ZHOU YUNSHI_Educational Intervention and rural revitalization - Dissertation

2

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China Self-building, low cost, universities’ sustainable intervention in community construction

Taught Master of Philosophy in Architecture and Urban Design: Projective Cities Architectural Association School of Architecture London

3

Taught Master of Philosophy in Architecture and Urban Design: Projective Cities Architectural Association School of Architecture in London Dissertation by Yunshi Zhou Tutors: Platon Issaias, Hamed Khosravi, Raül Avilla-Royo, Doreen Bernath, Cristina Gamboa Submission: 5 June 2020

This book is the result of a research developed in the Projective Cities 2018-2020 at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. During the programme I was supported by the my family, and Year 1 funds from the Architecture Association. First of all, I would like to appreciate my family, classmates, Zou, as well as friends in China for their observations, special insights. Additionly, i would like to thank those who have been present during my studies, my tutors, and fellow students. I am really appreciated for your contribution during discussions and for challenging my study of research by design.

4

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

Abstract

Chinese rural areas are facing significant problems, such as cultural deprivation, migration and low productivity. To address these issues, the Chinese government has introduced several rural regeneration policies that employ higher education and cultural institutions to develop rural villages. This paper evaluates two of these policies: 1) higher education as a mechanism for rural growth achieved by cooperation between universities and local government; and 2) the use of different social organisations to build educational infrastructure in villages.

These policies aim to develop the rural economy, revive local infrastructure and change villagers’ lifestyles. Most of the projects introduced as part of these policies are implemented in villages of historical significance and that play an important role in the region culturally and environmentally.

This thesis focuses on evaluating the application of the aforementioned policies in the Liangzi lake district, Hubei province. In this region, the implementation of these policies has involved three universities, one museum and the municipal government. The two historically, culturally and environmentally important villages identified by local government and targeted for regeneration are Wanxiu village and Xiwuxiong Village. These two villages are home to various activities including artisan activities such as handicrafts and productive activities such as agricultural cultivation, as well as being the location of an architectural design school.

There are, however, some limitations these policies. Firstly, current cultural/educational institutions do not conduct regeneration projects in an inclusive way but instead create exclusive micro-communities within the village. This leads to a lack of cooperation between the institution and the local, cultural, social and economic life of the village and a situation where the village becomes conquered territory. Also, existing traditional village housing and settlement units are not suited to the numbers or purposes they are now being used to accommodate. To remedy this, a new definition of spaces for interactions between institutions and villagers will be introduced. This new conceptualisation of spatial interaction could also benefit tourism.

This dissertation will challenge the separation, classification and segregation of different groups of people based on their status as users and the social, cultural and economic hierarchy imposed by regeneration projects. Through a discussion of the design of regeneration projects,

abstract

5

6

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

key issues will be addressed, in particular, the challenge posed by the spatial separation of tourists, students and villagers and the issue of public and private property ownership.

Sustainable designs will then be suggested to deliver greater socio-economic benefits for both universities and local communities. key words: rural, self-building, cooperation, low cost, recycling, cultural revitalization

abstract

7

8

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

Table of contents

Abstract Introduction 1. University-rural collaboration then and now 2. The commercial ambitions of the modern Chinese university 3. The intervention of the university in rural life 4. Design the rural community /Specific design on site

Conclusion Annex: courtyard housing: a socio-spatial and socio-economic family living type Bibliography

contents

9

10

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

Introduction

11

12

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

Introduction Sustainable development network of rural community revitalization

Rural areas in China are currently facing the significant challenges of cultural deprivation, migration and low productivity1. These issues affecting farmers, rural areas and agricultural production are collectively referred to as “sannong problems”2. To address these issues, the central government has published several rural regeneration policies and introduced the use of higher education and cultural institutions as devices for rural revitalisation. Most of the projects introduced under the regeneration policies are implemented in villages or historical significance that play an important role in the region culturally, and environmentally.

Since the 2010s, cooperative community-led spaces (villages designed synergistically by governments, villagers and universities or other social organisations) have been developed to collectively organise educational and social activities and production and agricultural work in rural villages. These spaces reflect government intervention, university involvement and villagers’ daily habits.3 Rather than catering exclusively to micro-communities, such as craftspeople, students and staff, cooperative community-led spaces provide appropriate scales for collaboration. The community cooperative, based on local crops, handicrafts and hobbies, has emerged as a network of villagers, scholars, volunteers and tourists. (image 0.01) Through collectively creating agricultural and micro-business courses, organising farming and production work, as well as festival activities and other performances, optimising the structure of local production and incorporating local culture, different groups of people and everyday life, an attempt is being made to design alternative social relationships in rural life.4

introduction

1. Dwight Perkins, Shahid Yusuf. Rural Development in China. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985.

2. This particular issue is discussed in chapter 3, Key references here are: "China - Family and Household".

Countrystudies.us. Retrieved 15 August 2018.

3.This particular issue is discussed in chapter 3, Key references here are: Johnston, K. A., Lane, A. B., Devin, B., & Beatson, A. (2018). Episodic and Relational Community Engagement: Implications for Social Impact and Social License.

13

image 0.01

14

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

Community-led educational intervention in rural areas has come to the attention of central governments as a driver for rural revitalisation. Revitalisation aims to achieve efficient and cooperative village-scale community construction, shared educational courses (mainly focused on the construction of basic housing and infrastructure and handicraft skills) and activities including scholars, local villagers and students from certain programmes (such as architectural design and art schools)5. Scholars and central government argue that these kinds of rural regeneration initiatives intend to break up traditional grid-style rural design and planning to form cooperatives within certain villages and develop villages with regional specialities in terms of, for example, landscape, culture or social habitats. Moreover, the construction of small commercial spaces and the hosting of festival activities and performances increase local economic development through rural tourism. By introducing these initiatives, the central government has given local villagers and university students and staff the power to collectively regenerate the village economy, culture and infrastructure.6 Over the years, the pluralistic regeneration strategy for rural areas has shifted and created various types of cooperative community construction modes. This evolution has resulted in the prioritisation of certain villages and villagers, which have combined with diverse social organizations (mostly universities and local government) to open up rural community construction in terms of its geography, purpose, community involvement and cultural value.

This creates a relationship between universities and villages that is not only “top-down” but both “top-down” and “bottom-up” in terms of cooperation.7 It also illustrates a shift in our understanding of the role of higher education and prompts the question of how rural areas and their economies, cultures and local societies can be developed and reformed in a sustainable way using education?

In Wuhan, projects have been implemented involving three universities, one museum and the municipal government. There are, however, some limitations to these projects. Firstly, current cultural/educational institutions do not conduct regeneration projects in an inclusive way but instead create exclusive micro-communities within the village. This leads to a lack of cooperation between the institution and the local, cultural, social and economic life of the village and a situation where the village becomes conquered territory. Also, existing traditional village housing and settlement units are not suited to the numbers or purposes they are now being used to accommodate. 8 Additionally, as the socio-economic model adopted by China has changed, it has become insufficient to revive rural communities through cultural skills and basic infrastructure alone. Thus, we need to develop a framework sustainable modes of revitalisation for the contemporary rural resident (e.g. “left-behind children”, “stay-home women”, farmers, micro9

businesspeople and the elderly). In a contemporary context, micro-modes of production, the social habitats of different groups, schooling, micro-businesses and technical farming skills have become important elements of sustainable development in which left-over spaces and socio-spiritual spaces (e.g. courtyard housing, administrative buildings, ancestral temples,

4. Qu Yan, Fang Hai. Memories of the Xu Village. Pub., Southeast University. 2015.

5. Wu Zhihong, Wu Yutong, Shi Wenbo. Revitalization of Endogenous Mechanism: Vernacular Synergistic Design Based on Neo-Logic of Vernacular Settlements. 2016.

6. Liu Yuhan. Zhang shanshan. Bao Ziting. Art Involved Community Creation And Planning. (C)1994-2019 China Academic Journal Publishing. 2016.

7. Zhang Yaolong. Research on Architects' Intervention and Rural Construction Path under the Background of Rural Revitalization Strategy. et al 2019 IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci. 242 062016 8.This particular issue is discussed in chapter 4, Key references here are: Zhou Yun. Whose village? whose community? Pub., Harvard University. 2012.

9. Andrew Shepherd. Sustainable Rural Development.

Pub., PARGLAVE. 1988. image 0.01. diagram of relationships between university, rural village, and urban invest companies.

stages) link educational activities, commercial spaces, rural social activities and welfare and

introduction

15

image 0.02

16

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

administrative infrastructure to the wider region.

Design strategy This dissertation investigates the higher education cooperative as a framework used to both spatially and conceptually integrate educational cooperatives and organise, revitalise and design course spaces, public spaces and education infrastructure within a region. (image 0.02) The current interest in cooperative, rural, community-led construction provides an opportunity to rethink the activities and programmes of higher education and their relation to sannong problems. In its Rural Revitalization Strategy 2018-2022, the central government argues for the reconceptualisation and reorganisation of the spaces in which villagers’ live and produce to better develop the current plural economic modes adopted in villages, especially micro-business and cooperative business initiatives. Moreover, since the official determination of higher education as a device for rural development, the government has encouraged universities to open satellite campuses in certain villages, typically those with hundreds of years of history and a unique local culture, and to revive these villages spatially, socially and economically.

Given the above, this dissertation investigates the shared infrastructure, social and economic activities and educational infrastructure that exist at the entrance to, in the centre of and on the fringes of villages. and how they translate into curriculums and public spaces. By rethinking courtyard housing and regions regarding living spaces, dormitories, workshops, retail spaces, social and spiritual infrastructure and regional services, this dissertation challenges the role of education in the district under investigation and examines the potential of alternative design programs and spatial planning for sustainable collaboration.

Research methods, aims and objectives This dissertation aims to investigate how higher education can function as a framework to organise educational activities and revitalise rural villages. This issue will be examined by studying the socio-spatial and socio-economic relationships that emerge within the current village environment according to integrated community-led spaces as well as the shared use of educational infrastructure. In terms of the research method adopted, three case studies will be analysed and the differing functions of educational institutions will be evaluated to inform the proposal of an integrated educational support network and integrated community-led spaces. 10 Next, an examination of the typological shift of antiquated courtyard housing and infrastructure (e.g. stages, ancestral temples) have evolved into new spaces for living as part of the transformation of a non-educational fragmented community into a living-tourismeducation hybrid. To achieve this examination a literature review of studies into cooperative rural community construction and contemporary rural economies and activities, as well as political documents related to rural regeneration will be conducted. Architectural and

introduction

10. C.R.Kothari. Research Methedology. Pub., New Age International (P) Ltd. 2004. image 0.02 diagram of proposed courses in Wanxiu village, Liangzihu district.

17

image 0.03

18

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

regional precedents within contemporary cluster learning spaces and villages that have experienced educational interventions will then be compared. Finally, typological reasoning will be used to provide design variations in terms of curriculum arrangement, learning, living, and socio-economic activities arrangement to study the clustering of learning and living in different areas of one particular village (drawn from the case studies). This will include the re-evaluation and testing of designs to form a system that can function to support a general curriculum and provide fundamental infrastructure that can be used by both universities and villages. (image 0.02) The objectives of this research project are: - To study the social-political and socio-economic role of the university; to explore how the campus’s spatial and academic regime integrate with the different social conditions in cities and rural spaces and how higher education benefits rural communities; - To study the activities of villagers and university students/staff to redefine the village campus according to current micro-business modes, daily routines, social habitats, curriculums and local cultures; and - To study infrastructure in relation to the neighbourhood; to give a multi-scalar definition to the region that considers the arrangement of learning spaces and public spaces in different locations.

To address the research objectives, the following research questions are asked: Disciplinary question: How do design and art educational practices take benefits to those certain rural communities?

And what is the potential of alternative models within rural regeneration plans?

Urban question: How can educational infrastructure become a strategy to conceptualise rural space, bringing learning spaces, public spaces and residential spaces together, as well as three distinct groups of people (villagers, university staff/students, tourists) and different scales of development?

Typological question: What is the new typological definition of the spaces for the interactions between villagers and universities students and how can this new spatial interaction benefit the region in the broader context of tourism?

Dissertation structure The dissertation is divided into five chapters, each of which explores the different relationships between the university and rural areas. In particular, the intervention of educational institutions into rural villages will be explored by illustrating the different mechanisms that shape and challenge the socio-economic and socio-spatial reality of learning and doing.

introduction

image 0.03 case study drawing of campuses, university and community.

19

image 0.04

20

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

The first chapter addresses the intentional revival of the university-rural collaboration since the 2010s followed by an assessment of the historical traces of “closeness” between the university and rural areas that existed in the 1950s-80s under distinctly different socioeconomic conditions.

The second chapter illustrates the commercial nature of the modern university in China. In this chapter, the university’s role as a “producer” is examined as is the university’s evolution from an intellectual and creative domain to an instrument of power and a driver of productivity.

The third chapter explores the interventions into rural areas undertaken by universities. This discussion covers the specific frameworks used by universities when entering a rural space and the details of the interventions conducted in various villages. This discussion is followed by a critique of these interventionist activities, which leads to an assessment of relevant, beneficial design principles.

The fourth chapter presents design propositions shaped by discussion, research and design practice to offer a new perspective. Then, a conclusion regarding sustainable university intervention and collaboration in rural communities is drawn. This final chapter re-evaluates designs and tests what elements of the site-specific designs investigated relate to the village in which they are found and what elements can be applied elsewhere as part of a general system that can be adopted by educational institutions in other villages. (image 0.04)

image 0.04 axonometric design diagram of the entrance of the village, Wanxiu village, Liangzihu district.

introduction

21

22

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

1 University-rural collaboration then and now University versus production

In mid-20th century China, the university could best be described as a productive unit that worked closely to support the productive agenda of agriculture and industry. China since the 2010s has seen the intentional revival of this university-rural collaboration in which the university is utilised as a driver of productivity.

The concept of the university serving established political purposes emerged in the 1950s.

