Ordinary Houses

Modern Architecture in China's Villages 1978-1992
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-3-0356-3106-7
Verlag: Birkhäuser Verlag GmbH

Buch, Englisch, 256 Seiten, Format (B × H): 150 mm x 230 mm

Following Economic Reform in 1978 and continuing until 1992, modern lay-built houses emerged in rural regions and villages of the People’s Republic of China. The one to four story structures were constructed from the reuse and reassembly of material from disassembled traditional houses, with the timber framing and masonry infill rearranged within a new concrete frame. Organized as a building manual, including a catalog of house types, the book provides retroactive documentation of architecture from a period of dramatic change. As China’s urban transformation accelerated in the 1990s and families moved to new high-rise residences, these “ordinary houses,” now largely overlooked, expand notions of heritage and serve as valuable examples for future architectural design, adaptive reuse, and rural revitalization.

• Insight into building techniques shaped by economic transition
• Numerous construction drawings
• New perspective on material reuse

Autoren/Hrsg.

Lee Michaliszyn, Jennifer

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Architektur Gebäudetypen Wohngebäude
• Geisteswissenschaften Architektur Gestaltung, Darstellung, Bautechnik
• Geisteswissenschaften Architektur Geschichte der Architektur, Baugeschichte

Über Autor(innen)

Jennifer Lee Michaliszyn is an Associate Professor of Architecture at the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts. She coordinates required courses in the undergraduate core, teaches a graduate directed research seminar, and leads a global research studio to China. Her design and research interests explore quotidian architecture of the recent past, visual ethnography, and identity and heritage. Jennifer is the author of "Concrete Parge Houses: A Modern Chinese Vernacular," in Real and Fake in Architecture: Close to the Original Far from Authenticity? (Axel Menges 2020) and has contributed student companion materials for Mechanical and Electrical Equipment for Buildings (Wiley 2019). In professional practice, Jennifer was the lead designer and job captain for the Yawkey Distribution Center for the Greater Boston Food Bank. Her design projects have been recognized by the Boston Society of Architects and AIA St. Louis. She completed her undergraduate studies in architecture at Princeton University and graduated with distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Jennifer spent her formative years in Hong Kong. She lives in Boston with her family.