Proposal to Revitalize Zhenfu Lou

Xia Nanxi Village, Hukeng Town, Yongding County, Fujian Province
• Historical RecoFit+Natural Capitalism for sustainable redevelopment, south China
Jorg Ostrowski , Helen Ostrowski, Xiaoyan Li (& Minoru Ueda)

DOWNLOAD FULL PRESENTATION HERE

Introduction:

This revitalization plan for Zhenfu, respectful of its cultural and historical heritage,is a unique opportunity to resuscitate the past, retrofit the present and be ready for the future, as an nternational prototype for sustainable redevelopment of historic monuments (and villages) without
forced retirement into static museums. This generic approach to save and rehabilitate Hakka villages
is a privately-led partnership with Government and industry to demonstrate a new model or paradigm
for a sustainable future. Zhenfu and its land, can be reborn as a dynamic, living, breathing, leadingedge
Centre for Sustainable Living, Learning & Natural Capitalism 1 and Centre of Appropriate
Technology 2, 3, as the first RecoDevelopment project in a future Hakka BioSphere Plan 4 for
Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi and Jiangxi, based on the data, vision and recommendations below.

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

Our 5th trip to China since 2007 had it last meeting on Nov. 3 at the National Department of Housing in Beijing, in which our team presented:
1) History Channel's newly released video on Hakka Tulous featuring the work of ASH-Inc.
2) our proposed Hakka BioSphere, Trail & RecoFit Proposal (1)
to officials from China's (departments of) National Museum, Housing and Culture.

ASH-Inc. was hired by History Channel to advocate ASH's research, ideas, work and expertise on Hakka Tulous, summarized in the above proposal to show how China's "History is made for Tomorrow", in other words, how to build on and transform, historical buildings from a sustainable past into modern heritage buildings for a sustainable future, to benefit local people, Chinese nationals, international visitors, and future generations. Our role as consultants was to help organize events, select buildings, harness our resources, mobilize our contacts, set up filming opportunities, demonstrate rammed earth construction, identify people for interviews, and provide expert evidence on Hakka architecture (tulous in this case), green buildings and sustainable communities, to make this video on China's 36th UNESCO World Heritage Site consisting of 46 buildings (2, 3, 4). ASH is uniquely qualified in the world to offer this service.

The History Channel video is in both English and Chinese with appropriate subtitles and will be shown world wide shortly. It will be offered for sale.

The China team consists of Jorg Ostrowski, Helen Villaraza Ostrowski, Minoru Ueda, Yan-Li Xiaoyan, Zhang Limeibao and Zhou Hong.

The ASH proposal addresses the following 6 problems or needs simultaneously, challenges that China faces today, with integrated and holistic solutions for a sustainable future, as contained in our PPT presentation. These major problems include the:
1) breakup of the traditional family clan
2) abandoning of traditional homes by urban migration
3) imbalance between urban and rural income and wealth
4) historical preservation of abandoned villages
5) serious and devastating air, land & water pollution (throughout China see note below)
6) poverty & lack of work in the country  
Solution: conservation of energy, harnessing renewable and alternative energy such as mini-hydro (new and retrofit), solar, biofuel and wind; economic diversification through local grass roots micro industries based on national capitalism; job creation opportunities based on local tradition, culture, skills, historical precedent and local availabilities; RecoFit of Hakka village architecture with modern, convenient, and leading-edge technology; and permaculture and integrated alnd management practices.

A total of about 100 buildings have now been visited and added to an inventory of Hakka buildings that Minoru and I have been working on since 2007. Hakka heritage architecture includes both Tulous (1-4) and Weilong (5), many of which appear in our inventory.