In this decade, China introduced the danwei system with the aim of developing various industries on a national scale. The university was deemed to be an essential component of the cultivation of the talent required to drive the desired industrial growth. The political context of the 1950s thus became crucial in shaping the relationship between the university, the danwei and the city in subsequent decades. The strict danwei structure, which regulated everything from governance and how space was used to the routines of everyday life, characterised the design and function of universities. For example, Xian Jiaotong University (image1.01), which was moved to and remodelled in Xi’an city in 1955, was structured according to characteristics of a danwei. Consequently, the university, a significant political, technical and manufacturing hub for ship-making, consisted of a central axis, symmetrical arrangement and shared infrastructure for canteens and bathrooms. In contradiction to its academic tradition, the university was conceptually and functionally more akin to a factory and represented the politics of lives designed to serve productive purposes. (image1.02) A dominant characteristic of the structure of the danwei is that it often expressed its autonomy by being separate from its surroundings. This was achieved by means of a high wall that separated the danwei from the external environment. In the case of the university, the high wall separated it from the rest of the city, making it an isolated enclave within its urban environment. The positioning of politically significant spaces, such as the main administrative building and the library, along the axis of the university was a display of power; yet, at the same time, the university as a danwei also strived to offer an egalitarian sense of the collective by offering equal, minimal living areas, with six to eight students sharing a room in standard housing arrangements. (image1.03)

chapter 1

23

image 1.01

24

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

image 1.02

chapter 1

25

WASHING CHATTING ACTIVITY SPACE

image 1.03

26

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

In the half-century between 1860 and 1910, the concept of the university was markedly different. Rather than being a centre of industrial or agricultural production, the university was focused on academic and religious production was known as a shuyuan1. After the nansong destiny, the shuyuan represented the idea of li2 and aimed to introduce and perpetuate the custom of proper behaviour as a means to cultivate oneself. The role the shuyuan was to create a space for students to live as recluses and independently study specific areas of knowledge, as well as offer sacrifices and work the estate.

The self-determining nature of the shuyuan, combined with the national philosophical tradition of Confucianism, became essential in forming the relationship between the university and the city that prevailed at the time. The shuyuan were independent learning spaces the design and function of which governed learning, life and leisure. (image1.04) Everything from the arrangement of the space to the selection of local officials was determined by the shuyuan. For example, the yuelushuyuan (image1.05) in Hunan province is representative of liyuexiangcheng3; thus, in terms of spatial design, we can see a clear representation of Chinese shanshui4 with specially constructed rockeries, liangting, flowers and trees in each courtyard, creating the realm of tianrenheyi to allow students to be fully engrossed in their studies. (image1.06) The independent and self-determining nature of the shuyuan was showcased in its dominant structural feature, namely, the high and solid wall that separated it from its external environment. Additionally, the positioning of traditional socially significant spaces, such as the central platform, sacrificial altar and library, along the axis of the institution was representative of traditional Chinese culture or siheyuan. (image1.07) While we may refer to shuyuan as universities, the concept of the “university” was not officially established in China until the 1920s. In the early 20th century, China was being increasingly influenced by the west, especially the US and the UK, and introduced the idea of education to support the country’s war and military efforts and it is thus in this period that the political focus of education gradually evolved. An essential element of the xuetang5 was its use as a tool for creating future political and military officials. For example, the CounterJapanese Military and Political University, which was built in 1931 by Lin Biao, was a key developer of the country’s future military personnel. The university was planned based on the characteristics of hierarchy and power, which took the form of axial planning in terms of the university’s physical structure.

In other universities in some cololized districts, the powerful influence of western nations, in particular the US, was such that universities moved to suburban areas and university planning shifted from traditional Chinese courtyard culture to western square culture. However, regardless of whether they were focused on military endeavours or heavily influenced by the west, Chinese universities at this time remained academies dedicated to knowledge and the spatial characteristics of campuses continued to reflect traditional Chinese traits.

Chapter 1

1. shuyuan were usually private establishments built away from cities or towns, providing a quiet environment where scholars could engage in studies and contemplation without restrictions and worldly distractions.

2. “li” is one of the three Confucian ritual books and belongs to the Thirteen Confucian Classics. it means “Etiquette and Rites”.

3. The combination of ritual and music is the aesthetic thought elaborated in “Book of Rites”. Means that ritual and music should be used together, the two complement each other.

4. Mountain and water scenary in traditional China, which bring good luck.

5. xuetang is the old name of school, farmiliar type with shuyuan. image 1.o3 dormitory organization in university campus in 1950s.

27

image 1.04

28

Educational intervention & rural revitalization Book in China name

image 1.05

short chapter title 1

29

image 1.06

30

Educational intervention & rural revitalization Book in China name

image 1.07

chapter 1

31

image 1.08

32

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

Since the 1950s, there has been a “closeness” between universities and their environs and an intervention element that highlights the conceptualisation of universities as tools of production.

This “closeness” has persisted despite the very different economic foundations that China has adopted since the mid-20th century, that is, the shift in the 1990s from a socialist to a capitalist economic framework. After the 1990s, China’s new capitalist economic framework gave universities the role of managing the population and furthering technical development in the country. This prompted university campuses to introduce multiple schools (usually 20-30) and develop into “mega-campuses”. Moreover, the emergence of university towns in suburban areas represents the political ambition that the university be a driver of urban expansion and development. Statistics reveal that since 1996, over 25 university towns have been created in China and cities have become significantly more technologically developed.

For example, the Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center, (image1.08) a famous example of a mega-campus, was built in 2003 by the central government. Its establishment involved the seizure of suburban area by ten universities and the creation of a new urban hub for technological development.

The political intervention represented by the incursion of universities into new spaces was not, however, exclusive to suburban and urban areas. Rural areas were also targeted for political intervention through the presences of universities. Compared to urban areas, rural areas benefited more from the presences of universities through their ability to increase agricultural and trade productivity. Universities were first introduced into rural areas in the 1930s when scholars such as Lian Shuming, Fei Xiaotong and Yan Yangchu established educational intervention experiences with the aim of researching and practising a new social form of rural construction and development. For example, the zouping activity6 put cultural (moral) education at the core of university study and tried to construct a new Confucianism; the dingxian activity7 created schools to research and spread rural education; the beipei activity8 went further and focused on the research and development of agricultural productivity from an economic perspective. Today, as the development of higher education continues, education in rural areas covers a wider range of fields including social science, ecology, the humanities geography, architecture, hospitality and so on.

Since the 2010s, the idea that the university exists to further national development and rural regeneration has again cast universities in the role of tools of production. However, compared with the situation in the 1930s, education is currently more focused on political ambitions.

In the 2010s, with political aims shifting to the regeneration of destitute villages and the increase of agricultural productivity across the whole country, the role of the university as a tool of production now includes injecting knowledge and talent into rural areas and driving the revitalisation of these areas. The political context of the past decade has been instrumental in shaping the relationship between the university, the community and rural areas. The expansive power given to universities by the government has led to the creation of the shequyingzao9 regime and has defined community activities, the structure of rural spaces and villagers’ daily routines and social habitats and, of course, has redefined the design and function of those educational institutions (satellite university campuses) found in rural areas.

Chapter 1

6. In March 1931, Liang Shuming and others established Shandong Rural Construction Research Institute in Zouping County. Before Liang Shuming advocated "township governance" in Guangdong, tried "village governance" in Henan, and renamed it "rural construction" in Shandong.

7. "Dingxian Experiment" is a civilian education in units of counties conducted by the Chinese Civilian Education Promotion Association led by the famous civilian educator Yan Yangchu. The activity time is from 1926 to 1937.

8. The Beibei experiment initiated by Lu Zuofu devoted a lot of effort, starting from rural construction, has achieved success in economic development, social progress, and ecological civilization construction, leaving us with rich and valuable historical experience.

9. shequyingzao also named as community construction, it is about government guidance, spontaneity, NGO support, community self-organization, self-governance, and selfdevelopment, helping to solve problems of social welfare, economic development, and social harmony. In this process, the community's collective social capital is improved to achieve the goal of community self-governance.

33

1.09

34

image 1.09,10,11

1.10

1.11

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

The Xucun Art Commune (an offshoot of Guangxi Art University), which was built in 2014, is a typical driver of art tourism and a good example of the modern Chinese incarnation of the university. (image1.09) The commune was planned based on Xu village culture10 and thus includes an art museum, handicrafts workshops and a refurbished central stage featuring a symmetrical layout. In contrast, the Wushan mode11, which has emerged in a few villages in Wushan county, is a driver of eco-agriculture. (image1.10) This mode was designed based on the unique geography and natural resources (river and timber) found locally, resulting in distinct public infrastructure for industrial development. Furthermore, the shejifengshou12 activity is focused on academic research into rural villages and exploring the unknown history and culture of these villages. (image1.11) The educational infrastructure developed to pursue this activity was designed based on existing dilapidated infrastructure or traditional courtyard housing. The above examples illustrate that the modern Chinese university is diversified based on different productive purposes and reflects the prevailing political outlook that citizens exist to perform specific productive duties.

The self-determining and collective nature of the shequyingzao is often expressed through collaboration with the existing environment as manifested by the use of surplus public spaces (stages, cooperatives) to create new education infrastructure. (image1.16) The high walls no longer exist and highways link rural campuses to the cities, thus blurring campus boundaries and welcoming in the external environment (including villagers, businesses and tourists).

In short, educational territory in rural China has become integrated with the city. The placement of politically meaningful spaces, such as the museum and library, in villages was an intentional political decision. Moreover, the university serves to highlight the importance of the collective by offering informal handicrafts workshops, a handicrafts curriculum and through certain marketing strategies.

To conclude , in China, the university has been viewed as a tool of production for many decades. From an urban to a rural setting, the university has benefitted the wider environment nationally and contributed to both the development of cities and rural spaces. Yet, the social transition of the 1950s encouraged China to rethink the university and the productive relationship between then university, the city and rural China, through the manufactured production. Since the 1990s, there has been rampant urbanisation and widespread neglect of rural villages. In such circumstances, the university has achieved a greater economic purpose and a more intense relationship between marketing and the university has developed, a relationship that will be discussed in further detail in the following chapter. However, the economic boost from the 1990s result in further rural-urban unbalanced development provide an opportunity for university to reconnect rural districts since the 2010s.

10. Xu Village, an ancient cultural village in She County, Anhui Province, where the Tang Dynasty culture and ancient buildings are here.

11. In August 2003, Green Cross entered Yanhe Village of Wushan Town and carried out a series of environmental improvement and ecological agriculture practices in the local area, which we called the "wushan model".

12. shejifengshou is an innovative and entrepreneurial platform in the field of urban-rural interaction. It was first initiated by Professor Lou Yongqi, Dean of the School of Design and Innovation, Tongji University. Since 2008, the institution has been carried out in Xianqiao Village, Chongming Island, Shanghai.

Chapter 1

35

36

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

2. The commercial ambitions of the modern Chinese university univercity versus economy

China’s economic reforms of the 1990s, Chinese economic reform, shifted the social and economic conditions in the country from socialist to capitalist. The government’s aim since then has been to develop first, second, and third-tier industries on a national scale. After the 1990s, the university became a key element of capitalist development in China under its newly adopted capitalist economic framework. For a time, the link between the university and rural areas was lost and the university aligned itself with the wave of urban development moving across the country at the expense of the countryside. The university was considered essential to the country’s economic development and the stimulation of urbanisation and thus capitalist dogma was instrumental in shaping the relationship between the university and cities.

Actually, since the beginning of the 19th century, educational reforms have occurred around the world. Furthermore, the reform is known as the well-known knowledge economy. In the European, in the mid-1990s, Germany developed the economy intending to introduce market mechanisms to increase the competitiveness of the federal, state, and universities. In 1991, France proposed the Schema Uniniversite 2000, which clarified the cooperation between the national and local governments through driving higher education institutions. Inside the document, the university expanded the enrollment scale, and improved the living-learning conditions for running schools, so that the outcome of higher education could adapt to economic needs. Besides, some universities even strengthen cooperation between universities and scientific research institutions and enterprises. For example, in 1993, Da Vinci Institute was the first new attempt of French higher education and enterprise cooperation. The school cultivated talents for enterprises, and enterprises provided funds and practice places for schools. Although the schooling time lasted a short period, the new education method still aroused social concern.13 In the United States, it is deserved to realize the knowledge economy in the form of university towns and technical and industrial zones. The establishment of the science and technology industrial park has enabled universities and high-tech companies to complement teaching and scientific research. For example, Silicon Valley (image 2.01) gathered nine universities, 33 technical schools, and more than 8,000 technology companies; currently, it has formed the United States' most significant economic and social expansion over the 20 years.

Chapter 2

13. Stehr, Nico; Mast, Jason L. (2012). "Knowledge Economy". Handbook on the Knowledge Economy, Volume Two. image 2.01. the Downtown San Jose, the central business district of San Jose, California, in Silicon Valley..

