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Seaweed House

The seaweed house is a special dwelling with a roof built with seaweed in the coastal area of Shandong Province, China. It consists of primitive stones walls or brick walls, a high ridged roof with a fluffy stretchy roof covered with fishing net.

Location and History

It is mainly distributed in the coastal areas of Weihai, Yantai and Qingdao in the Jiaodong Peninsula of China, especially in the Rongcheng area. According to research, the seaweed house gradually formed from Qin Dynasty and spread widely in Han to Song in the Jiaodong Peninsula. When it came to Yuan, Ming and Qing, it entered a period of prosperity.

The suitable climate contributes to its popularity. It is rainy and humid in summer and snowy and cold in winter. Under this special geographical location and climatic conditions, the houses are mainly considered to keep warm in winter and shelter from the cold in summer. Therefore, the local residents with great intelligence, with the unique architectural experience accumulated in everyday life, build this innovative architecture with thick stone walls and dried seaweed.

Techniques

The "seaweed" used to build seaweed houses is not a common seaweed, but a wild algae such as large-leaved seaweed grown in a shallow sea of 5 to 10 meters. The seaweed is green in color, and becomes purple-brown after drying. It is very flexible. Many seaweeds grow along the coast of Jiaodong Peninsula. The seaweed itself has a good difference. According to reports, the old seaweed is more durable than the tender one, while the seaweed in winter and spring is stronger than the summer. The seaweed grows in spring perish in fall. After reaching a certain height, when encountering strong winds and waves, the seaweed will be rolled into the shore. People in the coastal areas who want to build a house will go to the beach to collect seaweed in advance. These seaweeds are salvaged, dried, and used until the house is built.

In addition to seaweed, the material for roof is mixed with wheat straw. A layer of wheat straw need to be added between each layer of seaweed for a more robust outcome. It is because that the seaweed is long and the wheat straw is covered. In order to withstand the wind, the roof of the seaweed house is specially covered with a thicker seaweed, and some are covered with a layer of tile, which is commonly known as the “pressing ridge” in the local area. According to the principle, as long as the top layer is not blown off by the wind, the next layer will be safe. The construction of the ridge is inclined at a 50-degree angle. The thickest seaweed is 4 meters thick. The seaweed used to build a seaweed house often reaches 5,000 kilograms.

Strength

Seaweed house is one of the most representative ecological houses in the world.Due to the better integrality of the seaweed roof, the seaweed roof is not fixed by any bonding or binding materials, nor will it be blown away by strong winds, which is obviously superior to traditional tile houses. Because the seaweed growing in the sea contains a lot of halogen and colloid, it is used to form a thick roof that is insect-proof, mildew-proof and non-flammable. At the same time, the depth of the seaweed house is usually less than 4 meters. The triangular high ridge and steep slope structure of the roof of the seaweed house not only adapts to the natural conditions of the local wind and rain, but also facilitates the rapid drainage of rainwater and further avoids the decay of seaweed. Under normal circumstances, the seaweed house needs to be repaired for more than 40 years, and the ordinary tile roof house needs to be trimmed for more than 20 years due to the nesting of the top grass or birds. Based on the above factors, the life span of a seaweed house can last for hundreds of years, and many of the existing seaweed houses have a history of more than 200 years.

The thick grass top can play a good role in heat insulation, and the stone used in the wall is also an ideal heat stable material. Therefore, the traditional seaweed house is warm in winter and cool in summer, ensuring the comfort of living.

From the perspective of environmental protection, seaweed, a natural building material, is not only easy to degrade after being discarded, but also does not cause any pollution or damage to the environment, which is unmatched by building materials such as bricks and tiles.