The Value of Experiential Construction in Modern Society Through the Lens of the Project Mingde Underground House Project

Abstract Over the past 22 years, Project Mingde has leveraged charity-driven construction initiatives to educate university students while addressing the needs of underserved, impoverished rural communities across China and Southeast Asia. By integrating hands-on experiential learning with academic knowledge in design and construction, the project effectively bridges the gap between theory and practice, enhancing students' technical intuition, problem-solving skills, and adaptability in real-world scenarios. Beyond academic growth, the project also fosters a deeper sense of cultural awareness and social responsibility, qualities that cannot be taught conventionally. A key example is the Underground House Project in Sanmenxia, Henan, where students actively engaged in scaled modelling, prototyping, and structural testing, confronting real-world construction challenges to solidify their understanding and generate ideas whilst engaging with the local community. This paper intends to showcase the broader significance of such initiatives through real-life student-intensive construction cases based on an interdisciplinary-collaborative-experimental approach, justifying their impactful contributions to construction development, educational quality, cultural preservation, and shaping socially conscious professionals, ultimately demonstrating the viability and benefits of adopting experiential construction methods in modern society. These initiatives have impactful contributions to construction development, educational quality, and cultural preservation. Furthermore, they provide students with an experiential platform to engage with a practical and dynamic construction environment alongside complex societal contexts to foster academic growth, adaptability, and a heightened sense of social responsibility. Overall, the results affirm that such initiatives enable substantial growth of students' social awareness and academic development, equipping them with stronger critical and practical skills, and interdisciplinary sensitivity to navigate the increasingly complex and dynamic built environment. Keywords: Charity-driven Construction; Experiential Learning; Interdisciplinary Collaboration; Rural Development; Social Responsibility