37

image 2.01

38

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

The Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Centre (HEMC) mentioned in the previous chapter, is a significant and typical technological and economic driver of urban expansion and development. It was planned as a university town as is home to as many as ten universities and 350,000-400,000 people. It features shared entertainment facilities including a sports centre, urban garden, square and commercial retailers. Moreover, local features such as the lake are also connected to the university to increase the connection between the universities and tourist dollars. For example, Wuhan University has enjoyed huge economic benefit from the tourists who come to see the cherry blossoms bloom. Huangjiahu University town and Kunming University town are further examples of how universities are being used to further China’s capitalist agenda. These towns were constructed as natural ecology centres and designed to boost the local population’s ability to buy housing and consumer goods.14 In opposition to the traditional academic role of the university, the modern university in China has embraced its role in furthering commercial aims. (image 2.02) A dominant characteristic of the structure of the reformed danwei is its interactive nature, which is achieved by the use of transparent walls and a larger number of gates that connect it to surrounding streets and residential blocks, directing the danwei outward-towards its external environment. In the case of universities, the presence of gates, which link the campus with the rest of the city, do not simply convey an outward looking perspective but also serve a commercial purpose. Coupled with the emergence of commercial streets/zones on campuses, gates increase universities’ land value and income through the daily consumption activities of students and staff. The positioning of commercially significant spaces, such as new creative and technical centres, on campus boundaries and student housing near campus boundaries and the commercial streets outside is a display of universities’ now-commercial nature. At the same time, the university as a reformed danwei also strives to offer a more plural and complex hierarchy15 and collective living clusters by offering different dorms and rented apartments to students at different price levels. (Undergraduates, graduates and PhD students who can afford to can choose to live both inside and outside the university.) (image 2.02) With cities expanding and constantly gobbling up more suburban and rural areas, an imbalance emerged: the university’s sole focus on urban expansion and technological and economic development led it to lose its connection to the countryside16. The result was the financial devastation of the countryside. However, from the 1990s to 2000s, some rural areas in between cities were developed. The central government provided subsidies that lasted for one or two years and villagers were entitled to develop the land based on the preferences of the local community. These villages developed and grew quickly, destroying traditional rural life and the traditional layout of villages in the process. A new type of village was born, one

14. Zhu, HongZhen and Lou Shiyan (2011). Development and Reform of Higher Education in China. Woodhead Publishing Limited.

with a focus on geographical features, business and management.17

15. Hayhoe, Ruth. China's Universities, 1895-1995 : A Century of Cultural Conflict. New York: Garland Pub., Garland Reference Library of Social Science, 1996.

Shangyuan village, located in Wenzhou city, became one such industry-expanding cluster.

16. Hayhoe, Ruth . China's Universities and the Open Door. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 1989.

Inside the village is now found a district famous for its production of low-voltage electrical products, including spaces dedicated to manufacturing and marketing. The spatial

17. Qu Shipei (2006). The Development of Chinese Higher Eduction. Pub., Beijing University, 2006.

characteristics of the village have transformed into an irregular mix or family workshop and

image 2.02. drawing analysis of campus by author.

larger dealerships and farmers have turned into businesspeople at the expense of traditional farming practises.18 Chapter 2

39

1950s

2000s

campus location

40

image 2.02

infrastructure

bath

open space

gate

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

grassland plaza lake landscape

gate in campus

chapter 2

entrance

wall

wall material

landscape

41

image 2.03

42

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

Another example, Hong village, began its transformation by developing its tourism industry, which is aimed at urban citizens and students who want to explore the tradition and history of hui-style architecture and gardens, a well-known style found in the southern province of Anhui. (image 2.03)The villagers renewed and protected hui architecture, transformed the ground floor of their homes into commercial spaces where they could sell items such as handicrafts and food. The village has since grown into a world-famous tourist destination and attracts over two million visitors every year. Unsurprisingly, the local villagers have cultivated their business skills but also their abilities to create the traditional handicrafts favoured by tourists.19 In contrast, Huaxi village’s transformation was achieved through the development of industries beyond those required to meet the village’s needs. Benefiting from an excellent location near Shanghai, Wuxi and Suzhou, the three hub cities of the Changjiang River Delta, Huaxi grew from a modest, agrarian, communally-owned township into an enormously profitable town with a large number of manufacturing and industrial facilities. (image 2.04) It was China’s richest village for many years and its agricultural and industrial businesses contribute 516 million yuan to the Chinese economy each year. The villagers have also built many Europeanstyle villas as their new housing stock and have welcomed villagers from other areas as tenants.

Huaxi locals have thus not only become businesspeople but also property developers.20 (image 2.05)

The villages that exploited the opportunities to develop financially did so through the spirit of cooperation but their success has come at a cost. Those villages that have experienced the intervention of the free market have lost their cultural identity and have become largely generic spaces.

In contrast, the university, deemed “instrumental” by the government to the mainstream development of rural areas, has become more diverse in terms of the curriculums and research networks on offer and contributes both knowledge and criticism of current development projects and trends.

In 2012, Professor Yang Guiqing, who is the head of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at Tongji University, took students and staff to eight neglected villages in the Huangyan district of Taizhou. The aim was to explore possible strategies for the sustainable and environmentally-friendly development of these villages. Professor Yang’s activities were funded by the university and allowed by negotiation with the local government and resulted in students and staff renovating dilapidated infrastructure to create research studios.

Furthermore, to improve communication with locals and better collectively regenerate the villages, the school established 12 teaching stations across the area. (image 2.06) The outcome of this experimental process was the creation of refurbished housing into building with a variety of functions from a library, hostel and museum to studios in a community centre and a bookshop. The construction process itself highlighted the potential of timber construction and new curriculums for students.21 Moreover, the newly constructed ecological village improved the value of local housing through its capacity to attract tourists, slightly increasing

18. Christopher C.M. Lee. Taiqian: The Countryside as a City. Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 2015.

19. Duan Jin. World Cultural Heritage Hongcun Ancient Village Space Analysis. Pub, Dongnan University. 2006.

20. Christopher C.M. Lee. The Countryside and Urban Development in China. Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 2015.

villagers’ income.

Chapter 2

43

image 2.04

image 2.05

chapter 2

image 2.06

46

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

Almost a decade ago, the Xucun Art Commune, which I mentioned in the previous chapter, started to explore opportunities to revive Xu village through handicraft production and cultural tourism. In 2011, Professor Qu Yan, a professor at the Guangzhou University of Fine Art, went to Xu village where he negotiated the purchase of dilapidated housing with the local government. He then established an art curriculum and constructed an art studio, workshops and a media centre at the entrance to and centre of the village. He even revived the ruined stage in the village, which now hosts the annual Xu village art festival. The festival showcases the village’s traditional performing arts and the creation of this festival and refurbishment of the local infrastructure and the construction of shops, workshops and hostels by the professor and his team have been essential to promoting cultural tourism in the area. (image 2.07) Some universities’ intervention in rural areas has focused on agricultural research and practice and universities have formed cooperatives with local villagers to improve their agricultural output. For example, China Agriculture University uses education to promote technological advances in farming. Early on, in 1973, the university established the Quzhou Experience Station in Quzhou city and distributed constructed kejixiaoyuan (technical courtyards) to eight villages in the area.22 The new technical courtyards were created by refurbishing old housing and converting housing courtyards into experimental test areas that which then became essential public spaces for collective learning, experimentation and discussion among villagers and university staff and students. The villagers applied what they learnt as well as the seeds developed in the courtyards in their own farming practice and realised huge increases in their crop yields and thus their incomes.

Hong village’s booming tourism industry, which I discussed earlier in this chapter, and the spontaneous commercial activities and changes in the use of space in the village have attracted universities and created a commercial relationship between the university and the villagers.23 Duan Jin, the most famous professor to research the layout of the village, took his students there and rented local educational infrastructure (mainly a canteen and dormitory).

These buildings, which were built by local villagers with the support of government subsidies, radiated from inside the village to outside the village. Some universities and art institutions have even purchased and refurbished local housing to create art studios and infrastructure to support research and art practice continues to be built outside the village. Clearly, the increasing presence of universities has stimulated the local economy and helped the village to develop an economy similar to that of a city (for example, the village has a cinema and big brands have set up stores in the area). In return, the universities have the space to create their own intellectual and creative domains.

Through the investigation of the abovementioned universities and villages, it can be seen that the university is moving away from the purely supportive role previously assigned to it by the government. Instead, it is now developing a degree of self-determination and the autonomy to pursue commercial projects24. As the country has transitioned to a capitalist, free-market economy, the university has also evolved and is now casting off its role as a political instrument, a role it played for decades.

Chapter 2

21. Yang Guiuiqing. Rural Regeneration in Huangyan District. Pub., Tongji University, 2014.

22. Zou Ziili. Memories of Quzhou County. Pub., Renmin Uniniversity. 1869.

23. Duan Jin. World Cultural Heritage Hongcun Ancient Village Space Analysis. Pub, Dongnan University. 2006.

24. Qu Shipei (2006). The Development of Chinese Higher Eduction. Pub., Beijing University, 2006.

47

image 2.08

48

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

To conclude, since the 1990s, the higher educational reform has taken intensive economic connections between the unievrsity and city, no matter in the western countries or in China. The newly established curriculum and educational regimes, interactive influenced the campuses' spatial forms. The knowledge economy's social condition have provided higher education and students with open and pluramtic learning-living-working conditions. furthermore, the openess even push the public parcipations and take education into the rural district for economic improvement, which pave the way for next chapter to expand on the mutual intervention on many other aspects of living, working and learning in rural China.

Chapter 2

image 2.08 China Agriculture University's one of the branchs in Quzhhou county.

49

image 2.07(01)

50

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

image 2.07(02)

chapter 2

51

image 2.07(03)

52

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

image 2.07(04)

chapter 2

53

54

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

3. The intervention of the university in rural life university versus rural regneration

Since the 2010s, Chinese rural areas have experienced severe challenges, in particular, regarding migration, productivity, and cultural deprivation, a group of challenges known as San Nong1. The reason behind these problems is the unbalanced development2 of urban and rural areas.

As a first step in resolving these issues, the central government explicitly identified and defined what are now known as sannong problems. However, the traditional definition of sannong problems neglects rural areas and the identity of rural communities. This is despite the acute challenges facing the rural population such as the lack of development investment in rural areas and the lack of representation of rural people in government. From the state’s perspective, the way to resolve the problems of rural was primarily to give those urban infrastructures, and taught villagers moral, political and historical knowledge. The misleading narrative about rural area provided the government with an excuse to impose external, inappropriate forms of development.

Cultural tourism is widely used strategies to develop rural areas. According to political objectives and documents, many agents (e.g. universities, investors, entrepreneurs) have entered villages for to promote socio-economic development. The results of these interventions have, however, been destructive to local life. Cultural tourism has undermined traditional rural farming culture as a large number of villages have been left to develop their infrastructure alone and without professional support, leading to ineffective projects that have ultimately damaged their hometowns. In addition, the economic development projects imposed by the government have followed successful urban models to the detriment of village customs and villagers’ traditional lifestyles. (image 3.01) It is important to note that educational rural interventions have existed long before the 21st century. Different from the situation in Chinese, these earlier interventions were the result of political policy.3 Since then, architects and universities have been trying to deal with these issues and several developments have been proposed and built.

Another example of the successful regeneration of rural communities by a university can be seen in the US in Hale County, Alabama. This case convinced me that a university has

chapter 3

25. The San Nong, also named the Three Rural Issues, refers to the three key issues that are adversely affecting rural development in mainland China. Specifically, these issues are agriculture, rural areas, and farmers. the rural areas are poor with little welfare and urban infrastructures; the agricultural industrial technic and labors is decreasing substantially; farmers can not make a living via doing farm work. The San Nong has been highlighted by leaders of the Communist Party of China since 2006, in particular, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao. Today, the issues are still a major concern for the government.

26. In rural areas, agricultural reforms had a positive impact on the lives of peasants until the 1990s when land supply became insufficient and the cost of the means of production began to soar. As a result, the income of the peasantry was greatly reduced. Moreover, with the development of Chinese industry since the 1990s, a large number of young and middle-aged people in rural areas have been pouring into the cities to work. Excluding the ten or so days following Chinese New Year when they return to their rural homes, these workers spend all their time in cities.

Therefore, people in the countryside tend to be elderly, young children, women or infirm. As time has gone by, rural areas have thus lost their workforce, farming practices have remained underdeveloped and serious shortcomings in infrastructure have not been remedied all while urban areas have experienced rapid development.

27. Since 1990s, the European countries reshaped the relationship between university and rural communities, 55

image 3.02

56

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

the potential to be an effective mediator between progress and local communities to build a community collectively and negotiate the relationships between different agencies via various educational courses, practices and policies. In this way, the sustainable regeneration of the devastated architecture and environment of rural areas can be achieved and socio-economic wellbeing improved.

Prior to the intervention of Auburn University, Mockbee described the Hale county in the following terms: “In Hale County, Alabama, you see ghost buildings: abandoned barns, tumbledown shanties, and rusted trailers – fragile remnants of a more prosperous agrarian past. You see the old people sitting quietly on sagging porches and scruffy chicken hens wandering on dirt yards… the soil erosion, the boll weevil, the collapse of the cotton market, and massive out-migration. Farmers mostly failed to convert their land for cattle and soybeans.” 28 According to Samuel Mockbee, who founded the Rural Studio in Alabama in 1992, in the 19th century, Hale County retreated from slavery-based plantations and became a place left poor by Confederate defeat. The County had a poverty rate of nearly 40% and Evans and Agee’s 1930s photobook of it was a devastatingly accurate portrayal of the area. However, Hale County has dense pine woods, fragrant crop furrows, hypnotic rolling hills and the striking Black Warrior River. (image 3.02) When Samuel Mockbee firstly decided to build the Rural Studio in Hale County, he took Auburn University students on an excursion to Alabama. The basis of the project is similar to that seen in the Chinese context, that is, the project acknowledges that the architectural profession has an ethical responsibility to help improve the living conditions for the poor and asserts that professionals in this field should challenge the status quo to create responsible environmental and social changes. In line with these goals, six local communities within Hale County have been impacted by the Rural Studio29 and the project has been embraced by locals.

The specifics of the project are as follows. Inside those six rural communities, university students designed and built community-based infrastructure including a community centre, a baseball field, a chapel and a youth club. Importantly, the students themselves communicated with residents and sourced funding and materials to design and build this infrastructure.30 In contrast to the situation in China, the local residents provided housing to students and students (usually a group of 15 students in their fifth year as one group) were given a design problem and defended their design and construction solutions to residents in a public session called a “crit”. This process ensured that the outcome of students’ work was responsive to residents’ desires and needs and allowed students to learn from locals.

In the Rural Studio, collaboration has been integral to the community construction process and university staff, as well as students, have been critical in negotiations. During construction, it was typically university staff that negotiated with local merchants and staff

Chapter 3

28. Samuel Mockbee. Rural Studio. Pub,. Princeton Architectural Press. 2001.

29. The Rural Studio left its mark on Hale County, the community of Mason’s Bend and the towns of Newbern, Sawyerville, Greensboro, Thomaston and Akron.

