The origins of rural residences in China date back long before urban construction. In the earliest agrarian societies during the Xia, Shang, and Western Zhou dynasties, the houses people built were the earliest forms of rural self-built houses. Although the land systems evolved through various dynasties, a balance between private and public ownership was not achieved until the founding of the People's Republic of China.
中国的乡村住宅起源远早于城市建筑。最早在夏商西周的农耕社会，人们建造的房子就是最早的乡村自建房。后来各个朝代的土地制度虽有变更，但都没有达成私人与公有之间的平衡，直到新中国成立。
In the early years of the PRC, there was a strong focus on rural development, and several initial policies concerning rural areas were introduced. For instance, in 1950, the "Land Reform Law" stipulated the distribution of land taken from landlords to the peasants. In 1954, the first Constitution of the PRC, Article 8, specified that "the state shall protect the peasants' ownership of land and other means of production in accordance with the law," establishing the peasants' land ownership rights.
新中国成立的初期，国家非常重视农村建设，出台了一系列最初的关于乡村的政策文件，比如1950年的《土地改革法》，规定把从地主手里没收来的土地分配给农民；1954年新中国第一部宪法第八条规定：“国家依照法律保护农民的土地所有权和其他生产资料所有权”，明确了农民享有土地的所有权。
By the eve of the reform and opening-up era, during the 1950s to the 1970s, rural construction took on a unique form, with "people's communes" as the basic units, forming self-sufficient small community groups where housing, work, and public functions were merged. While this model to some extent met basic living needs, it hindered the functional zoning evolution of urban construction. Many architects and scholars went to the countryside during this time to introduce modern housing concepts and design suggestions to villagers. Under their influence, villagers gradually gained a preliminary understanding of functional design and modern structural concepts. However, due to economic and policy limitations at the time, self-built housing development during this historical period lagged behind and became a blank page in the history of rural construction.
到改革开放前夕，50~70年代，乡村建筑在形式上呈现出一种特殊的模式，以“公社”为基本单位，形成了自给自足的小团体社区，住宿、工作和公共功能被合并在一起。虽然这种模式在一定程度上满足了基本的生活需求，但也抑制了城市建设的功能分区演化。当时有不少建筑师、学者下乡，为村民带去现代住宅观念和设计上的建议，在他们的影响下，村民逐渐对建筑的功能性设计和现代化结构有了初步的认识。但受限于当时的经济和政策，这一历史时期的自建房屋发展相对滞后，成为乡村建设发展历史上的空白页。
In the 1970s, China experienced two significant events: the 1976 Tangshan Earthquake and the 1978 nationwide reform and opening-up policy. The former raised a high awareness of structural safety in architecture, while the latter brought unprecedented development opportunities to China. The establishment of the National Urban and Rural Planning Administration in 1979 indicated the government's increased attention to urban planning. This institution later evolved into the current "Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People's Republic of China”.
70年代，中国经历了两个极为重要的事件：1976年的唐山大地震，1978年的全国改革开放。前者唤醒了人们对建筑结构安全的高度警觉，而后者为中国带来了前所未有的发展机遇。1979年国家城市建设总局的成立意味着政府对城市规划的更高度关注，这个机构后来演化为今天的“中华人民共和国住房和城乡建设部”。
As reform and opening-up progressed, the policy of "household contract responsibility system" gradually took effect. Rural economic conditions improved, leading to the emergence of a group of "prosperous farmers" in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This group can be considered pioneers in China's early rural self-built housing market."
随着改革开放逐渐深入，分田到户的政策也逐渐得以严格执行，农村经济形势开始好转，涌现出了一批“先富起来”的农民。这个群体在70年代末和80年代初，可以说是创立了中国早期的乡村自建房市场。
To the modernist and image building Chinese state, urban villages are unique but a transitional phenomenon of urbanization where peri-urban peasants have built substandard informal houses for low-income earners. However, self-built houses in urban villages involve complex realities: historical legacy issues, national policy issues, social relationships between people, complex geographic factors, and so on. 🔗 So, how are self-built houses constructed?
对于现代主义和形象塑造的中国国家来说，城中村是一种独特但过渡性的城市化现象，那里的农民为低收入者建造了不合标准的非正式住房。而城中村的自建房包含着复杂的现实：历史的遗留问题、国家政策问题、人与人的社会关系问题、地理位置的复杂问题等等。🔗 那么，自建房是怎么建造起来的呢？