Beautiful Villages

Beautiful Villages Rural Construction Practice in Contemporary China

Foreword

During the rapid urbanization of China in the last 20 to 30 years, rural areas have experienced a relatively slow development and even some negative impact brought by urbanization, such as a damaged ecological environment, low economic benefits from agricultural production, hollowing out of social fabric, and other problems. How to create new forms of sustainable development in rural areas has become a grim task in the urban and rural construction of contemporary China. Therefore, rural construction turns again into a common hot topic in economic, social, industrial and political aspects.

Undoubtedly, ‘rural construction’ is a word that has turned up with increasing frequency within the architectural industry in recent years. More than a few architects are entering the countryside to finish their studies and participate in rural construction. To be exact, architects have taken part in the creation of new rural spaces. Such practices in rural construction have changed rural physical landscape and have created new breakthroughs.

The intricate relationship between the urban and the rural throughout Chinese history has made rural areas not only a production base of agricultural products, but also a carrier of Chinese traditional farming culture to some extent. Therefore, architects, with their technical expertise, blend together the natural environment, culture, production, and everyday life of rural areas. They have laid emphasis on carrying on and developing traditional culture as well as reshaping rural social relations. Meanwhile, due to the global

flow of capital, changes in industrialization brought on by technological innovations, and the introduction of new economic models in rural areas, no rural areas in contemporary China have many new possibilities for rural construction. This not only means diversification of physical spatial functions and spatial types, but also indicates new ways for villagers to work with architects in creating spaces. The rural design practices of architects are presented in a diversified and localized way. Moreover, they also imply deep participation in carrying on and reconstructing contemporary rural industrial transformation. Social space and cultural context thus have anadded sense of social responsibility. The participation in sociological sense can, to a certain extent, highlights the influence of a regional thinking in the change from rural reconstruction to rural rejuvenation.

The architectural practices of architects in contemporary Chinese rural construction have not only done reconstruction of spatial environment, but also have innovated upon the concept of rural construction and inspired reflection on rural issues.

What is happening is not merely a brief wave of construction, but what has already become an economic, social and cultural phenomenon.

Exploring this phenomenon is the core of this book.

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I

Vernacular Architecture in Contemporary Rural Construction

In such a vast agricultural country like China, villages were once the most important production bases, and the majority of the population lived in rural areas.

The environment, modes of production, and social structure of rural areas remained relatively stable and sustained slow growth for a very long time. In 1920s and 1930s, along with the development of industries and modern cities, traditional urban-rural relations in China gradually grew out of balance, with the rural areas weakening or even declining. Since then, rural construction experiments in different forms successively emerged. From 1949 to the Cultural Revolution to the economic reforms within China during the 1980s, rural construction has undergone several significant changes.

Today, to face the crisis and challenges brought about by quick urbanization, rural construction comes back to a view of people. In reality, the discussion on today’s rural construction in China shall be put against the backdrop of the global flow of capital, the urban-rural relationship unique to China, adjustment of industrial-agricultural relations, and urbanization.

The discussion shall be always centered on urbanrural and industrial-agricultural relations, which can be seen from the changes of policies formulated by the Chinese government. In particular, rural construction during the 40 years after the economic opening-up of China, in fact, echoed the development of urbanization in contemporary China. Rural construction in this period is closely related with agricultural reconstruction in rural areas, economic growth, reconstruction of social organizations, reshaping of rural environment, and rebuilding of the relationship between urban and rural.

By 2016, the total population of villages and towns had reached 958 million, 79.67 percentage of which, namely 763 million, are under village household registration. The total investment in construction

of villages and towns was 1590.8 billion RMB, 52.3 percentage of which, namely 832.1 billion RMB, were distributed to villages. The investment in housing construction for villages and towns was 1188.2 billion RMB, taking up 74.7 percentage of the total, and the overall completed construction area was up to 261,931 acres (10,600 hectares) [1]. This data is enough to show that a huge amount of capital has flowed into rural areas, where it has become a hot area for development in contemporary China. In recent years, accompanying the changes brought from land reform policies, the transformation of rural production, as well as post-disaster reconstruction, more and more architects, planners and designers are going to the countryside and taking part in rural construction projects. Therefore, Professor Wen Tiejun, an expert on agriculture and rural areas, prefers to call today’s rural construction campaign as a ‘new rural construction or rural reconstruction,’ [2] which more or less embraces ideas of rural rejuvenation.