30. Students fan out each day to work on construction sites, attend city council meetings, confer with the County Department of Human Resources (which provides lists of residents in need that students can then select from), meet with the non-profit Hale Empowerment and Revitalization Organization (HERO) and attend community catfish fryups.

57

58

image 3.03.

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

who accompanied students during their construction experiments. There were also several benefactors who supplied the Rural Studio with US $2 million in grants and contributions between 1993 and 2000. Since the project’s inception, the University of Arkansas has invited Auburn University leaders to deliver lectures and television channels have filmed the Rural Studio, discussed the work being down and interviewed residents. The experience of the Rural Studio proves that universities can communicate effectively with and revitalise communities.

To construct architecture in a way that is sensitive historically, culturally, politically and environmentally, the curriculum taught at the Rural Studio is important and highlights the close connection with local communities. Each semester, students study the social and ethical responsibilities associate with architecture. They also visit nearby farms and antebellum houses to receive instruction on materials and methods, as well as architectural history. For example, the Bryant House was reinterpreted based on southern rural architectural forms and idioms.31 The building is all porch and roof, a steeply raked acrylic structure supported by slender yellow columns. This reflects the use of historical references in a theatrical way to reinterpret the building using modern technology. Since 2000, the Rural Studio has widened its educational offerings to include non-architectural students from other schools to help it work toward reshaping and redefining local socio-economic practices32 . These programs and projects have involved Mason’s Bend and the expression of the community’s oral history for an urban audience, as well as the exploration and reinvigoration of the basket-weaving.

Excluding residential housing for locals, the Rural Studio infrastructure, which was built collectively by students, faculty and other university staff, has evolved into crucial spaces for sustainable social congregation and economic development. For example, the HERO Building (image 3.03) is used by social workers and law enforcement officials to observe, interview and counsel abused children; the Farmer’s Market, completed in 2000 in Thomaston in Marengo County and which was venture a public architecture and economic development initiative, has incubated a grower’s cooperative; and several farm projects, involving the collaboration of students, farmers, urban health organisations and food industry companies, have been initiated to study and design local food culture, farming infrastructure33 and a food sourcing system and to further responsible agricultural production and product use in rural and urban areas. (image 3.04) 31. Sheds, barns and trailers.

In China, more should be expected of the university, which is considered by the state to be an “instrument” of rural regeneration. The university should resist acting purely as an agent of the government and imposing development plans

34

onto rural areas. Rather the university

should be more intelligent and responsible and play the role of a mediator or a vehicle for a change that addresses existing rural conditions and positively represents the characteristics and lifestyles of rural populations. These populations will then be given developmental approaches that reflect appropriate values and further enabling mechanisms for development.

After the 2010s, universities started to acknowledge the disadvantages of unilateral governmental intervention and began to use different strategies to revive rural villages,

Chapter 3

32. Since 2000, the programme has included a medieval history major from Hampshire College in Massachusetts. a master’s degree in history and film from New York University and a medical sciences major from the University of Alabama.

33. Farming infrastructure has served as an educational tool in students’ design education as students design and construct in multiphase projects, such as was the case for the passive solar greenhouse, seed house, and water collection system, which were cohesively designed in a laboratory to explore positive architecture strategies. Political plans are likely to be modelled on what are deemed to be successful urban models.

34. Political plans are likely to be modelled on what are deemed to be successful urban models.

59

image 3.04(01)

60

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

image 3.04(02)

chapter 3

61

image 3.04(03)

62

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

image 3.04(04)

chapter 3

63

image 3.06

64

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

strategies that embraced these villages’ hundreds of years of history and culture and addressed their dilapidated housing and infrastructure. A popular national movement called rural community construction experiments35 emerged. The aim of the involvement of educational institutions has been to support and construct rural infrastructure and protect and spread awareness of local customs in an environmentally friendly way, thus reviving and disseminating rural values, traditions, cultures and concerns. (image 3.06) The recent involvement of universities provides an opportunity to explore the new form of “collaborative development” that has emerged between rural areas, universities and government. This chapter will investigate and illustrate the framework and influence of the universities’ intervention in rural areas. The key question that will be addressed here is how and why can universities be used as political and economic mechanisms to drive the transformation of old Chinese villages36? To answer this question, national and international case studies will be explored and discussed.

35. According to From Rebuilding Space to Rebuilding Community: Practical Logic of Community Revitalization, written by Cai Jingincheng and Xiong Lin, this movement concerns community revitalisation. It was influenced by community construction in Japan and began in 1994 in Yilan county, Taiwan, China, when Yu Shyi-kun organised the well-known Yutian community construction after which the movement became popular and successful. After 2010, the movement gradually spread and became popular in mainland China.

36. Usually, villages with 200-300 years of history that have unique traditions and customs. The scale of these villages is small villages.

Chapter 1

65

image 3.07

66

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

the organization framework in the rural communities 1.Policies As previously stated, universities in modern China currently support rural revitalisation efforts. Many universities have moved into rural areas and revived local villages that have traditional architecture but a neglected culture and natural environment. Thus, the political and economic question is what is the specific political and economic framework adopted to develop these villages? This section will refer to political documents from both central and local governments, local economic contracts and interviews with local administrative staff and residents to investigate this question. 37 As a starting point, the construction of educational institutions involves the cooperation of schools of universities38 , the state, local government, local rural communities and Cooperatives39. One such example is the expansion and development of Wuhan city in Liangzihu district. At the end of 2018, after the central government published the document entitled “Rural regeneration 2018-2022”, schools from three universities40 participated in the regeneration movement and established satellite campuses in two villages, Wanxiu village and Xiwuxiong village. Professor Li Zhengwen, a teacher at the School of Architecture and Environmental Design, Hubei University of Fine Art, applied for national funding for a research project entitled “Rural Cultural Ceramic Continuity and Human Settlement”. After funding was awarded, the professors of universities then selected Xiwuxiong village and Wanxiu village to establish new campuses, transforming surplus housing (both public and private) into educational infrastructures. (image 3.07) The Hubei University of Fine Arts even set up the educational building for Party members41 force training42 . But the overall aim was the same: cultural tourism. In Wanxiu village, Party members in the university

43

constructed a leisure centre to host a one-week politics

course. A professor from the School of Environmental Design redesigned the village as an ecological village including a lotus wetland and then signed contracts with administrative and cooperative members, ensuring the income from this project would be divided into different groups (agencies, clients, local government, universities) according to the contracts.

However, in Xu village and Bishan villages, the framework applied was largely reversed.

Instead of beginning with the universities initiated intervention, regeneration was prompted

37. Residents” in this context are those villagers who have made family housing available for use as educational infrastructure. They can also be understood as “clients” of universities.

38. Since 1992, Chinese universities have become more autonomous, unique and competitive. Usually, one university will include approximately 20-30 individual schools and each school will have individual educational and teaching operations and mission, directors and dean.

Rural interventions are usually organised and managed by the dean/director of a school.

39. Rural economic cooperatives are economic organisations that are voluntarily joint enterprises and democratically controlled by households and owners/ producers and users of similar agricultural products and businesses. This organisation encompasses industrial, commercial, agricultural and economic departments to support the development of farmers’ cooperative economic organisations, protect the legal rights and interests of farmers’ cooperative organisations and their members, regulate farmers’ cooperative organisations and their behaviour, increase farmers’ income and promote the harmonious development of the rural economy and rural society.

intervention happened in Bishan village. As the shift of the rural economy towards cultural

40. Huazhong University of Science and Technology’s School of Architecture and Urban Planning; the Hubei University of Fine Arts’s School of Architectural and Environmental Design; and Wuhan University of Science and Technology’s School of Design and Art.

tourism has continued, local governments have gradually intervened in the educational

41. Member of the Communist Party of China.

movement and provided support such as funding, social organizations (NGO), and unused dilapidated housing to promote villages’ development in terms of tourism. (image 3.08)

42. According to state policy, Party Members must visit relevant villages at least once a year to study and spread political knowledge. Each trip lasts for five to seven days.

Political support of vulnerable rural areas by the state and universities is a form of rural

43. In China, universities adopt the danwei regime according to which 55%-60% of a university’s staff must be Party Members.

by an initiative taken by Professor Qu, a teacher at an art school in Guangzhou University of Fine Arts. He took students to the Xu village to do DIY activities; as well as the same

Chapter 3

67

image 3.08

68

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

gentrification. The state’s educational intervention policies make excessive use of the urban perspective to solve problems. This perspective encourages the community to come together but ignores villagers’ needs and preferences, resulting in short-term and superficial development rather than sustainable change.

Chapter 1

69

tourism spaces/educational infrastructures

image 3.09

70

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

2.Village economies The newly constructed educational infrastructure is owned and managed by three groups: the university, households and the local administration. Thus, income from tourism is shared to three groups via the cooperative44. Moreover, households receive rent from the university and the property’s they rent to tourists and others. As time goes by, local government and university income, both from students and tourists, allows universities to continue to refurbish infrastructure to protect villages and increase rural land value, income and use.

While the use of dilapidated housing by universities for educational and commercial activities may initially appear to benefit only the university, it has prompted a change in the behaviour of local farmers who become property developers, retailers and craftspeople. For example, in the case of Xu village, the boost to the economy stimulated the local painting industry. The paintings produced display rural life and issues and were initially completed by artists, villagers, tourists and students as part of educational activities. Some paintings were subsequently sold in Guangzhou city, which has a large art market, or collected by art lovers or collectors when they visited Xu village. As time has gone by, Xu village’s painting industry has become well-known. Currently, painting is a profitable activity in the village regardless of who does the painting. Surprisingly, other neglected handicrafts have also been given a boost through tourism to the village.

Educational intervention in the form of nurturing handicrafts and other activities has brought different agents together, such as universities and locals, and improved the local economy through the tourism these activities attract. Yet, there are still many groups who have remained in their rural villages, such as stay-home women, young people and the disabled who can contribute to the labour force but whose potential is disregarded in the intervention process. 45 Zhou Yun, a Harvard University professor who investigated the village in 2014, described the situation in the village using the following metaphor: “the villagers want to see the stars in the sky but educational intervention has given them bright street lamps.”46 This highlights the conflict between the villagers’ needs and the “support” provided by universities. Also, Qu Yan, the leader of the Xu village Art Commune, states, “even though the educational activities (painting, workshops or lectures) encourage the participation of some villagers, there are still a lot of people, especially middle-aged and elderly villagers, who have no intention of doing handicraft work and activities. This phenomenon encourages us to rethink the process of rural revitalisation.”47 Furthermore, when I was in Wanxiu village interviewing local people, a villager, Wang, complained that “we are illiterate, how can we read in the library?” Other villagers stated that they are interested in earning much more money through educational intervention and are not satisfied to simply have the leisure spaces the university has constructed for them. (image 3.09)

Chapter 3

44. Each village has specific contracts with different agencies and residents/clients. Cooperatives are the platforms for these parties to use to trade and communicate with each other. Investment and income are divided among different groups based on the agreements in the signed contracts.

45. According to national statistics, currently, rural stayhome women account for more than 65% of China’s rural labour force. Most of them have heavy farming responsibilities for their family or no job. In 2000, China had 185 million stay-home women but only 55 million stay-home men. This high ratio of women and unbalanced gender divide will significantly influence the development of rural areas. The way to resolve this problem is to transform the leading rural industry from agriculture to sustainable and special agritourism.

46. Zhou Yun, Whose village? Whose community? Taste, distinction, and the Bishan plan, published on 6 February 2014.

47. Qu Yan. The Memories of Xu Village. Pub., Southesat Univerniversity. 2015.

71

image 3.10

72

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

It is not only the villagers but also students and visitors who feel depressed about the commercial aspects of revitalised villages, especially leisure spaces. Nongjiale tourism is a typical form of tourism in rural China centring on a single leisure centre. Most nongjiale were built spontaneously by local farmers. While these initiatives promote local food culture inherited over thousands of years, the villagers’ poor customer service, cooking and food hygiene skills could compromise visitors’ experience. For example, although urban visitors may enjoy the fresh air and beautiful views, rural staff’s lack of education and minimal contact with the external environment will inevitably lead to poor customer service. Additionally, most rural restaurants and kitchens are headed by women who provide visitors to taste authentic farmhouse cuisine; however, without professional training, the meals created are not always able to achieve a uniform mix of colour and flavour, which can leave visitors disappointed.48 (image 3.10) In the opinion of Luo Wen and Chen Guosheng, professors from the Geography and Tourism Department of Hengyang Teachers’ College, China, it is necessary to improve the quality and complexity of socio-spatial activities in rural areas to boost village economies.

Nongjiale tourism planning and design must satisfy different groups and consumers with different consumption habits. Spatial and economic leisure spaces and activities should be based on local geography and culture rather than a unified socio-economic approach.

48. Luo Wen, Chen Guosheng. A Reflection on Current Nongjiale Tourism, published in Urban Geometry.

2000(04).

Chapter 3

73

image 3.11

74

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

3.Agriculture Farmland is a core element in the negotiations between different agents in an educational intervention. Nowadays, large areas of farmland are allowed to lie idle because people farm less, resulting in land waste. The intervention of universities thus shifted traditional agricultural practices. While students and tourists are interested in traditional farming practices, villagers want to improve the value of their land and farming to obtain greater benefits from it. Thus, farmland and ponds have been bought and developed by investment companies or built on by the farmers themselves to create tourist attractions, offering, for example, fishing or croppicking experiences.

To illustrate, Wanxiu village, in the district of Liangzihu, has replaced approximately 50% of its farmland into crop-picking and fishing experiences for tourists. In Xiwuxiong village in the same district, approximately 80% of farmland has been converted into various typically urban entertainment venues, such as an aquatic sports venue and motor racing track.49 However, these venues have been poorly constructed by the local administration and are thus inferior to those found in the city and less attractive. Ultimately, these misguided construction efforts ruin farmland and traditional farming culture.

49. source. www. wust.edu.cn 50.

Chapter 3

75

image 3.12

76

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

4.Universities Universities have benefited substantially from the knowledge and intellectual creation they have been able to acquire and pursue in rural campuses. Under the influence of the selfconstruction policy, universities have been given greater power to regenerate villages, making it possible to create additional curriculums and different types of educational spaces. Besides, the process of learning by design has prompted universities to explore traditional rural problems and their potential solutions in greater depth.