The 2 million year old, 50-80 m deep, 640,000 km² Loess Plateau of China's norther provinces of Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Henan, Shaanxi and Shanxi (6-10) consisting of soft and consolidated earth in the form of silt ("a mantle of fine-grained, wind-deposited, yellowish alluvium... ", 10), has provided free, local, on-site, eco-friendly building material throughout history, from for its first city states (i.e. Chengtoushan, 11) right through to modern times (i.e. passive solar rammed earth greenhouses to feed China's population, see report). Most of China has been built with rammed earth construction, starting about 5,000 years ago (seen at Dadiwan, Wuying Village, Qin'an County, Gansu province, 12), including such major historical icons as:
1) the Great Wall in many sections (i.e. Xinjiang, Ningxia and Beijing)
2) the Forbidden City
3) city walls including Beijing and Xi'an
4) the Mausoleums and Necropolii of various Emperors (i.e. Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇, 259 BC – 210 BC, 13)
5) most common villages throughout China
6) complete cities such as Gaochang (14) and Jiaohe (15) (Xinjiang province)

Rammed earth construction is very sustainable, compared to concrete, with much lower embodied energy and CO2 emissions. ASH has professional experience designing and building with rammed earth construction.

At the same time, West Virginia University hired Jorg Ostrowski of ASH as consultants for their expertise specifically in the architecture of Hakka Tulous, and experience in green buildings and sustainable development, to assist with the selection of buildings and to review the proposed work to be done under a US National Science Foundation grant to undertake structural analysis of the rammed earth walls of Hakka Tulous.

Note: 70% of all power produced in China is from coal (16).

There was general support for this proposal with an interest to partner on this project. Further work will be undertaken to consolidate details and partnerships as time and resources allow.

This green initiative is meant to be a national demonstration project on sustainable communities, pollution solutions, historical preservation, job creation, RecoFitting, renewable energy and bioregional permaculture. History Channel and the Hakka Research Institute of Jiaying University in Meizhou (17) are partners. It is hoped that the national governments of China, the provincial governments of Guangdong, Fujian and Jiangxi, together with UNESCO and industry, will be future partners to plan a Hakka BioSphere and Trail and to design 1 or 2 major Hakka Village RecoFits as solutions to the above challenges.

References:
1) http://www.HakkaHeritage.com
2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_Heritage_Sites_in_China
3) http://www.unescoworldheritagesites.com/fujian-tulou_china.htm
4) http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1113/
5) http://kinkonkid.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html
6) http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/misc/webfeat/soilmap/soil_chinaer.html
7) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loess_Plateau
8) http://janegoodallhopeforanimals.com/exclusive-content/section-5-healing-earth’s-scars/miracles-happen/loess-plateau-china/
9) http://sites.asiasociety.org/chinagreen/lessons-of-loess-plateau/
10) http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/346036/Loess-Plateau
11) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chengtoushan, and China Pavilion, World's Fair/Expo 2010, Shanghai
12) http://www.china.org.cn/english/culture/48220.htm
13) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_Heritage_Sites_in_China
14) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaochang
15) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiaohe_Ruins
16) http://www.eia.doe.gov/cabs/China/Background.html
17) http://www.davidson.edu/academic/anthropology/erlozada/papers/jiada/jdhakeng4.htm

Blog 3: Introduction to Book on Tulous:

 Ladies and Gentlemen:

Prof. Zpqiu Qiu of Xiamen University (1) has asked me to prepare an introduction to a book in Chinese, on tulous, by Mr. Wu Yiyu,  which apparently has lots of sketches and photographs. I have been working on it for the last week. If you have any good photos of food drying, especially persimmons in Yongding, please let me know. .

 Reference:

1) http://www.xmu.edu.cn/english/XIAMEN%20UNIVERSITY.asp, http://www.xmu.edu.cn/english/

"The university now has a total enrollment of over37,000 full-time students....... At present, Xiamen University’s 3 campuses cover over 600 hectares. With green hills behind and fronting the sea, Xiamen University is recognized as one of the most beautiful universities in China.

The College of Architecture and Civil Engineering at Xiamen University was established in April 2004 .....  It currently has two academic departments, the Department of Architecture and the Department of Civil Engineering. It has 52 faculty members, including 9 professors and 19 associate professors."



2010-07-09

Ladies and Gentlemen:

My second blog will introduce today's talk by Dr. Keith Lowe (羅金生) entitled:

UNESCO HAKKA CASTLE DWELLINGS World Heritage Site

Chaired by: Dr. Helen Wu (吳小燕 ), given at Friday, July 9, 2010, 2:30pm Current Periodical Area, Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library 8th floor, Robarts Library, 130 St. George Street, University of Toronto.

Thank you Dr. Keith Lowe for sharing your knowledge, experience and enthusiasm for Hakka heritage buildings, a rich and sustainable inheritance for all of human kind.

