Loess Belt Dwellings

One of the most radical solutions in the field of shelter is represented by the underground towns and villages in the Chinese loess belt. Loess is silt, transported and deposited by the wind. Because of its great softness and high porosity (45 per cent), it can be easily carved. In places, roads have been cut as much as 15 meters deep into the original level by the action of wheels. The photographs show settlements of the most rigorous, not to say abstract, design near Tungkwan (Honnan). The dark squares in the flat landscape are pits about the size of a tennis court. Their vertical sides are 9 to 10 meters high. L-shaped staircases lead to the apartments below whose rooms are about 10 meters deep and 5 meters wide, and measure about 5 meters to the top of the vaulted ceiling. They are lighted and aired by openings that give onto the courtyard. Not only habitations but factories, schools, hotels and goverment offices are built entirely underground. The floor/roof has a double function: shelter and crop field. Neither additional air-conditioning nor heating is required, due to natural thermal lag kept in the soil mass. Furthermore, grain from the fields may be dried above ground, and afterwards storaged downstairs in the cave dwelling, simply by letting it directly fall into the storage room, through a hole on the floor/roof. The weather conditions are very extreme in this part of the world, with harsh long winters and very hot summers, thus the cave dwellings make the climate more stable for its inhabitants. It is estimated that over ten million people live in underground settlements in China.