Page 69 - JCAU-5-2

Journal of Chinese

Architecture and Urbanism

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Troglodyte settlements on the Loess

Plateau of China: Challenges to sustainable
tourism-oriented development

Laura Genovese¹* and Roberta Varriale²

¹Institute of Heritage Science (ISPC), National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Milan, Italy
²Institute for Studies on the Mediterranean (ISMed), National Research Council of Italy (CNR),
Naples, Italy
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Conservation and Revitalization of Architectural Heritage)

Abstract
Troglodytism is one of the most representative cultural expressions of geo-
architecture. On the Loess Plateau of China, several significant examples of this
approach to urban development can be found. Sometimes abandoned, sometimes
still inhabited, cave settlements are precious examples of living heritage in rural and
internal areas, which are at the risk of disappearance. Tourism is one of the strategies
to revitalize these settlements, but it might be both an opportunity and a risk.
A balance between conservation and development must be found, and a paradigm
change is needed. Chinese cases can serve as a reference for solutions for this type
*Corresponding author: of cave heritage, on which a debate has only recently begun at a global scale. This
Laura Genovese study introduces the classification of cave settlements based on the Underground
(laura.genovese@cnr.it) Built Heritage theoretical approach. Chinese cases in Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces
Citation: Genovese, L. & are illustrated on a comparative level. Tourism-oriented reuse and enhancement
Varriale, R. (2023). Troglodyte practices are analyzed and discussed in the context of national and international
settlements on the Loess Plateau
of China: Challenges to sustainable scenarios. In addition, criticalities and opportunities for the future are illustrated.
tourism-oriented development.
Journal of Chinese Architecture and
Urbanism, 5(2):0940. Keywords: Troglodyte settlements; Yaodong cave dwellings; Rural and remote areas;
https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.0940 Underground Built Heritage; Tourism; Sustainable development
Received: May 10, 2023
Accepted: July 2, 2023
Published Online: July 25, 2023 1. Introduction
Copyright: © 2023 Author(s).
This is an open-access article Troglodytism has been one of the most widespread practices of living in the world for
distributed under the terms of the thousands of years. This method of approaching the territory is peculiar to the desert
Creative Commons Attribution-Non- and semi-arid regions, with easily accessible natural cavities or easily excavated soil,
Commercial 4.0 International (CC
BY-NC 4.0), which permits all non- generally on plateaus and in karst-fluvial areas. Many typologies have been tested and
commercial use, distribution, and perfected from place to place, resulting in an extraordinary variety of features, thus
reproduction in any medium, which defining a cultural landscape with a strong identity.
provided that the original work is
properly cited. In the Loess Plateau area of northern-central China, this traditional building practice
Publisher’s Note: AccScience constitutes a broad phenomenon (Knapp, 2000; Wang, 2016; Fan, 2019; Zhang et al.,
Publishing remains neutral with 2021). Especially between the Yellow River and the middle and lower reaches of the
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional Yangtze River, where there are primarily plains, gullies, rivers, and lakes, underground
affiliations. spaces were used to fortify villages, store water and food, or for burial functions since

Volume 5 Issue 2 (2023) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.0940