Urban implantation in rural China: three representative works on rural construction in ancient villages, Zhejiang Zhouyan Wu1, Li Guan2 1 PhD 2
student, Department of Architecture, the University of Tokyo PhD student, Department of Architecture, Waseda University
Abstract The concept of rural construction was raised in China over ten years ago since the government emphasized the Three Rural Issues, and recently it has become a topical issue among architects and academics. So far it has been widely acknowledged that solving economic and social structure problems are prior to planning and design, in order to revive the hollow villages. Meanwhile, boutique hotels, ateliers, libraries, and other cultural architecture located in villages which are designed by architects and artists, appealing to people in the urban area, are becoming increasingly popular. In this paper, these projects are defined as ‘urban implantation’. By investigating three representative works in ancient villages of Zhejiang designed by architect Wang Shu and Zhang Lei, and examining the strategies adopted to echo locality and keep the balance between accommodating urban activities and retaining antiqueness, the features of ‘urban implantation’ are summarized: they are located in the villages which near big cities, in order to attract city residents and revive villages’ economy; they possess high construction qualities and functions of urban buildings; they retain the elements of indigenous buildings, and appear as the mixture of new and old, modern and vernacular. Specifically, site selection, functional replacement and spatial transformation, and materials and tectonics are analyzed. These practices can be the start point to explore a sustainable revival mode for rural China. Keywords: urban implantation, rural China, rural construction, ancient village
1. Introduction China is experiencing an unprecedentedly rapid development which has witnessed expansion of cities and disappearance of villages. Urban areas are swallowing villages in an incredible speed: the number of village has plummeted to half, from 6 million to 3 million, and more villages are vanishing (Wang, 2015). Moreover, many of the existing villages now facing a serious problem called ‘rural settlement hollowization’ in common, which means villages are almost empty and only the elderly and children are living there. Young and middle-aged people are leaving their hometown, forced by difficult economic condition, and working in big cities where they can earn much more money than farming at home. Since the vanishing of villages and hollowization of countryside involved severe consequence, actions were taken to reverse the dangerous situation. These rural problems were summarized as the Three Rural Issues (agriculture issue,
rural areas issue and farmers issue) by economist Wen Tiejun. In 2003 the Three Rural Issues were highlighted as the major concern of the government, and assignments of ‘New Socialist Countryside Construction’ and ‘Beautiful Countryside Construction’ were launched successively in National People's Congress aiming to solve the Three Rural Issues. Responding to government’s call, many local inhabitants and professionals including architects have devoted themselves to rural construction. According to different aspects of leading forces, targets and sponsorships, and objectives, rural construction can be divided into several patterns. Based on the leading forces of national departments, farmers themselves and social organizations, work patterns can be concluded into top-down, down-top and third party participation (Wang, 2015). In accordance with the sponsorship, rural construction can be categorized as three types: national and local government or charity, donation like the Hope Primary Schools and interest community like township enterprises (Zhang and Jiang, 2015). The objectives of rural construction range from fundamental level, which aims to improve environment and life quality of villages, to profound level, which attempts to revive the economy of villages through adjusting industrial structure such as developing tourism. Facing the complexity of rural construction,
Contact Author: Zhouyan Wu, PhD student, Department of Architecture, the University of Tokyo, address: Department of Architecture, the University of Tokyo, Engineering Bldg.1 R225, Hongo 7-3-1, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan. Tel: +81 8091830950 e-mail:
[email protected]
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architect adopts to make the project an appeal to tourists by handling the relations between urban and rural are surveyed in three aspects: - Site selection, considering the distance between main cities and villages. - Implantation, by functional replacement and spatial transformation. - Coordination, between urban and rural, new and old, from the view of materials and tectonics. By reviewing the data collected, the attributes of ‘urban implantation’ are concluded and design principles coordinating old and new are categorized.