Inside Xu village, the outcome of painting and photography have heavily connected to Xu village’s rural physical conditions and influenced the universities and citizens. In 2015, the leader Qu Yan’s image portfolio and exhibition images51 of the countryside: from watching the phenomenon to talking the action, became essential bridge to attract urbans to pay attention to and activate the vulnerable community. more importantly, the actions gives the university more possibilities to revitalized the community; School of Environmental Design, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, has studied Wanxiu village and significantly developed our understanding of rural wetlands and jingchustyle architecture, while in Xiwuxiong village a new field of ceramics has been created that is challenging the traditional art of ceramics.

China Agriculture University constructed the branch in the Quzhou county, and students/ satff collectively worked with the local farmers, explored much more towards the local agricultural plantings, seeds, crops. Farmers learned the farming skills, seeds provided by the university, then the income increased substantially via farming work. (image 3.10)

Chapter 1

51. Qu Yan, the leader of Xuu village art commune, spend 10 years to record the life of Xu village. the finished photography, named power space; belief space; living space, exhibited in Xu village exhibition space and Shenzhen city in 2015. The exhibition presented critical social issues raised in the context of Chinese vulnerable Xu village, and became influential and attracted the attention of many socialists, scholars.

77

78

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

Proposition

79

80

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

Proposition From village to rural community

To conclude, the current rural regeneration is not only a kind of spatial transformation, but also reflects the loss of the rural youth population, the collapse of farmers and social organizations, the decline of agricultural production systems, and the disappearance of cultural values and traditional cultural skills. Current rural regeneration studies have indicated institutional and regional politics enforcing a ‘top-down’ policy. Though universities, as an agency, refurbish villages via intervening infrastructures and social activities, they make those intervent villages rely too much on the universities themselves. This ignoring of the internal forces of those villagers is not sustainable.

The universities should instead pursue a deeper understanding of the villages’ social habitats, environment, local socio-economic forms, socio-spatial significances and living habitats as relates to the villagers’ daily lives and cultural senses. The universities should initially act as mediators of the local situation, given village-specific problems and influences throughout the territory. Respond to the infrastructures and needs of stay-at-home women, abandoned children, vulnerable elderly people, farmers and workers

by building spatial on-site

structures using courtyard housing and building forms and materials to meet energy saving requirements. Agricultural technical improvement and environmental protections through technology appropriate to local conditions. Regenerating local culture via the inheritance and reference of traditional architectural forms and spaces to support low-tech, low-cost, self-building strategies with locally accessible construction materials. Modern construction techniques taught experientially to allow for modification to suit rural economic and technological situations.

The dissertation proposes reasonable and effective intervention for the university, linking building users design subjects and activate the optimization to continuously inherit the building skills of the traditional dwellings with low cost. Using multi-subject interventions with finished buildings and infrastructures (constructed collectively by students and clients)

proposition

81

82

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

would allow universities to collaborate with villagers and other agents. This would encourage the acceptance of aesthetic building concepts, advanced technology, active local folk skills, food culture and reshaped agricultural significance within the territory. Simply, this would construct a connection between the village and urban.

The curriculum of multi-subject participation provides an opportunity to promote villager enthusiasm, encouraging active participation in community construction. This will improve socioeconomic benefits and help the community fully reflect the demands its villagers while protecting their culture and balancing interests. Understanding the spatial organization of courtyards, rooms and infrastructures in terms of different scales of interaction, cooperation, use and threshold conditions enables the full use of respective resources and advantages, clarifies respective job responsibilities and forms a cooperative mechanism with efficient and orderly adaptive functions. Through its own spatial organisation, a community cooperative can achieve sustainable development on a territorial scale. (image 3.13) The next chapter will provide a case study of sustainable development to study the community cooperative further.

proposition

83

84

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

4. Designing the rural community Diagrams of cooperative community construction

This chapter will investigate strategies to unpack and challenge the current distinction between “villagers” and “students/educators/visitors” with the aim of systematically improving Chinese universities’ interventions in rural areas. It is therefore structured around the issues that may result from such interaction: those pertaining to universities, on the one hand (programmes, space, infrastructure), and to rural areas on the other (space, cultural heritage, environmental qualities, social inclusivity, economic activities). Therefore, this chapter reflects on the following questions: what is the new typological definition of the spaces in which interactions can occur between villagers and university students? and how can this new spatial interaction benefit the region in the broader context of tourism?

As described in Chapter 3, the rural community cooperative has the potential to provide a framework to organise activities.52 The two-way process of interaction can stimulate rural economies through multi-disciplinary educational curriculum and activities and multiagencies’ cooperation in place. Therefore, people collectively construct shared courtyards and rooms, adaptive infrastructures and modern construction and agricultural techniques.

Therefore, the following sections provide evidence for the interaction of process in ruralcommunity construction and pave the way for designing site.

52. Stehr, Nico; Mast, Jason L. (2012). "Knowledge Economy". Handbook on the Knowledge Economy, Volume Two.

chapter 4

85

image 4.01

86

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

A form of sustainable development in rural community According to Zhang Yaolong , the sustainable development of the countryside requires the support of industry . In the process of rural regeneration, and as a means of eliminating the inequalty between urban and rural areas , universities must consider all aspects of how the urban-rural relationship can be changed, including financial, intellectual, operational, historical, global and industrial factors . The new spaces to be designed need to have a positive impact on rural industry and society . The main design question, therefore, is: how can we design a cooperative rural community by supporting higher education and culturally and politically stimulating local socio-economic and socio-spatial relationships?

Emergence and significance of new forms of rural economy and spatial structures As discussed in Chapter 2, new modes of self-organized rural business have emerged since the 1990s, when China introduced economic reform . (image 4.01)These new forms have reshaped rural economies and even prompted the transformation and development of agricultural production.

As Chen Wentao53 states in Research on the e-commercial industrial spatial structures in rural district, at present, there courtyard workshops are especially zero-cost and significant for the beginning phase of economic development combined with the platform of internet industrial chain . Villagers make full use of the homestead and are starting to carry out different forms of commercial activity at zero cost. The original single living space of courtyard housing has shifted to encompass mixed-use functional spaces. Hence, areas for living and industrial activity are combined to make production spaces for weaving, performance and food preparation. This form of production space is related to low-quality production; however, it is still the most efficient spatial structure in most rural areas for business to be carried out .

Within the frame of the courtyard economy, e-commerce has become a bridge offering rural communities the mobility necessary to connect with urban consumers, which may have inspired the organization of industrial spaces in rural districts as part of “bottom-up” community development .

In fact, the cooperative workshop form appeared in the 1920s. Fei Xiaotong’s illustrations in Peasant Life in China show how, with support through education in technical skills, cooperative production spaces such as small factories provided an opportunity to improve both quality and quantity of production and even attract labourers, especially rural woman, from nearby villages.54 In the case described by Xiaotong ,a School of Sericulture was established in 1924 the village of Kaixiangong as a joint initiative by the local government and the Sericulture Technical School. This enabled a very large degree of socio-economic improvement: not only did the sericulture school and cooperative attract 32 women who had not previously been in the paid labour force from nearby villages, but it boosted the production of manufactured goods by two thirds between 1924 and 1932 .

Chapter 4

53. Chen Wentao. Living-Working, Pub., Tongji University.

2012.

54. Fei Xiaotong. The Peasants in rural China. Pub., Southwestern University. 2001. image 4.01 the different forms of of the rural housing economy in contemparary rural districts in China.

87

image 4.02

88

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

Redefined forms of courtyard housing As a result, developing and connecting courtyard housing plays a key role in providing an opportunity to increase the value of the homestead and village economy, as well as jobs for women who have not previously worked outside the home and do not have the physical strength for other forms of employment, in those villages with education interaction already and have the courtyard housing form. (image 4.02) The wall on the ground floor can be demolished to transform the central room of the courtyard house into a space for economic activity or the front into a factory, while the living space stays at the back; hence, the courtyard encompasses both business and home . These spatial forms, self-built by students and villagers and self-operated by households, reflect the strong selectivity of social individuals and flexibility in the utilization of space. Spaces with different functions can coexist, and be converted into each other.55 Curriculum In addition, the element of subjects playing important role in unpacking the distinction between villagers and students, through providing opportunity for university to leading and helping locals to reshape the political, social, spatial, cultural, environmental forms with preferences. As many scholars have discussed, it is essential in rural areas to give guidance to the local people in operating micro-businesses through different courses, such as training in how to use e-commerce . An important part of the current project is to establish a framework that connects universities with individual businesses to bridge the knowledge gap. From their rural workplace, villages can leverage the knowledge they gain to improve their practical skills and thus their businesses. Students who cannot receive training in cities will also be able to benefit, for example by exploring the production and cultivation of organic food and crops, farming techniques and skills, construction practices, handicrafts and other possibilities .

Cultural, financial, and technical aspects of self-building Furthermore, as already mentioned in Chapter 3, in those villages in which architecture students are already working, consideration must be given to construction materials in order to keep costs low, express the traditional local culture and, at the same time, ensure the spaces constructed can have multiple uses in the future . Therefore, when putting together a design proposal, university students should explore modern and traditional construction methods with local villagers.

Layout: organization of the collectivising activities of different agents The layout of courtyard housing and associated infrastructure enables a strategy to collectivize different forms of social activities among villages, such as collective courtyard farming,

Chapter 4

55. Li Ting. Rural life in Living-Woking relationship in Chinese villages. Pub., 2008. image 4.02. the form of courtyard economy - food making in Yongding village, Hebei province.

89

image 4.03

90

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

modern agricultural skills, cultural and artistic production, and knowledge sharing.

In order to enable cooperation beyond the village(zone), it is important to locate the cooperative educational and economic activity spaces properly in the village.

Generally, the entrance, centre and outskirts of the village all have their own significance in connecting each village to others , even though each village has its own physical and social character. Therefore, the proposed new public and cooperative spaces, which would be built and managed jointly by students and locals, could be constructed in all three areas.

The entrance to a village can have a symbolic meaning and is the point at which the village is connected by traffic to its surrounding environment , both outlying villages and cities.

Constructing festival spaces (stage), marketing spaces and public squares for women, who stay and/or work on farming, to dance is a way to strengthen socio-spatial and socioeconomic territorial connections . Besides, the element of paifang has a spiritual significance and inspires locals to work hard, as well as symbolising traditional rural China. (image 4.03) The village centre symbolises the social and collective heart of a village and is the village’s primary gathering spot for public activities . 56Usually, it houses the Party Members’ Community Centre where the village’s important issues are discussed, and a square and ancestral temple where villagers gather for different social activities, such as weddings and funerals. If the village has a central pond where clothes are washed, it is in the centre, and there are several recreational spaces for elderly people to carry out activities such as playing majiong and chess .

The outskirts of the village are an essential space for production and trade . In Taobao village , the extensive factories and workshops located on the edge of the village have attracted thousands of labourers from nearby villages and even urban graduate students looking to break new ground. Besides, in villages where the main street is near the highway or a heavily trafficked road during the harvest season, the local farmers usually use the outskirts to set up temporary shops in trucks and/or on wooden tables to sell local crops to people who are driving through the village. 57 Village: spaces and infrastructures as a means to care for vulnerable villagers According to Wen Tiejun 58, China is experiencing an urgent and serious crisis in its destitute rural villages, with both villagers and agriculture suffering. This section describes the different populations in the most vulnerable villages in Wuhan, China, and gives a detailed explanation of the problems they face and potential solutions that education and educational institutions can offer.

1. Left-behind children Official statistics released by the state reveal that 61,025,500 children live in rural areas59 .

Typically, children in rural areas stay behind while their parents move to urban areas for work.

Chapter 4

56. Qu Yan. The memories of Xu village. Pub., Tongji University. 2012.

57.Luo Wen, Chen Guosheng. A Reflection on Current Nongjiale Tourism, published in Urban Geometry.

2000(04).

58.Wen Tiejun, the leader of the Chinese rural development professors from Renmin University, Beijing.

59. Chinese Status 2012. image 4.05 the village entrance's open square culture in Wanxiu village. Liangzihu district.

91

image 4.04

92

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

These children are usually taken care of by their grandparents, relatives or family friends. This splitting up of the family often leads to developmental and emotional challenges for the children who are left behind. Specifically, the lack of infrastructure and parental support result in a poorer quality of education, physical wellbeing and social relationships .60 To support the left-behind children around Wuhan, university students have run short summer courses in the library in the intervention village to supplement primary school lessons since the 2010s. Additionally, the spread and growing popularity of online tuition programmes run by local government and universities provides an opportunity for leftbehind children to get better education and care.

The community children’s centre is an important platform for different agents to collectively care for left-behind children in the village . Daily reading, recreation, sports and festivals are all essential social activities, as are the spaces in which they occur, to increase communication between children, as well as between children and their families. Therefore, the design is going to use those elements according to the specific village conditions discussed in the next sub chapter. 61 2. Stay-home women Unlike women in big cities, women in rural areas tend to stay at home when other family members move away for work, and must cope with both work and loneliness. According to the statistics, there are currently 870,000,000 of these ‘stay-home women’ in China .62 On the one hand, they work in the highly pressurised environment of farming and must undertake never-ending household chores; on the other hand, they lack any sense of financial and emotional security, leaving them spiritually empty . (image 4.04) Research shows that different forms of collective participation can help these women to feel more positive towards their life and work. For example, economic participation can encourage stay-home women to break new ground and explore new forms of work, such as in production workshops or constructing farm production stations. Moreover, cultural participation, such as organising festivals or all-women activities, as well as education including training in skills, law and moral knowledge are all beneficial . 63 Therefore, the spatial element of workshops in a shared courtyard arrangement can enhance economic participation. Besides, the element of the open classroom could allow both formal and informal educational training with the support of other agents. Furthermore, the element of public spaces, such as the open square and ancestral temple, could provide spaces for selforganised activities.

