What we are studying when we are studying home: A book review of Home Beyond the House

Abstract

Home Beyond the House takes Yanxia, a village of Han nationality in the Zhejiang province in southern China as an example, and explores the relationship between the local sociocultural factors and vernacular built environment in rural China, examining how its cultural traditions influence the physical, psychological, and social construction of home for people living in the rural area, to illustrate the home’s cultural connotations. Meanwhile, it offers solutions for sustainable development of the built environment, cultural diversity, and social life in rural China under globalization and modernization processes. China is undergoing rapid social transformation, and many aspects of rural society are changing drastically. Home Beyond the House may provide a worthy reference viewpoint on how to grasp and understand the trajectory of change and the future direction of rural China from the architectural perspective.