Page 48 - JCAU-5-2

Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Indoor photothermal environment in Miao dwellings

near the central pillar of the room on the East or West side 3.1.3. Dwelling materials
of the hall, depending on the family name of the head of Traditional Miao residences in western Hunan are built with
household. The interior of the dwelling is not partitioned, local cedar and pine wood, raw earth, and shale (Figure 9).
and only black gauze is used to enclose the beds. Because of the challenging transportation in their remote
3.1.2. Dwelling structures mountainous location, they used locally produced cedar
and pine wood for the roof frames, rammed raw earth for
Traditional Miao dwellings in the western Hunan region the floors, mountain shale and rammed raw earth for the
follow framed structural designs (Figure 8), where the exterior walls, and small green tiles for the roofs, with no
outer walls form an enclosure and the wooden frames decorative sculptures in the details of the buildings.
provide load-bearing support for the roofs, ensuring
structural stability. The ground floor serves as the primary 3.2. Measurement results
living space and is elevated approximately 2800 mm above
ground level by the addition of a wooden slab. The upper 3.2.1. Luminous environment
floor is designated for storage purposes and can be accessed In this study, the exterior window size of selected typical
through a movable staircase. sample house for simulation is 1200 mm × 1300 mm. The

Table 2. Typical traditional dwelling plan types
Type of plane Frontispiece Plan view (mm×mm)
“I” shaped

“L” shaped

“U” shaped

Figure 8. Dwelling structures. Source: Photos by the authors

Volume 5 Issue 2 (2023) 6 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.403