Comprehensive design for a vernacular wood house with energy-saving process

Abstract

We present the work done for the greenwood prefabricated house in the context of traditional vernacular style, a prototype of high energetic performance for the demonstration of the green techniques in a wood traditional house in Yichang, Northern China. The vernacular wood house is based on green technologies as well as local architectonic context to improve the energy efficiency of residential space and offer its inhabitants a high-quality comfort with a limited impact on nature and local identity. The house is the result of the collaboration between architects, engineers, 3 companies, and 8 graduate students from Zhengzhou University and Nanjing Forest University. The main axis that guided the collaborative work of the vernacular wood house were: energy performance, user comfort, low cost, local identified vernacular context, respect for the environment, and local culture. The research team put forward the general concepts of an ideal rural wood house, such as user comfort, low cost, and passive energy system. Combined with other requirements like local identity and low environmental impacts, the architects translated these abstract concepts into conceptual shape. This axis was put together through the architectonic shape in which local traditional architectural context and new technologies gave visible, functional, and aesthetic characteristics to the house [17].