Other earth buildings are roofless shells, destroyed by conflict, while others bear the scars of earthquakes and conflagrations.
The Unesco World Heritage Site listing for numerous earth buildings highlights a growing sense of urgency regarding their preservation.
Many earth buildings survive in a serious state of neglect or partial collapse.
Despite their sturdy defences, the earth buildings are also succumbing to a gradual hollowing out from within, as the Hakka once again move on.
Increased tourism is pouring money into the area, but rapid commercialisation is also eroding traditional livelihoods as earth buildings increasingly find a more rewarding future as museums.
For anyone numbed by the impersonal nature of modern Chinese apartment blocks or the frenzied pace of urban China, the earth buildings are enchanting reminders of communal village life and the ancient rhythms of the agrarian southeast.
Like so many villages across China, grandparents and grandchildren can be found playing together, but there is often less sign of the labouring generation in between, who have left to earn money in the cities and towns, leaving many earth buildings depopulated.
They seized the opportunity, but the Indonesian army with the Timorese militias it had spawned left only scorched earth and ruined buildings behind.
Vaitsos and his partners became consumed with finding new ways to sculpt the terrain and integrate the architecture into it, an obsession that even led to a modification in Greek building regulations, which were recently overhauled with an eye to conservation and sustainability: The government now awards bonuses to developers who top their buildings with earth.
Ms Gibson said there are signs of walls and buildings under the earth on the site and a detailed scan of the farmland is to take place this summer by a Swedish company.
BBC: Land where the princes' palace is believed to have stood
The quake in the mountainous region had flattened homes -- many of which were made with wood and earth -- and other buildings in Jiegu and elsewhere in Yushu prefecture, a Tibetan region of Qinghai.
An architect in Holland has revealed plans to 3D print buildings inspired by the Earth's landscape.
Google said it will begin to add 3-D images of buildings to its Google Earth app for mobile devices.
Geothermal technology uses energy in the earth's crust to heat water and buildings.
It takes its name from the four fixed objects - buildings, antennae, spans and earth - which divers use to take off.
The acronym stands for the categories of fixed objects aficionados can jump from: buildings, antennas, spans (bridges) and earth (cliffs, mountains).
All buildings will show up in pretty good 3D in the new Google Earth.
Nevada's first platinum-certified LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) buildings stand proudly here, constructed of recycled materials and rammed-earth walls, with passive cooling, renewable heating, reclaimed water and solar-electricity panels, all harvesting clean energy.
Edwin Lau, director of Friends of the Earth in Hong Kong, said the move to clean up Hong Kong's energy-hungry buildings was long overdue.
One is Kamen Bryag (Stone Beach), a cluster of terracotta buildings - many with rooms for rent - that seem to sit on the edge of the Earth.
应用推荐