An earthquake-proof house made of clay? Inside the Yunnan home Hong Kong architects built from rubble
Team from Chinese University constructs rammed-earth structure using local clay that can withstand a magnitude 9 quake in hope of encouraging more such projects
After a magnitude 6.1 earthquake reduced a small village in southwest China to rubble in 2014, its residents no longer thought clay houses were strong enough to withstand natural disasters.
That is until a team of architects from a Hong Kong university built a clay house with a modern construction technique that can withstand magnitude 9 earthquakes.
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In earthquake-prone Yunnan province, the team from Chinese University made use of the mountains of red earth from collapsed homes to rebuild a house for an elderly couple who had been living in a makeshift tent in Guangming village for a year.
Unlike traditional earthquake-proof buildings made of bricks, concrete or steel, the salvaged materials allowed them to save the cost of importing expensive construction materials.
“After the earthquake, the demand to build houses pushed up labour and material costs. But how were these villagers going to be able to afford them? So we tried to think of ways we could use what was already existing to rebuild,” team leader Professor Edward Ng Yan-yung said.