architects have to adopt proper strategies. This paper focuses on one particular type of rural construction which is ‘urban implantation’. The definition of ‘urban implantation’ are interpreted by analyzing three representative works Wen Village reconstruction, Renovation of Ethnic She Houses of Dajiashan and Shenaoli Library which are all in ancient villages, Zhejiang. The strategies applied by architects to revival villages through architecture project gravitating urban residents to villages are examined. 2. Methodology The paper selects three works which are designed by two famous Chinese architects Wangshu and Zhanglei separately. Wen Village reconstruction project is located in Wen Village which has a history of more than 400 years. This project is funded by the government and designed by Wangshu. The Renovation of Ethnic She Houses of Dajiashan project is situated in Daijiashan Village, which can be traced back to 380 years ago. And the Shenaoli Library project is amid Shenao Village, an ancient village dates back to Southern Song dynasty, more than 800 years ago. The Renovation of Ethnic She Houses of Dajiashan and Shenaoli Library are both the works of Zhang Lei and the outcomes of architect cooperating with enterpriser. We choose these projects for three reasons. First of all, these projects have been finished recently, and because of architects’ reputation they have raised wide concern in the field of rural regeneration. Moreover, these projects are all located in Zhejiang province whose ‘Beautiful Countryside Construction’ action is leading in China. They have different work patterns, which deserve to be discussed. Last but not least, these projects are all in ancient villages, whose vernacular architecture shares similar languages, materials and tectonics. So the strategies of coordinating with local environment are comparable. To define ‘urban implantation’, the strategies
3. Strategy analyzing 3.1. Site selection Yangtze River Delta is one of the most developed area in China. In big cities, for instance Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou and Ningbo, the average living standards of urban residents are relatively high. City dwellers have a desire for countryside life and are willing to pay considerable money for uncontaminated natural environment, traditional culture and ancient atmosphere. They are keen on a lifestyle shifting between urban and countryside, which means work in the city on weekdays and take a vacation in countryside during weekends and holidays. To attract urban residents to rural areas, the villages chosen to insert ‘urban implantation’ are close to developed cities which can be reached within 5 hours by car (figure 1). Zooming in, it could be observed that the Wen Village, Daijiashan Village and Shenao Village are all along Fuchun River or its tributaries. Fuchun River is famous for landscape scroll ‘Fuchun Mountains (Fu Chun Shan Ju Tu)’ drawn by Huang Gongwang in Yuan dynasty (1271-1368), and Fuchun River valley is regarded as enviable position to reside within nature. There are plenty of ancient villages in Fuchun River valley, which are ideal locations for ‘urban implantations’.
Nanjing Shanghai
Hangzhou zh u
Ningbo
Hangzhou
Wen Village g ge
Sh S Shenao e Village Daijiashan shan an Village V
Fuchun River Wen Village
Zhejiang Province
Shenao Village Daijiashan Village
Fig. 1 Locations of Wen Village, Daijiashan Village and Shenao Village 2
3.2. Implantation In Wen Village reconstruction project, 24 units for local families in 14 new buildings have been built as new village where used to be fields. The new houses are implanted urban residences with bigger scale and higher density, compared with local houses. In each unit, the ground floor is designed as family-run workshops such as brewery or bamboo ware workshop. However, the workshop space does not suit sericulture which is an important rural industry in Wen Village. Moreover, space in the house is arranged based on urban lifestyle, and no wonder local villagers complain about small courtyards, inadequate bedrooms and no room for raising poultry and pigs. For these reasons, less than half of the units are occupied by local people, and it is said that the new houses can be sold to urban residents as studios and residence after retirement. The hotel is also newly built and now managed by a biotech company which came to this village because of Wang Shu. The empty pavilions used to be houses or open space.
Fig. 3 (a) Functions of buildings in Wen Village reconstruction project (b) Spatial relation between new houses and old houses The Renovation of Ethnic She Houses of Dajiashan project has implanted a library and a hotel in Daijiashan Village, transforming a spare courtyard including two rammed-earth houses to a library, and a spare farmhouse including one rammed-earth house and one stone house to a hotel. The library also sells books, containing two reading room, one meeting room, and one coffee shop.
The reading rooms and meeting room are in the bigger rammed-earth house, and the coffee shop is in the smaller one. A transparent wooden corridor connects these two houses and divides the platform into two yards, one as the entrance yard and the other as outdoor reading space and observation deck. Different from the library which lies beside village’s main street, the hotel deviates from village center and locates on the slope, surrounded by forests. One extra floor has been added to the two-floor rammed-earth house, and a cube plus a cuboid volume encircle the stone house. The rammedearth house contains one exhibition room, eight double rooms, one lounge, one meeting room and one observation deck. The first floor of stone house group is a restaurant containing a bar, and the second floor is an outdoor barbecue platform.
