Of
the
thesis
entitled:yao-dongas
a
spiritual
shelter
for
the
young
peasants
Abstract:
A
yao-dong
is
a
vernacular
architecture
in
northernChina.“Dong”
means
a
cave.
A
cave
isone
of
the
earliest
human
shelters.
In
thousand
years
of
Chinese
history,
cavesevolved
into
yao-dongs.
A
yao-dong
is
the
spiritualshelter
for
the
elderly.They
live
in
the
yellow
soil,
eat
what
is
planted
from
the
soil,
and
callthemselves
sons
and
daughters
of
yellow.
But
for
the
people
unfamiliar
withthem,
yao-dongs
may
be
just
caves
or
even
slums.
This
thesis
aims
to
demonstrate
that
the
problem
is
much
morecomplex
than
the
association
of
the
yao-dong
with
poverty.
Every
year
90thousand
natural
villages
disappear,
including
yao-dong
villages.
Moreimportantly,culture
disappears
at
a
fast
rate,
as
China
urgently
seeks
tosynchronize
itself
with
the
contemporary
world
and
time.
Through
the
investigation
of
yao-dongs,
the
thesis
posits
thatthe
contemporary
crisis
is
related
to
the
growing
inability
to
groundexperiences
and
memories.
Through
field
research,
I
investigated
yao-dongs’geography,
cultureand
construction
to
better
understand
what
living
inside
ayao-dong
may
feel
like.
I
conclude
by
suggesting
a
design
that
can
provide
asimple
and
poetic
life
for
young
peasants.
Supervisor:
CommitteeMembers:
Anne Bordeleau, University of ݮƵ
Adrian Blackwell, University of ݮƵ
JohnStraube,
Universityof
ݮƵ
External Reader:
Raymond Moriyama
The
committee
has
been
approved
as
authorized
by
the
Graduate
Studies
Committee.
The
Defence
Examination
will
take
place:
Thursday
April
28,
2016
2:00PM
ARC
2026
A
copy
of
the
thesis
is
available
for
perusal
in
ARC
2106A.