Exploring the Role of Post-Earthquake Reuse of Vernacular Heritage in Enhanced Disaster Resilience and Comfort

Increasing natural hazards and climate change have validated the disaster resilience of built heritage in the vernacular background through its construction knowledge. This research frames this integrated system as Vernacular Building Heritage (VBH). VBH’s components contain architectural form, context layout and wisdom in building formation, installation, evolution and adaptation to new circumstances. The disaster-resistance and reuse of VBH during post-disaster reconstruction (PDR) also indicate its sustainability after strongly shocked by modernisation and industrialisation, which researchers seldom discuss and explore. This research adopts a post-Wenchuan Earthquake (May 12, 2008) rural reconstruction project in Sichuan Province as a case study, proposing a VBH’s values model for local community within disaster contexts. Historical documents and community/carpenter interviews elucidate how VBH values crystallised within vernacular architecture and its knowledge systems. Concurrently, on-site data collection documents VBH's evolutionary trajectory when responding to rural modernisation. This thesis assesses building performance and VBH’s sustainability through analysis of field investigation data. Findings demonstrate that traditional Chuan-Dou structures continue to fulfil local requirements in post-disaster reconstruction contexts, while contributing to the ongoing conservation of building forms and construction know-how. To extend VBH conservation beyond this case study, the author recommends: enhancing physical and social building performance; maintaining traditional contexts as human-nature equilibrium; safeguarding construction knowledge systems; and establishing sustainable community-centred tourism frameworks. This VBH evaluation framework—assessing building performance and heritage significance—offers transferable methodology for future cases and other heritage typologies.