The Home in the Badain Jaran Desert: Sustainable Desert Living by Nanjing University

Architects: School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Nanjing University

Reimagining Home in a World Heritage Desert

The Badain Jaran Desert, renowned for its iconic inter-dune lakes and towering sand formations, presents a unique challenge for contemporary housing. In 2024, this "Towers of Sand and Lakes" landscape was inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List, introducing ecological preservation measures and construction restrictions. Local Mongolian herding communities faced the pressing question: how can homes meet modern needs while respecting traditional lifestyles and fragile desert ecology?

The Home in the Badain Jaran Desert, designed by the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at Nanjing University, offers an innovative solution. Drawing from vernacular architecture and indigenous building techniques, the project explores sustainable living strategies for a World Heritage site.

Straw Bricks and Metal Shells: Fusing Tradition with Modernity

The home serves a herding family with potential tourism and hospitality functions. Its core structure is built with straw bricks, a locally sourced material that meets the family’s residential and guest accommodation needs. Surrounding the core, a breathable metal shell provides space for festive gatherings, storage, and community activities.

This contrast between the lightweight industrial shell and the heavy, traditional straw core creates a harmonious vision of a sustainable desert shelter. The home is accessed via two metal-shelled corridors, which double as functional spaces for cooking in summer and meat processing in winter. An arched roof on the mezzanine evokes a yurt-like interior, reflecting cultural traditions during family gatherings.

Climate-Responsive Design for Desert Living

The home’s straw-brick walls offer excellent thermal performance, while the surrounding metal shell acts as a climatic buffer, minimizing energy use. In winter, heat concentrates in the straw core, while the buffer zone reduces heat loss. During summer, the breathable shell encourages natural air circulation, keeping interiors cool and comfortable. This combination ensures low-energy, climate-adapted living in the harsh desert environment.

Low-Tech, Locally Sourced Construction

The project emphasizes low-tech, sustainable construction methods. Locally sourced materials such as straw bricks and lake clay are combined with lightweight prefabricated materials, including light steel frames, perforated aluminum sheeting, and polycarbonate panels. This strategy significantly reduces transportation costs and environmental impact.

The construction process was a collaborative effort among designers, students, and local craftsmen, demonstrating a scalable model for sustainable rural housing in desert regions.

A Desert Home that Resonates with Memory

At night, the house glows softly, resembling a silver bowl against the dark desert landscape. Its textures and materials evoke nostalgia for the Mongolian herders: Hass Bayara, a local resident, reflected, “This is exactly the house we lived in when we were kids.” The project succeeds in merging cultural memory, ecological sensitivity, and contemporary living into a single sustainable desert home.

All photographs are works of  Xiaobin Lv