural culture, building structure and architecture science. Her research positions include being a Key member of The National Innovation Academic Team on Theory of Architectural Environment and Energy Consumption Control in Western China, fellowship of China Architecture Academy, and academic leader in the subject of structure and construction of green architecture at Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology.

October 10th, having received the invitation of our School of Architecture and design, Dr. Hu Rongrong, the PhD in structural Engineering, professor, postgraduate of Xi ‘ an University of Architecture and technology, brought a wonderful architectural lecture for the presence of nearly 100 teachers and students at CMBP C323. Except the students and teachers in our university, there are a lot of foreign teachers and students and their parents came to the scene to study and enjoy this wonderful academic feast.
From a simple topic “What the country should be like”, Dr. Hu began her lecture. In order to allow students to better understand the significance of beautiful rural construction, at first she played some videos about some beautiful scenery of natural beauty, with traditional local characteristics of the country building photos, then she quoted the fact that more and more traditional buildings are being replaced by the brick buildings, however, those brick boxes are colorless, which made the countryside colorless too.
So how to restor traditional buildings? Dr. Hu said, she combined local traditional construction techniques with local materials an bring the soil back to the laboratory for testing. Finally, they turned the local soil into a new building material. Therefore, the house already has good performance and can restore the aesthetic feeling of traditional countryside again.
Dr. Hu also showed a new bedroom she designed for the northwest area of China, which retains both its original features and modern comforts. She referenced “Dragon, White Tiger, Suzaku, basalt and other Chinese elements to design the Lanbai room. She also design a landmark building, which blended with nature, attract a lot of tourists and praises.
Finally, Professor Hu concludes: to build a beautiful countryside, we must understand the essence and spirit of the Chinese countryside: landscape, and people’s need. What’s more, combine the modernization with tradition to revive the Chinese countryside in a harmonious way.