Ancient Energy-Saving Housing - Earth-Dwelling Cave Residences

Earth-dwelling cave residences are houses rarely seen in the world with most typically local characters. They originated from and merged into nature, hidden deeply in the loess tableland with the characters of using local material, simply constructing, making little cost, adjusting themselves to climate and strongly recproducting. Deeply hidden in the soil layers, they fully use underground thermal energy and heat conservation of mulching soil to keep “winter warm and summer cool”, bearing the function of heat conservation, thermal insulation, energy storage and internal climate regulation, all of which is up to ecological principle. This paper has studied, from different aspects, the ecological quality of “zero energy consumption, zero emision ” of this kind of residence so as to spread over the deep architectural culture and ecological spirit that earth-dwelling caves have brought us in thousands of years.