3. Farmers As discussed in Chapter 3, farmers are vulnerable people and three principal rural issues need to be addressed. In order to solve the problems of low-quality and inefficient agricultural production and development, agricultural students at universities can help farmers explore

Chapter 4

60. Xu Ting. The Left-behind Children Need Home.

Jounal. 2007.

61. Chen Zhiceng. Xu Ting. Reseaech about Caring Children in Xuze Village. Jounal. Dongnan academy. 2004.

62. Chinese Status 2012.

63. Song Yaming. Zou Yun. Village and Courtyard Housing. Pub, CCPT magezine. 2016.

93

image 4.05

94

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

agricultural techniques. This interaction can improve the students’ knowledge of modern agriculture on the one hand, and improve the farming economy for local workers on the other. Food companies or agencies can also provide a bridge to strengthen rural-urban trade connections. (image 4.05) The spatial elements, comprising different sized testing fields, farmers’ markets and farming workshops, could therefore be important for the interaction and connection between different agencies. Many cases mentioned in Chapter 3 have provided evidence of this, such as the Quzhou village intervention made by China Agricultural University students and a rural studio’s community intervention to explore organic and cultural food .

4. Micro-businesspeople In most cases, farmers’ children no longer want to be farmers. When they choose to go back to their hometowns, they do so with the aim of creating social value, which means they want to have significant social status and money. However, as mentioned in Chapter 3, most of them have difficulty managing and operating businesses, and many businesses fail.

Nevertheless, business management and architectural and construction students and educators can serve as mediators to encourage nongjiale tourism among microbusinesses in certain villages which have been the subject of an educational intervention.­64 Villagers, as well as students of management, architecture and agriculture, can work in cooperation with tourism companies. Nongjiale tourism can attract more tourists and consumers. However, different villages have different physical characteristics; thus, spatial character will be specifically addressed in the next subchapter.

64. Chen Shiming. Yang Mengming. Triple Capacity Building as Critical Pedagogy: A Rural Social Work Practicum in China. Hok Bun Ku, Angelina W. K. YuanTsang and Hsiao Chun Liu. Journal of Transformative Education 2009; 7; 146 image 4.05 peasant Wang in Xiaozhuang village, source. baidu.academy.cn

Chapter 4

95

image 4.06

96

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

To conclude, this subchapter has illustrated design principles and evidence. On the one hand, materials, curriculum, courtyard housing and infrastructures can be used to strengthen the interaction between different agencies and protect local culture; on the other, newly reorganised spaces can also provide local villagers with significances of economy, culture, social habitats, mental and childcare. Furthermore, the three areas, namely the centre, entrance and outskirts of the village, can enable socioeconomic interaction between villages, or even between the village and cities. Besides, such infrastructures can not only serve as spaces to look after one village, but also to attract labourers from other villages, and farmland could be redefined to shift the broken-environment strategy to create environmentally friendly spaces for modern agriculture. The next chapter will provide a specific on-site design that illustrates the translation and application of the design principles to a specific context.

image 4.06 the Nongjiale toutism restaurants, operated by Li family. photo by author in July, 2018.

Chapter 4

97

Huazhong University of Science and Technology

Hubei Academy of Fine Arts

1h40mins

32 km

30 km

50 km

55 km

Ezhou University

SF Express Airport

Wanxiu Village

Xiwuxiong Village

image 4.07

98

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

Specific on-site design proposal In the context of rural China, it is almost impossible to create general, universal designs as each village has a completely different geography, history, industry and culture. Therefore, this design proposes a specific solution to benefit the village of Wanxiu and the connections in territory. New collective forms of living will be platformed to unpack the connection between the “student/educator/visitor” and “villager”. The essential question to be answered here is, thus: how should new educational infrastructure/subjects/politics in Wanxiu be constructed?

To answer this question, this project investigates the current social life of Wanxiu, including the specific operation of its socioeconomic and socio-spatial forms; the specific conditions and requirements of the clients, and types of courtyard housing. Subsequently, the proposed cooperative workshops, courtyards, subjects and designs for infrastructure and public spaces between the educational buildings will be proposed based on the evidence put forward in Chapter 4.

The organization of the district At the end of 2018, in response to the national policy that higher education should be used as an agency for rural revitalisation, as explored in Chapter 3, the School of Architectural and Environmental Design of Hubei University of Fine Art, the School of Marxism from Ezhou University, and the School of Architectural and Urban Planning from Huazhong University of Science and Technology expanded their higher education offerings (short-period painting, design and making in DIY activities) into rural communities in the villages of Wanxiu and Xiwuxiong in Tujianao County in the district of Liangzihu.

The government provides funding for rural community construction within categories such as further educational infrastructure construction and village renovation projects. These funds are used in the planning, construction, renovation and property management of educational infrastructures by village administrations. Additionally, the construction of associated commercial units will be contracted to private developers and the local government.

With the intervention of the state and universities, property management is divided into several parts. Public educational infrastructure (e.g., libraries, museums, community centres and playgrounds) is managed and maintained by the local government and all villagers since this infrastructure is typically constructed on publicly owned land. In contrast, semi-private or for-profit educational infrastructure, such as cooperative workshops and dormitories, is jointly managed by state and university bodies . The profits generated by the infrastructure is set aside to refurbish dilapidated village infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, as donations to support poor families, and for the construction of additional village infrastructure if required, such as better medical facilities. Finally, commercial units such as retail stores and restaurants are managed by the private property management associated with private developers or cooperatives (joint bodies made up of networks of local families).

Chapter 1

image 4.07. the diagram of the location relationship between Wuhan city, universities, and intervention villages.

99

100

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

This project intends to strengthen the role of the various bodies mentioned in the previous paragraph and establish cooperation between them; therefore, instead of following a topdown policy, the universities should use economic models such as cooperatives and online trading platforms, and social organisations such as women’s federations and foundations for left-behind children. The local Party Members’ Community Service Centre is a villagelevel subsidiary of the central government that is responsible for negotiating between certain villagers’ needs and other agencies such as university students, including procuring local materials for construction, negotiating rents with collective/private property management, establishing curriculums, knowledge exchange and so on.

Physical conditions: environment, culture, economies, social habitats As discussed previously, the villages of Wanxiu and Xiwuxiong have been the sites of an experimental educational intervention by design and art schools from three universities in Wuhan since 2018. This design proposal will take Wanxiu as the project’s design site.

Compared with Xiwuxiong, Wanxiu is home to a larger number of university satellite campuses , individual and public entrepreneurial developments , and fragmented and poor communities and social organisations , making it more difficult to rethink and regenerate.

The following paragraphs will describe aspects of its physical characteristics for further design proposals.

Wanxiu is located near Liangzi Lake, and the village owns large areas of woodland and farmland, as well as several ponds. Even though the universities have shifted 50% of the woodland and ponds to lotus and wetland tourism, they remain beautiful and cultivated land. Lotus production planning and cultivation is an important part of local farming life, as well as crops such as pomelo, vegetables and wheat.65 However, the quality and quantity of crop production are not sufficient for the local farmers to earn a living.

As concerns culture, the village has existed for over 300 years and has a strong cultural heritage of jingchu.66 Some of the local courtyard housing has been painted black and white to define the different spatial functions, that is, living and working. The traditional ancestral temple in the centre has been repaired in order to enable villagers to carry out essential daily activities such as wedding and funerals.

More frequent living habitats and spaces framework is divided into three areas according to three village zones. However, top-down intervention has destroyed part of the local living habitats, namely the entrance for social congregation, the centre for discussing political issues and the outskirts, where the establishment of wetland for tourism has pushed away local farmers who used to sell their produce there, and is now only dedicated to tourism during

65. Yun Xinping. Li Yifei. Revitalization in Wanxiu village, Liangzihu district. source: www. wust. edu. cn.

66. According to the interview, as well as the introduction of the village, the village has long history of Jingchu culture since 320 years ago. Currently, there is still remains in the fringe of the village.

the summer vacation.67

67. Hok Bun Ku, Angelina W. K. Yuan-Tsang and Hsiao Chun Liu . Triple Capacity Building as Critical Pedagogy: A Rural Social Work Practicum in China. 2009.

With reference to economic forms and networks, the onsite investigation shows that today

image 4.08 the diagram of the central government and unievrsity cooperation and their impact in local villages.

the village is home to a few restaurants, one fishing leisure centre and a few family-run

Chapter 1

101

­ ­

² ² ² ²

1. landscape

2. infrastructure

3. figure ground

image 4.09

102

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

e-commerce shops. Additionally, a few families run courtyard food workshops during the tourist season. Interviews with locals revealed that only a few people are happy with their work and life. In contrast, many families face difficulties in running their businesses, due to the fact that there is a bias definition towards cuisine and eating environment.

Furthermore, even though the university and social organizations carry out temporary educational activities to care for local vulnerable villagers, the “villager-university” distinction results in the fact that most of the left-behind children, stay-home women and elderly people are still living a little intellectual stimulation. Besides, fragmented villages receive no benefit from the universities at all. According to an interview with the local administration, the district today has 125 stay-home females, 143 old people and 56 left-behind children. 68

68. The number of population and village condition is from the interview, and on-site investigation from author in the summer of 2018. the statues is from the local adminitrative officer. image 4.09 the phisical condition analysis in Wanxiu village, drawing by author. image 4.10-11 the invloved educational infrastructures and activities outcome in Wanxiu village. Liangzihu district.

Hubei province. drawing analysis and photo by author. image 4.12-15 the emergence of courtyard housing economy in rural China. source: Li Ting. Living-working.

Pub., Northwestern University. 2015.

Chapter 4

103

classroom painting teaching area reading

left-behind children teaching (summer holidays)

meeting space

open air stage (daily dancing and spring festavals) library

villagers’ housing

open-air stage

leisure teaching/learning/(doing) courtyard storage living exhibition

image 4.10

104

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

1. library

2. students' painting

3. open-air stage

image 4.11

chapter 4

105

image 4.12

106

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

image 4.13

chapter 4

107

image 4.16

108

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

Designing the community: subjects and infrastructures/courtyards/ infrastractures The subjects are designed for multi-programmes students and villagers from which already took part in the community intervention, and the subjects process will promise the connections between different agencies. On the one hand, the subjects help architecture students practise using low-cost self-building methods to construct different forms of buildings which have a cultural significance. On the other hand, multi-displinaray students collectively explore the potential of organic food, farming techniques and skills, as well as heritage handicraft skills in order to connect local production with urban companies and consumers. Finally, media studies students will study and record the oral history of the village, and to process to the urban.

1. For architectural design students In order to build architecture which is historically, culturally, politically and environmentally friendly, it is important that the proposed architectural design courses taught at Wanxiu highlight the close connection with local communities.

Construction materials are the bridge for low-cost, low-tech self-building for students and volunteers; thus, in the first semester, students need to go into the local woodland to learn about and practise cutting wood and bamboo for about two months. The process could be finished with the support of local craftspeople, who have knowledge of traditional construction skills and methods. Students and craftspeople could then further explore different possible skills to construct new buildings collectively.

Furthermore, it is necessary to study the rural social and ethical responsibilities associated with architecture. The process could provide an opportunity for students to explore knowledge such as sustainable rural community construction and the history of Jingchu culture and would also strength the local villagers ’sense of identification with the local culture. Those subjects ambition therefore need students and local villagers to collectively visit nearby paddy fields, farms, wetland, handicrafts courtyards and examples of architectural history; and the visiting role of villager and process and locations thus based on specific design problems and ambitions.

During the construction process, all participating architectural and design students would be divided into several groups. Through negotiation with the local administration, each group would then be given a specific design problem and defend their design and construction solutions to their client. Besides, in order to ensure that the outcome of the students’ work responds to households’ wants and needs, a phased “jury” would be set up to ensure communication is efficient and that students learn from locals. (image 4.17) Furthermore, students and staff need to search out and communicate with invested entrepreneurs for construction materials and funding. Negotiations would enable efficient collaboration to be a part of the community construction process. image 4.16 the proposed diagram of curriculum

Chapter 4

109

image 4.17

110

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

2. Non-Architectural students In order to reshape and redefine local socio-economic practices with the support of the universities, the subjects would widen their educational offerings to include non-architectural students from other schools.

In fact, there are already students from the Marxism school from Ezhou University, who have already set up a psychological health centre in the central library. The proposed course will not only teach left-behind children about DIY activities but also help local stay-home women to deal with the psychological problems of long-term separation from their husbands and bringing up their children alone, as well as offering left-behind children courses and mental health interventions, to make sure they grow stronger and healthier.

The students/staff from the School of Sustainable Agriculture, Huazhong Agricultural University, are also listed on reshaping the culture of food/crops. They could collaborate with architectural students to create several farming spaces together so as to improve and reshape the traditional agricultural development to include modern methods of production, and organic foods and crops as part of local specialty products. This process ensures that locals and students/volunteers are self-sufficient; besides, it could also serve as a supply unit for urban food companies with the support and teaching of business management skills so that the problems of poor agriculture and poverty among farmers could be solved.

Students from the School of Art and Design, Hubei Academy of Fine Arts, would continue to explore the local handicrafts such as gouache and basket weaving. The learning and making process promises new socio-economic production via handicrafts and local materials; besides, the intensive connection between the students, the local stay-home women and left-behind children would be achieved via recreational activities in the different spaces (e.g., courtyard workshops and weaving stations), allowing them to communicate with each other and ease their loneliness.

Furthermore, students who specialise in photography and film could work in different corners of the community, more than a simple method for collecting data, oral history recording gives student/educator/visitor an opportunity to hear voices outside the mainstream discourse, and uncovers personal details and aspects of life that are buried or hidden in the public realm, and acquiring greater understanding of the local community.