Fig. 2 (a) Functions of buildings in Renovation of Ethnic She Houses of Dajiashan project (b) Before and after implantation (photos from AZL Architects) The Shenaoli Library has been implanted along one of the primary lanes of Shenao Village. The project has transformed ancient house, where dwelled six families, to a library. The former pigsty was torn down, and its
11th International Symposium on Architectural Interchanges in Asia (ISAIA 2016), Sendai, Japan
deciding which to retain or remove, choosing between vernacular and industrial materials, and applying corresponding tectonics. The coordination strategies have been concluded in Table 1. The table shows that rammed-earth is architects’ favorite material and emphasized as an important feature in these three project. Moreover, local materials and construction technologies have been respected. In Wang Shu’s project, most of the materials and tectonics have been tested in his former works. He uses them in cities to evoke the memory of rural areas, and in villages to coordinate with real rural buildings. In Zhang Lei’s project, industrial materials act as the background of vernacular architecture, and most of renovation strategies are to enhance the comfort of space.
peddles were used to construct a two-floor entrance hall. The first floor of the library consists of community library, exhibition space and souvenir store. The second floor of the library is a restaurant.
4. Conclusion In this paper, three representative works are selected. They are defined as ‘urban implantations’, which aim to attract urban residents, carrying urban lifestyle and maintaining village atmosphere at the same time. Architects try to bring vitality to ancient villages by designing these projects, reviving with respect. By analyzing design strategies in respect of site selection, functional replacement and spatial transformation, material and tectonic, three features of ‘urban implantation’ are concluded: they are located in the villages which near big cities, in order to attract city residents and revive villages’ economy; they keep the high qualities and functions as urban buildings; they remain the elements of indigenous buildings, and appear as the mixture of new and old, modern and vernacular. Architects juxtapose urban and rural through ‘urban implantations’, and try to reconcile them. Although the outcome does not fully accord with the intention, and there exist many problems in blending the ‘urban implantations’ with daily village life, the trend towards famous architects collaborating with other groups to construct high quality ‘urban implantation’ as new work pattern of rural regeneration is positive. On the other hand, these works were recently completed, so the longterm influence that ‘urban implantations’ exert on villages has remained obscure. In future’s research, whether the ‘urban implantations’ achieve the mutually beneficial coexistence of urban civilization with rural life will be further discussed, and the process of rural regeneration will be followed up.
Fig. 4 (a) Functions of buildings in Shenaoli Library project (b) Before and after implantation (photos from AZL Architects) The implantation strategy applied by Wang Shu in Wen Village is to build a new village and insert several pavilion in the old village, while the strategy of Zhang Lei is to introduce mini-urban-complex to Daijiashan Village and Shenao Village. 3.3. Coordination In order to maintain ancient atmosphere, which is the crucial feature to attract tourists, and create high quality space, architects have adopted various renovation strategies to coordinate between old and new, vernacular and industrial. The strategies include
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Table 1 Coordination strategies applied in three projects
5. References
1) AZL Architects (2015) Ruralation Shen’aoli Library, Tonglu. UED, 10, 28-41 2) Dong, Y. Will Wang Shu’s village be nothing but an imagined form of rural life for urbanites? http://www.architecturalreview.com/today/will-wang-shus-village-be-nothing-but-animagined-form-of-rural-life-for-urbanites/8691086.fullarticle, 201511-17 3) Ma, H. and Wang, K. (2016) Ruralation Shenaoli in Zhejiang. Id+c, 4, 118-121 4) Wang, W. (2015) From rural reconstruction to ecological civilization: a dialogue with Prof. Wen Tiejun. Time+Architecture, 3, 10-15 5) Wang, K. and Zhang, L. (2016) Contemporary vernacular:
6) 7) 8) 9) 10)
renovation of Ethnic She houses of Daijiashan Vernacular Arts Hotels in Yunxi. Time+Architecture, 3, 46-47 Wang, K. and Zhang, L. (2016) Temporality: thinking on the practice of librairie avant-garde in the She Nationality Township of E Mountain, Tonglu City. Time+Architecture, 1, 64-73 Zhou, L. (2015) The Huashu Program: an experiment of rural revival in suburban areas. Architectural Journal, 9, 25-29 Zhang, X. and Jiang, J. (2015) Several exemplary works on vernacular construction and their social effects in China in the last decade. Time+Architecture, 3, 32-35 Zhang, L. (2016) Ruralation Rural Art Hotel. Modern Decoration, 5, 50-59 Zhang, L. (2016) Renovation of Ethnic She houses of Daijiashan Vernacular Arts Hotel in Yunxi Tonglu, Zhejiang. Architectural Journal, 3, 44-45
11th International Symposium on Architectural Interchanges in Asia (ISAIA 2016), Sendai, Japan
