Strategical Study of Sustainable Architecture Development in Poor Rural Regions of Southwestern China

In the rural Southwest with a densest impoverished population of China, the current conditions of human settlements are generally less desirable, limited by the local conditions in economy, topography, resource, etc. In particular, disasters from such as the several recent several earthquakes fully exposed the grim situation of local housing safety and quality of the living environment.;Since the Wenchuan Earthquake, with the national New Countryside Construction's increasing investment in the western part of China, a summit of government-promoted construction has been arriving in impoverished rural areas in the Southwest. Nevertheless, through analysing the existing practical problems arising from New Countryside Construction in recent years, it can be discovered that the decision-making bodies of various levels who lead the rural construction, is short of both a sustainable and suitable strategical guideline and theoretical basis. Currently, research and practice related to sustainable architecture development in poor rural areas of China is still at its early case-based stage with a lack of focused and systemic view, and hence is inadequate to act as professional guidelines for governments' practices. Consequently, it is exigent and critical to gradually establish a strategical system and theoretical framework for guiding rural construction in the Southwest toward a sustainable approach.;In view of the background, by taking into considerations of the local comprehensive situation, the paper systematically studied strategies of research and its extension on sustainable development of rural construction in impoverished rural areas from the standpoint of rural building construction, combining related achievements of both domestic and oversea researches and practices. The study focuses on the macroscopic and moderate level, and consists of three stages: foundation study, strategy study and case-based study.;At the stage of basic study, according to the constitution and historical evolution of rural human settlements, the study puts an emphasis on the three main aspects, which influence the strategies of sustainable development of rural construction in the Southwest: comprehensive developing situation of poor rural areas, national policies related to villages and theories of rural sustainable development. The results of the comprehensive analysis show that: directed by the philosophy of ecological sustainable development with the principle of 'high science and low technology', the strategy study of technology and organisation based on improving vernacular traditional technology, is a significant breakthrough to the current research of sustainable architecture within the poor rural areas of the Southwest, and is also a most practicable and effective way towards the sustainable development of human settlements in the rural Southwest.;Following the above guideline and principles, various achievements of both domestic and oversea researches and practices on related topics were systematically analysed, categorized and assorted at the strategy study stage. Through a further verification and emendation by the Maan Village Rebuild Demonstration Project at the case-based study stage, a strategical framework of the research on the technology and its practical organization for rural sustainable architecture is carried out, considering the particular conditions of the poor rural areas in the Southwest. Based on this study result, it is expected that future related researches in this domain could be more focused and systematic; and that a series of feasible guidelines indicating more clearly the direction of practice could be provided to the decision making bodies for their practices of rural construction.