Earthen architecture in the agri-cultural heritage system: Sustainable development,restoration and continuity of tradition

Humans started to settle in the territory and making architecture since they began to practice agriculture. they took advantage from the knowledge of the territory (winds orientation,sun exposure,presence of vegetation,water availability,etc.) to design their houses,the settlements and the agricultural landscape. the agri-cultural heritage system reflects the complexity of relationships that people establish both among themselves and with the physical and geographical environment and its own vernacular architecture,frequently built using techniques of earth construction. therefore earthen vernacular buildings are a fundamental and valuable part of the world's built heritage,a non-monumental,non-formal,non-architect designed architecture that express the ability of man to take charge of shaping his living environment by the practices of self-production of materials,self-construction and self-finishing: it represent a form of living heritage which passes intangible cultural traditions of the local community from generation to generation,including the construction techniques useful to protect and restore this inheritance. comparing efforts and ongoing experiences in different countries -taking into account the diversity in cultural,geographical and heritage aspects- allows to clarify the state of the art of this field of research,to identify weaknesses,strengths,sharable methodologies. china is the holder of a vast inheritance of earthen structures similar in many aspects to others located in various parts of the globe: we can compare,for example,the hypogea cave dwellings in matmata (tunisia) (figure 1) to the yáodòng shelters dug in the loess plateau (figure 2) or the foggara structures in north africa (libya and algeria) to the karez water system in turfan (xinjiang,china). china is undertaking a sustainable development with a holistic approach that takes into account the environmental,cultural,social,technological and economic aspects,supporting several development projects by applying the principles of dynamic conservation,involving residents to actively participate in order to ensure the transfer of knowledge and know-how needed to preserve the agri-cultural heritage system.