2010-07-09

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:

Thank you for visiting, and welcome to, HakkaHeritage.com.

The purpose of my first bog is to introduce you to our purpose:

1) to share and learn, discover and meet, promote and appreciate, preserve and strengthen, together, all sustainable aspects of Hakka heritage including its history, culture, lifestyle, lessons and architecture 

2) to save, repair, recofit, revitalize and repopulate abandoned Hakka villages where possible, to modern and progressive sustainable standards, one village at a time through proactive international collaboration

3) to update our international subscribers on interesting Hakka events  around the world

4) to identify leading-edge organizations and people active in the Hakka field

THANK YOU for subscribing to this web site and sharing your constructive contribtions to this public forum.

Jorg Ostrowski, for

HakkaHeritage.com

客家土楼论坛: 需要吸取的经验与教训，过去，现在和未来

暨国际客家土楼联盟 (IHTA) 成立仪式

时           间：   2009年6月24日，下午2：30－6：00

地           点：   厦门大学，中国福建省厦门市

主           办：   西维吉尼亚大学复合材料研究中心，美国西维吉尼亚州摩根市

            ASH独立及可持续性房屋建筑公司，加拿大阿尔伯达省卡尔加里市

            厦门大学建筑和土木工程学院，中国福建省厦门市

会议语言：       普通话和英文

提要：夯土是一种可持续的建筑材料，因为它能够给环境带来以下许多好处：1）天然的（未加工的）材料，2）随处可得，3）持久耐用，4）可循环使用的，5）实耗能量低，6）二氧化碳排放低，7）保温性能好，8）传统的建筑方法，9）材料、建筑、交通成本低。中国福建省的客家土楼不仅反映了客家先民的聪明才智，也反映了从8世纪到20世纪夯土结构建筑科学和工程方面的演变，创新和发展。客家土楼在其规划、设计、建造、生活方式、资源管理、小型工业、可再生能源、人畜垃圾的综合利用、能耗等方面都可以说是地球上可持续性发展“生态村”的最佳示范。这次论坛必将会引起前沿学者、建筑师、建筑商、开发商和供应商的兴趣和关注。

目的：本论坛将通过系列演讲，向大家展示这些几百年前建造的，直至今天仍在使用的客家土楼建筑所反映的可持续发展能力，犹如是一座桥梁，无论是回顾过去、立足现在和展望未来，都给我们现代社会提供了堪称典范的经验与教训。此外，国际客家土楼联盟将通过此论坛宣布正式成立，其宗旨是挽救、保存和复兴客家村落，为我们共同的世界遗产以及一个更加可持续发展的地球未来而共同努力。

联席主席：                   赫拓 (Hota Gangarao)，教授、主任，美国西维吉尼亚大学复合材料研究中心

                        雷鹰，教授、副院长，厦门大学建筑和土木工程学院

议程安排：                   (注：每个演讲包括5分钟的提问和讨论）

2：30－2：40   开幕和介绍到会嘉宾－雷鹰博士

2：40－2：50   特别嘉宾演讲 (待定)

2：50－3：15   客家土楼建筑概述－Minoru Ueda

3：15－3：40   福建土楼与科学：美国国家科学基金课题简介－梁瑞凤博士

3：40－4：05  全球客家生态圈和土楼整修－柯约克/海伦

4：05－4：30   集体照和休息

4：30－4：55   特别嘉宾演讲 (待定)

4：55－5：15  应用客家智慧, 打造未来可持续性发展建筑：建议书－梁瑞凤/柯约克/雷鹰/赫拓

5：15－5：30   夯土结构和可持续居住国际示范中心 (土楼): 建议书－柯约克/梁瑞凤

5：30－5：45   国际客家土楼联盟（IHTA）：建议书－梁瑞凤/柯约克

5：45－5：55   特别嘉宾讲话 (待定)

5：55－6：00   会议总结－赫拓博士

6:30                                          晚宴（仅限受邀嘉宾）

如需更多信息，请与以下人员联系：梁瑞凤博士, 邮箱This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 电话 (304) 293 2111转2623; 柯约克先生(Jorg Ostrowski), 邮箱This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.，电话 (403) 239 1882; 雷鹰博士，邮箱This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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