Tulou as Aquatecture

This dissertation is completed in 2021 for Honours degree at the University of Sydney. It draws on vernacular precedents of Fujian’s Tulou, a coastal province in South-eastern China where lands are exposed to potential consequences of higher sea levels and substantial flood damages. It investigates the possibilities for a ‘genius-loci (place-sensitive)’ oriented aquatectural typology through an investigation into the key features of Tulou and its significance to the Hakka people. Using case studies, the research extends previous understandings and assumptions about aquatecture and reconsiders a vernacular modernist aquatecture. The principles considered for a regionalist aquatecture include the embedded Chinese philosophy of Tulou and the indigenous knowledges of the Hakka people, rather than merely the form of it.