Chapter 4

111

STAKEHOLDRES

USERS

SPACE

University

Students/staff

electronic

University students go to the villages and increase design/making/planting/food culture ability/ filming/ handicrafts; They explored with villagers collectively with various skills; also, they help local villagers with renovating devastaed housing and infrastructures related to farming, social spaces;

School of Architectural Design School of Art and Design School of Agricultural Planting

central lib

studio (a

School of Business Management School of Maxicism

Coopera meeting

lectural h

office (sta

dormitory

apartmen

Villagers Villagers are those people who under the “three rural issues”; they are primarily the very old and very young people, stay-home woman, as well as farmers who need technical skills

Left-behind children Skilled villagers (cultural food) Skilled villagers (weaving) Farmers Micro businessman

square

playgrou

children’s

shared k

Officers Agricultural contractors The stay-home elderly Housing regeneration clients Nongjiale developers Stay-home woman

courtyard

courtyard

courtyard stage farmers’

Food/tourism company

experime

Volunteers

Tourism/food companies connect local foods/ crops/ rural lifes with urban citizens. They are important export trades between the community and urban area.

workshop

woodland

historic re

112

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

ES OF USE

COURSES

c clinic

Mental health course

brary /bookstore

Psychiatric consulting

architectural design/drawing)

Rural business management

ative

Reproduction and fertility in livestock and bioethics

room

Plant science and physiology

hall

Pest and disease management economics and policy

aff/local officers)

Agricultural and food marketing

y (students/volunteers)

Crop health, nutrition and disease

nt

Jingchu architectual therory Timber/bomboo construction and methods

und

Jingchu Architecture

s centre

kitchen/canteen

Social and ethical responsibilities of architecture

d (weaving)

Farm and paddy fields visiting

d (crops/food DIY)

Crit

d (food making)

Art painting Lotus leaf weaving

market

Film making

ent field

Photography

p (modern agriculture)

d workshop image 4.18. the diagrams of relationships between agents, curriculum, and course spaces.

emains

Chapter 4

113

image 4.19

114

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

Position the courtyards/infrastructure/rooms In accordance with the curriculum, the newly constructed infrastructure/rooms/courtyard housing collectively will be used by various agents and will become crucial spaces for sustainable social congregation and economic development.

1. Farmers market The farmers market is a foray into architecture that advances economic and district development. It is “citizen architecture, making students become citizen architects,” 69in that the students are both designers/builders and liaisons with different agencies, including the village’s cooperative. They must execute transactions that can be bypassed when working in the rural Liangzihu district. Instead of being assigned a site, they will have to find the appropriate property.

Thus, the students could choose a site next to the highway, along the village boundary, where there is already a big fishing cooperative tourism project. This site is expected to benefit from more traffic after the establishment of the Shunfeng airport and Shunfeng logistics centre in two years—the airport’s presence is evidence that the location is favoured for future development. The market could represent a potential boost for the struggling district in that it would support a variety of cooperative stores to complement the tourist-targeted areas built by local/urban merchants, which might also be developed next to the proposed market.

During the construction process, the students might visit/research similar markets in the district. They may choose to create a sheltered space for vendors, a shady area for selling produce from the back comtemperary storage and trunk, and a public square under a historic tree for the community. When the market is complete, the whole district could turn out for night performances or local activities. The material and spatial forms of the markets could involve a liner structure, or courtyard coutructure to provide sufficient circulation and communication.

For the students, the market would be not only a feat of architectural construction but also an opportunity for political and economic education. They should begin by thinking about “creating the connection between the market, cooperatives, and local crop/food business.”

Therefore, during this process, the students/staff from agricultural schools and potential business schools could collaborate in the development of the lotus/crop production, packing process and business. Besides, the urban food companies, tourism companies and local peasants would also help students with the whole design and construction process. (image 4.19) 2. Fields for several farm projects and a farmhouse In the field, as I mentioned in previous chapters, the Wanxiu village has a large area of farmland and paddy fields. This is the result of both liangzi lake and 300 years of local farming culture.

Chapter 4

69. Yang Guiqing. the Rural Revitazation in Huangyan .

Pub., Tongji Unievrsity. pp124. 2018. image 4.19 the proposed farming house for the local village, students and farmers should collectively invesgate and find a way to construt it (them) for local farming works.

115

1. open workshop/lecture space

2. liner classroom/workshops

image 4.20

116

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

Therefore, the proposed project would preserve and make use of the natural resources instead of expanding the large lotus pond, which attracts tourists but is destroying the local farming culture and farmland in the process. The project would use sustainable agricultural practices to provide fresh and organic foods for students and staff. Furthermore, organic foods could be exported for urban consumption with the support of the Sanlu tourism company.

Testing fields could be constructed in the courtyard and farmland, and the paddy would be constructed collectively according to local preferences and needs.

3. Children’s centre As I mentioned before, students and staff must participate in the village community’s process of talking with and supporting local stay-at-home children suspected of being lonely. The proposed children’s centre would be staffed by student and staff volunteers, including some from the school of mental health at Ezhou University. They could use the children’s centre to teach the stay-at-home children and evaluate their needs from both education and mental health perspectives. The children’s centre could also be used as a training facility for new local rural teachers who wish to provide long-term community education.

The children’s centre must be cosy and light to provide sufficient light and ventilation; besides, the children’s physical health requires consideration of both the indoor learning spaces, as I mentioned in the last chapter, and sporting spaces, which historically have been neglected by architects. Thus, this project proposes an small outdoor playground next to the children’s centre. The playground will be a space for children to socialize with each other, improve their communication abilities and learn from daily life.

Regarding structure, there are two general types of children’s centres: clustered and centralized.

Basic functions such as the canteen, classrooms, a music/painting room, reading room and staff offices provide children and staff with basic education, living services and space to work.

These rooms can be organized into liner type, courtyard, clustered, symmetric70. Besides, in the village, a computer room will be necessary to receive remote teaching from other universities in the future.

Regarding construction materials, an interview with local children revealed a preference for natural environments; therefore, the architecture students can use local mud and timber.

4. Community centre The community centre is the core of the rural community. It provides space for a variety of daily activities, encompassing all villagers who fill various roles in the district. It is a lesson in resourcefulness. (imiage 4.20) Therefore, the new community centre is proposed as a multidisciplinary learning and working space for all students and villagers. It will accommodate diverse preferences for social activities. It will encourage the exploration of modern cultures and will bring people together in the open lecture hall for formal and informal classes, jury, lectures, story-telling and films

Chapter 4

70. Chinese Architectural Association Reference. Part 4.

Chapter 2. 2010.

71. Yuan Xinping. The Perspective of Stage Culture in Southern China. Pub., Wuhan University. 2007. image 4.20 rendering: crit between the students' group leader and their clients.

117

118

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

based on the traditional “stage culture.” 71 From the perspective of spatial planning, the centre is proposed to include different functions and spaces with a variety of normal layouts. For example, the cooperative weaving workshop can use the large area of the open classroom, which will be liner or courtyard type.72 The changeable spaces will be for the elderly and female villagers to play majiong and chess. Therefore, different spatial types will create opportunities for different types of communication and social and economic activities.

5.Extended courtyard housing/rooms 1. For stay-at-home women The first set of housing is intended for stay-at-home women who work in farming and take care of their children. The layout has been informed by an analysis of village family life (e.g. women sharing childcare responsibilities among relatives and neighbours). Courtyard housing will be arranged like a dumbbell, will living spaces on both sides of a central courtyard and kitchen for raising the children as a collective; or played in pararell; or in cluster type; the layout and the size of the courtyard should based on local housing spatial relationship.

2. For local craftsmen, farmers and handicraft activities The courtyard can be a cooperative space for craftsman and handicrafts activities, inspired by the courtyard economy. The extended courtyard can be collectivized by 2-4 households based on geometrical conditions and the villagers’ preferences. For the local craftsmen, the extended courtyard is a space for architectural students and volunteers to study basic construction skills. At the same time, the extended courtyard can be used for handicraft activities such as cooperative basket weaving between children, volunteers, and art students. Finally, it can be a space for testing fields and modern farming workshops, as preferred by the local farmers.

3. For micro businessmen For micro businessmen who mainly operate small businesses such as internet businesses and restaurants, the extended courtyard can provide space for storage, offices, and/or retail.

Informed by an analysis of the locals’ needs, the courtyard housing is designed to transform into a vertical mixed-use or horizontal mixed-use space. Since micro businesses are usually self-managed, they will be operated by the household and/or private investors once the construction process is finished collectively by students and clients.

4. For students/staff The university students and staff already bought/rented the courtyard housing from local households and transformed it into a home for the architectural studio’s professors and participants in the period program. An extension at the back of the house is providing an eatin kitchen and communal courtyard and offers “a pretty view out back with the lotus pond/ farmland to the east.”

Chapter 4

72. From the case stidies of term 2, the liner type provide students with knowledge communication effectivly; and the courtyard housing type could provide informal activities from different forms of educational activties.

119

0

1

5m

public space

learning space

living space (household) sharing canteen/kitchen

Farmers' workshop:

commercial space roof

public space

The farmers' workshop is going to built for local farmers, who want to increase the land value of courtyard housing, and cultivating experiment field under the support of agricultural students. The workshop (plants weaving part) is going to attract tourists/ volunteers at the same time.

workshop household's living space sharing space (kitchen/ stores) commercial space

120

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

N 0

1

5m

Coworking workshop:

public space

The coworking workshop could extend the courtyard of household housing as preferences, students help local to linking different families to (usually 2-4 households) to form a bigg courtyard to coworking, such as farming, weaving. The scale of the coworking courtyard based on the real distance between two families.

workshop living space sharing space (kitchen/ stores) commercial space

Chapter 1

121

N 0

1

5m

Children's centre:

public space recreational /educational spaces public kitchen sharing space (stores)

The children's centre involved in 50-60 left-behind children in the district. The community centre could be liner type or cluster type based on the physical condition. Educational and recreastional spaces are proposed in a way to increase the childrens' social skills and educational knowledge. The living space on the side is proposed for exprimental students or potential local teacher in the future.

living space (staff)

122

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

0

1

5m

Weaving workshop

public space workshop

The weaving workshop is primarily proposed for local stay-home woman, for who want to redefine their daily works. The courtyard can be combined together and used for daily handicrafts activities such as lotus weaving, basket weaving. Besides, the central kitchen is used for cooking for each other to help reduce each others' daily works. (eg. looking after children)

public kitchen/ stores sharing space (stores)

Chapter 4

123

N 0

1

5m

Privete developers

public space workshop weaving dormitory commercial space

124

Inside Wanxiu village, there are 5 private developers, who is running poor restaurants businesses. Therefore, the pure eating space is proposed to shift to multipul commercial spaces. For example, tea house for the elderly, dormitory for students/ volunteers/tourists. Besides, the canteen still run but under the support of open workshop behind it, the workshop could be spaces for agricultural students to discuss the redefined cusine and organic food, weaving students, training local villagers and student.

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

0

1

5m

Entrance stage

public space (stage/market) open classroom commercial space

Chapter 4

The entrance stage is proposed for future if there is a increasing population inside the village. The multi-functional spaca is proposed for different functions such as open lecture, market, performance, as well as community spaces for the elderly to play mojiong and chess.

125

N

0

5

20m

lotus pond road courtyard open-air stage/ female community centre square

image 4.21

126

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

Partition into village zones As previously stated, the village has three significant spaces: the entrance, the centre and the fringes. This part focuses on the specific typological transformation of these three zones.

Entrance of the village This space is essential for communication via transportation (rural road) between the Wanxiu village, the city and the fragmented surrounding villages. The entrance also features a stage with a classroom, a large lotus pond and spots for crops pick-ups. These elements are attractive to tourists, but this comes at an unfortunate cost to the marginalised farmers—the lotus pond was natural wetland before, but now is destroying local lake environments. Furthermore, restaurants and Nongjiale tourism spaces are not efficient for sustainable development and lead to “closed infrastructures.”73 The proposal for the entrance is inspired by both students and villagers’ social and cultural habitats. Their enjoyment of diverse social activities at the entrance has inspired the courtyard economy as a way to refine the socio-economic significance.

I proposed a “courtyard economy” housing model to support local farmers and students employed for the cultivation of crops/lotus and organic foods. The courtyard and liner markets will have workshops next to the village gate and bus stop for the exchange of knowledge and food with the Wanxiu village, surrounding villages and urban food companies.

Regarding the existing education infrastructures (stage and classroom), I proposed to transform the stage into a children’s nursery for left-behind children throughout the whole district behind the stage. In the nursery, they could be taught and cared for by volunteers/ students when their parents were working. The open-air stage and open square in front can serve as a space for children’s performances, self-organised informal activities and education such as an exhibition or occasional festival. The open square enclosed by infrastructure also may be an appropriate outdoor space for the elderly to play chess, drinking tea and talk with students about their living feelings and needs.

Chapter 4

73. Li Zhihong. The Fabrics of Culture Tourism in rural China. source: www.baisuacademy. edu. cn. Pub., 2012. image 4.21 the current plan of Wanxiu village.

127

N

0

5

20m

image 4.22

131

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

Centre of the village This is the most important social and gathering space for the Wanxiu village socially, culturally and politically. Within the existing centre, there is currently a community centre and office building for left-over party members. Given the proximity of the adjacent farmland, these buildings are suitable for co-working and learn-by-doing spaces for multi-programs students.

I proposed to outfit the courtyard testing fields with a solar system and to create several farming projects for the exploration of organic foods. Furthermore, the playground next to the primary school across from the field would be constructed and used by architecture and psychology students to provide both physically and mentally-healthy spaces for stay-at-home women and children. Around the central farming courtyard, apart from the renovated coworking courtyard housing for farmers and weaving/organic food workers; Between the learn-by-doing spaces, other spaces will accommodate different groups and facilitate communication through, for example, a computer centre, store house, filming spaces or hostel. These structures and uses are crucial for redefining and achieving sociospatial and socio-economic values in this rural area.

image 4.22 the current plan of the centre of the village

Chapter 4

132

133

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaa

Chapter 1

134

image 1.01

­ ­ ² ² ² ²

135

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

Fringes of the village The fringes have large areas of woodland and wetland, and it also connects to the highway.

The rich natural resources and transportation inspired me to propose the fringe for mass food/crop production and a trade centre. Also, the historic remains in the fringe would be a suitable space for phase I students/staff/craftsmen to study materials and construction practices.

