2023 China Fellowship
Environmental Tectonics Through Air: Learning from Vernacular

Air is an intrinsic driver for the adaptation of vernacular architecture to the regional environment, and the tectonic logic of vernacular architecture is the most direct and clear response to air. “Environmental Tectonics Though Air” aims to explore green buildings based on the nature of air, which returns to the core of architecture—space and construction. “Learning from Vernacular” aims to connect architecture and thermodynamics without giving up the tectonic tradition toward human thermal comfort and health.

Architectural form can be regarded as a configuration of energy, and the spatial configuration of vernacular architecture reveals the adaptation to the regional air quality. Jiangxi vernacular courtyard buildings, as one of the most common typologies of Chinese vernacular architecture, truly reflect tectonic forms that adapted to the regional air quality. Under the goal of “carbon peaking and carbon neutral,” the research “Environmental Tectonics Through Air: Learning from Vernacular” will provide a vision for the sustainable development of green buildings.

Research interest

Based on the nature of air, the research “Environmental Tectonics Through Air” will focus on five aspects: environmental-climate selection, spatial-form type, spatial climate-gradient, climate regulation-interface, and material-construction method.

• Environmental-climate selection: the location and orientation of the building are specific measures taken to choose favorable climatic factors and adapt to the site environment.
• Spatial-form type: architectural spatial-form organization is the means, medium, and result of environmental regulation, regulating the humid and hot environment of indoor and outdoor quality.
• Spatial climate-gradient: for the different functional and air environment of the spaces, the building’s air gradients are created though rational spatial configurations. Furthermore, spaces with strict regulation requirements for the air quality are enclosed in non-strictly regulated spaces.
• Climate regulation-interface: a design strategy to improve comfort and reduce energy consumption through the design of the material, structure, form, and organization of the enclosure structure, regulating the internal and external air, and dynamically balancing the process mechanism of wind, light, and heat.
• Material-construction method: the building enhances the regulation of the air environment through specific construction methods, such as strengthening or suppressing conduction, radiation, and convection.

Research significance

• Understand climate adaptation mechanisms and air quality mediation of Jiangxi vernacular courtyard buildings and crossing the knowledge boundary between space, form, and environmental energy toward human thermal comfort and health.
• Focus on the relationship between space, form, and energy of vernacular architecture, people can design contemporary architecture fundamentally adapted to the regional air quality and optimize spatial forms in design to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions.
• Provide a type of paradigm for regional environmental tectonics, pointing to local culture based on the environmental mediation of local air quality.

“Climate change has become a global issue of our time. Therefore, the development of green buildings should return to the autonomous core of architecture—space and construction. This China Fellowship provides a chance to research the thermodynamic mechanism and environmental performance of traditional buildings, learning the traditional wisdom of vernacular architecture. I hope a new paradigm for regional environmental tectonics can be provided, pointing to the local culture based on the environmental mediation of the local air environment, which is the greatest significance of this award to me.”
—Shuaibo Shi