Chapter 4

image 4.23 the current plan of the fringe of the village

136

137

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaa

Chapter 1

138

139

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

In conclusion, the university should first reverse the participation role from perspective to mediator in the rural revitalization process. University should not establish new spaces based on the general understanding of sannong problem. However, university students and staff need to long-term participation and effectively use the funding/donation from other ageencies (government, urban companies). Students need to communicate with locals, and collectively participate with villagers, therefore, students could establish the new building/housing via the new mode of economy, living habitats, agricultural mode and possibilities, low-tech, selfbuilding, low-income in every specific village.

Chapter 4

140

141

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

Appendix

142

143

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

Annex Courtyard housing: a socio-spatial and socio-economic family living type

With the comprehensive promotion of Chinese housing product policy, "commercialization" and "industrialization" are the inevitable trend of rural housing construction. Unlike the homogeneous urban residential space with private functions, rural residential space is closely related to agricultural production and rural life characteristics. Also, household types and residential needs are increasingly heterogeneous in the process of social differentiation, so the rural residential space develops in the direction of differentiation. For example, some new rural residential construction projects eliminated the scattered houses and curved streets in traditional villages with the orderly and uniform housing pattern of farmers. The facts then turn the diverse community space into a single linear space and creating a historical and cultural fault in the evolution of village texture.

Based on the research of the rural residential space differentiation phenomenon, discusses its differentiation to form a variety of spatial pattern of village space form, and when combined with the feature of the urbanization of rural community, the township village settlements space and community space reconstruction, and put forward if dry rural residential construction train of thought, for rural residential planning and community planning service, preliminary Suggestions are put forward.

annex

144

image 5.01

145

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

The form of urbanization in rural areas is the centralized planning for the decentralized rural society, and its connotation is that rural areas change from traditional agricultural society to industrial society, to develop the original pure society of native villages into diversified modern villages. The complex internal stimulation of housing demand and the external driving force of social stratification has become the driving force for the adaptive differentiation of rural houses in the space, which is reflected in the demand and value evaluation of different functional Spaces by farmers in the residential space. (image 5.01) Stratification of rural society As the industrial structure of the rural community continues to shift to the coordinated development of agriculture, industry, and commerce, the rural social structure's differentiation has become more and more apparent. Social stratification is one of the manifestations of rural social differentiation; that is, farmers are no longer a homogeneous group1. For example, farmers may participate in specialized planting and agricultural mechanization production in various ways of cooperation, or their sources of livelihood only depend on labor export, or they may become private business owners and so on. The closer the village is to the city in space, the more obvious the social stratification is. Even in the traditional agricultural production in rural exurbs (50~150km away from urban areas), farmers will use the original land resources to carry out projects of featured agriculture and tourism in different degrees.

There are differences and gaps between different types of peasant households in production mode, action content, and method, as well as the economic and cultural resources they possess. The resulting value tendency will directly affect the choice of residential space by the subject of residential behavior. Despite the current rural land approval, land property rights system is not perfect. The rural land circulation and rural housing registration policy reforms are not career prospects of types of villagers and urban residents. According to all the family life cycle changes timely, choose residence for the rural residential space differentiation to provide more reliable support.(image 5.02) Differentiation of residential demand The selection of residential space by peasant households is realized when evaluating the utility of current residential space and the demand for future residential space. It is carried out within the scope of heterogeneous and non-static space and conscious behavior under a particular mode of production, namely seeking the maximization2 of benefits of human settlements.

For example, farming families mainly consider workspace with persistence and space resources sharing. Multiple occupations and non-agricultural development-oriented family residential demand are more complex, focusing more on keeping the neighborhood with a close relationship. Farmers living demand is the more remote villages has the characteristics of differentiation. To explore the personality difference of residential demand, the production, and living of farmers and cultural value based on the family. From the leading professional, farmers can be divided into nine types3, by comparing their mode of production, income,

annex

1 Li Zhenyu, Zhou Jingmin. Research on the design and construction standards of rural housing planning with different regional characteristics [M]. Beijing: China Construction Industry Press. 2013.

Li Zhenyu, Zhou Jingmin. Research on Standards of Rural Housing Planning and Construction for Regional Differences in China [M]. Beijing: China Architecture & Building Press, 2013.

2 Wang Xingping, Tu Zhihua, Rong Yiling. A Preliminary Study on the Transformation of Spatial and Planning of Rural Villages in Southern Jiangsu Driven by Reform [J].

Urban Planning, 2011, 35 (5): 56-61 Wang Xingping, Tu Zhihua, Rong Yiling. Transformation of Rural Space and Planning Driven by the Reform in Southern Jiangsu [J]. City Planning Review, 2011, 35 (5): 56-61.

3 Chinese Society for Urban Scientific Research. China Small Towns and Villages Construction and Development Report 2010 [M]. Beijing: China City Press, 2012. Chinese Society for Urban Studies. Report on the Development of Small Towns and Villages in China 2010 [M] . Beijing: China City Press, 2012.

146

image 5.02

147

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

economic level differences, tease out all kinds of families living requirements. (image 5.03) Differentiation mechanism of rural residential space The allocation of various functional space elements in terms of quantity, layout, and scale constitutes the residential space system5. The differentiation of residential space is a dynamic process, in which a single space is gradually divided into multiple spaces with different functions and forms. Due to the increase of production, life content, and spiritual content, and the spatial configuration is constantly adjusted to adapt to the changes in living requirements and increase habitability. The result of differentiation is the house becomes more apparent that the old space gradually disintegrates or disappears, the new space is born, the recombination and the change in proportion between the Spaces occur, etc., and the functional space becomes purified and orderly from compatibility and mixing. For example, the residential space system's storage space can differentiate into the storage space of agricultural materials and living materials. In contrast, the storage space of grain can be replaced by way of "saving money to saving grain" in the home of non-professional farmers.

Industrial and commercial space, sideline space, cultural entertainment space, or green space only for the purpose of observation and appreciation are constantly differentiated, and they participate in the configuration of residential space to enrich the residential space types.

To reveal the differentiation mechanism of rural residential space, this paper classifies the housing needs of rural households into three levels: the basic needs, common needs, and individual needs for housing. It lists some functional Spaces (spatial structure elements) corresponding to the three needs. The individual needs are based on the basic and common needs of different family types, and the matching functional space reflects the pursuit of convenience and comfort of their own production and lifestyle.

Trend of spatial differentiation of rural residential buildings - with the increase of the household area and the continuous improvement of living quality, some Spaces (kitchen room, dining room, bedroom, parking space, etc.) involved in the living process tend to be independent.

- under the influence of urbanization, to facilitate unified management, economize on land use or create the sense of belonging of village community, the sideline business space and entertainment space in the original rural residential buildings are separated from the residential buildings and centrally planned as the public building space in the village.

- As rural communities' production and operation become more and more professional, some traditional family function Spaces (such as feeding space, storage space, etc.) are gradually disappearing. For example, livestock tends to be concentrated in commercial breeding.

- in order to adapt to the continuous opening of the countryside and the enhancement of population mobility, the functional space of the house is more flexible and sophisticated in organization and layout, and no longer rigidly adhere to the traditional space division, the combination of space opening method and courtyard, etc.6. The functional space that meets

4 Huang Ping. Rural China and Cultural Consciousness [M]. Beijing: Sanlianshu Shop, 2007.

Huang Ping. Local China and Cultural Consciousness [M].

Beijing: SDX Joint Publishing Company, 2007.

5 Qiao Jiajun. Space Theory of Chinese Rural Communities [M]. Beijing: Science Press, 2011.

Qiao Jiajun. The Theory of Space in Rural Community [M].

Beijing: Science Press, 2011.

6 Peng Dapeng, Wu Yi. One-dimensional rural areas: rural society in transition An Exploration of Nature [M]. Wuhan: Hubei People ’s Publishing House, 2008. Peng Dapeng, Wu Yi. One Dimensional Rural Area: An Exploration on the Rural Social Nature in the Transition [M]. Wuhan: Hubei People ’s Press, 2008 .

the new demand is continuously differentiated and generated, and a rich residential space

annex

148

image 5.03 (01)

149

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

pattern is constructed. due to the unique characteristics of rural circular economy and the identification of rural landscapes, courtyards will still be the main structural elements of rural living space. However, the production function of courtyards is gradually weakened, and the use of courtyard space is more inclined to ornamental and leisure.

The spatial pattern of rural residence based on spatial differentiation The residential spatial pattern is a spatial system of specific functional Spaces and combined forms. The differentiation of space increases the variables of residential space configuration, which lays the foundation for the richness of the residential space pattern. Based on the relationship between function and form, the exploration of the spatial pattern of rural residence is a long-term process of integrating functional space with the old and new needs of farmers.7 It is reflected in the architectural design that farmers gradually transform the residential space for the purpose of utility, including screening, matching, and combination design of spatial structure elements. For example, in the current rural areas, the accumulation of farmers in the process of self-construction. There have been residential space patterns, such as living on the lower garage and in the farmhouse apartment-style, villa-style, and so on.88 Based on the trend of rural urbanization, different spatial structure elements are matched with the type of farmers; the spatial layout is organized, and the location is selected, forming the spatial pattern of rural residence with different characteristics. (image 5.03)

7 Wang Chunguang. A new understanding of rural development and the burden of farmers [J]. Bulletin of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 2008, 6 (2): 1-2.

Wang Chunguang. Recognition of Rural Development and Farmers ’Burden [J]. Journal of Social Sciences in China, 2008, 6 (2): 1-2.

8 Xu Leiqing, Yang Gongxia. Environmental Psychology [M]. Shanghai: Tongji University Press, 2002.

Xu Leiqing, Yang Gongxia. Environmental Psychology [M]. Shanghai: Tongji University Press, 2002.

annex

150

image 5.03 (02)

151

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

image 5.03 (03)

annex

152

153

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

Bibliography

154

155

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

Bibliography

Primary sources: 1. Qu Shipei. (2006). The Development of Chinese Education. Beijing: Peking Univerisity Publishing.

2. Li Zhihong. (2009). University and Urban Interaction Research. Jinan: Shandong University Publishing.

3. David Bray. (2005). Social Space and Governance in Urban China – The Danwei System from Origins to Reform. New York: Stanford University Press.

4. He Jingtang. (2006). Contemporary University Design and Planning in China. Beijing: Chinese Architectural and Industrial Publishing.

5. Chen Xiaotian, Ren Lei. (2011). Morphology in Chinese Universities. Beijing: Peking University Publishing.

6. Richard P Dober. (1992). Campus Design. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

7. Richard P Dober. (1963). Campus Planning. London: Reinhold Publishing Corporation.

8. Zhang Kairuan. (1998). The Social Transition and the University. Nanjing: Nanjing University Publishing.

9. Zhang Hongyan. (2000). Intervention and Replace - Argument about the Chinase Social Transition. Nanjing: Dongnan University Publishing.

10. Zhou Xia. (2005). Urban Development in Guangzhou. Beijing: Chinese Architectural and Industrial Publishing.

11. Shen Guoyao, Sun Wanwen. 2006. Some thoughts of Chinese campus. “Journal of Urban Architecture”, 6.

12. Ren Guoyan. 2000. the student housing of Xiamen Univeristy. “Journal of Urban Planning”, 9.

13. Yun Xinping. Li Yifei. Revitalization in Wanxiu village, Liangzihu district. source: www. wust. edu. cn.

14. Hok Bun Ku, Angelina W. K. Yuan-Tsang and Hsiao Chun Liu . Triple Capacity Building as Critical Pedagogy: A Rural Social Work Practicum in China. 2009.

15. Yang Guiqing. the Rural Revitazation in Huangyan . Pub., Tongji Unievrsity. pp124.

2018.

16. Li Zhenyu, Zhou Jingmin. Research on Standards of Rural Housing Planning and Construction for Regional Differences in China[M]. Beijing: China Architecture & Building Press, 2013.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

156

Secondary sources: 1.

Li Zhenyu, Zhou Jingmin. Research on Standards of Rural Housing Planning and

Construction for Regional Differences in China[M]. Beijing: China Architecture & Building Press, 2013.

2.

Wang Xingping, Tu Zhihua, Rong Yiling. Transformation of Rural Space and

Planning Driven by the Reform in Southern Jiangsu[J]. City Planning Review, 2011, 35(5): 56-61.

3.

Chinese Society for Urban Studies. Report on the Development of Small Towns

and Villages in China 2010[M]. Beijing: China City Press, 2012.

4.

Huang Ping. Local China and Cultural Consciousness[M]. Beijing: SDX Joint

Publishing Company, 2007.

5.

Qiao Jiajun. The Theory of Space in Rural Community[M]. Beijing: Science Press,

2011.

6.

Peng Dapeng, Wu Yi. One Dimensional Rural Area: An Exploration on the Rural

Social Nature in the Transition[M]. Wuhan: Hubei People’s Press, 2008.

7.

Wang Chunguang. Recognition of Rural Development and Farmers’ Burden[J].

Journal of Social Sciences in China, 2008, 6(2): 1-2.

8.

Xu Leiqing, Yang Gongxia. Environmental Psychology[M]. Shanghai: Tongji

University Press, 2002.

9.

Cui Ming, Qin Zhihao, Tang Chong. Categorization and Mode Study of New

Village Construction in China[J].City Planning Review, 2006, 35(5): 56-61.

10.

Liu Senlin. The Analysis of Traditional Residential Architecture[M]. Shanghai:

Tongji University Press, 2009.

11.

Luo Zhongzhao, Chen Chaoyan, Fu Guoming. Exploration on Ideas for How to

Reside: Architectural Design[M]. Beijing: China Forestry Publishing House, 2012.

12.

Gu Fei. The Research of Typology in Residential Design[J]. Architectural Journal,

2005(4): 11-14.

13.

Katz P. The New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community[M]. New

York:McGraw-Hill，1994.

14.

Li Jun. The Study on Spatial Evolvement and Location Selection of Rural

Household’s Residence[M]. Beijing: Science Press, 2012.

157

Educational intervention & rural revitalization in China

bibliography

158