This trend of architects working on rural construction projects has revealed a number of thing worth discussing. First, such efforts from architects working in the countryside cannot be simply equated with rural construction, but are rather a part of a complex system of it, forming integral function in the construction of rural spaces[3]. They carry out varied explorations, such as building physical spaces connecting the past with the present and future, developing new means of developing traditional culture, as well as finding ways to reshape rural social relations. In the meantime, technological changes in rural area, such as the internet and the sharing economy will bring to rural areas new modes of living and create new possibilities for rural construction. This cannot be only interpreted as a diversification of material and spatial types, but also entails new ways of participation for villagers with architects at multiple layers.

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[1] Statistic figures are quoted from Statistic Communique on 2016 Urban and Rural Construction issued on August 22, 2017. Please refer to the website of Ministry Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People’s Republic of China.

[2] Wang Weiqiang. From Rural Reconstruction to Ecological Civilization, a Dialogue with Prof.

Wen Tiejun [J]. Time+Architecture, 2015(03): 11.

[3] Xiao Tangbiao has expounded on the birth of the term of “rural construction” and the evolution of its meaning in Rural Construction: Conceptual Analysis and Recent Study and mentioned rural construction that refers to “architectural events”.

He thinks the term of “rural construction” in 1980s has acquired a meaning different from that what in the Republican period when it was understood as “architectural activities”, but he also points out that it is one-sided to simply identify “rural construction” with a kind of architectural event. Refer to: Xiao Tangbiao. Rural Construction: Conceptual Analysis and Recent Study [J]. Qiushi, 2004(01): 89.

Professor Wen Tiejun and several other scholars have mentioned that there are different leading forces in rural construction, such as government agencies, social organizations, and farmers themselves.

Therefore, there exist different processes of development— top-down, bottom-up, and enlisting the help of a third-party [4]. In this round of rural construction, planners, architects, and designers play professional and technical roles in this process, revealing their deep thoughts on urban-rural relations and land usage. These issues each deserve their own attention.

Today’s countryside is different from that in the past.

Today’s urban-rural relations have also changed.

Such differences lead to the changes of the concept of vernacular. A scholar once pointed out that contemporary China has entered a ‘post-vernacular’ age. Architects attempt to integrate the design’s original vernacular features into rural construction projects. However, this raises several tricky questions.

What exactly is ‘vernacular’? Are the architects’ vernacular images same as those of the locals? Also, how can non-local architects even decide what is the vernacular in the first place?

On the other hand, the Chinese countryside conjures up feelings of nostalgia within the country’s cultural context. In contrast to Chinese urban development, which has grown dramatically over the past several years, there is a sense that the Chinese countryside is gradually fading away, especially in a cultural sense. With this in mind, rejuvenating rural areas not only provides new avenues for development, but also rekindles the nostalgic images of the idyllic Chinese countryside.

[4] Wang Weiqiang. From Rural Reconstruction to Ecological Civilization, a Dialogue with Prof.

Wen Tiejun [J]. Time+Architecture, 2015(03): 12.

Opposite: Brown Sugar Workshop©Wang Ziling

Architects and designers’ efforts to introduce art to the countryside have come into the spotlight during this round of rural construction. They have carried out local practices with different approaches and have made valuable contributions in improving rural infrastructure, enriching the rural landscape, and transforming rural industries and social relations.

The development from rural reconstruction to rural rejuvenation concerns not only simple design questions, but also social topics that cover economic, industrial, cultural and social organizational aspects.

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It is a responsibility that in this latest wave of construction is largely taken up by architects.

Their efforts go beyond the scope of their profession and reveal a true desire for social cooperation and reflection.

It is said that today’ vast countryside has become a new experimental field for architects. It would be more apt to say that the countryside has become a classroom for teaching vernacular construction to them.

Community Pavilion in Jintao Village

Location: Dayu Village, Jiading, Shanghai Function: Activity center Site area: 13,653 square feet (1260 square meters) Building area: 2519 square feet (234 square meters) Design company: Scenic Architecture Office Chief designer: Zhu Xiaofeng, Ding Penghua Completion: 2011 Photography: Zhu Xiaofeng, Su Shengliang

Site plan

01 Exterior view of east façade 02 South entrance

The project of Community Pavilion of Jintao Village, for a village consisting of farmland, rivers, and farmhouses, is already a new landscape due to its own architectural form.

However, what is most interesting is that it is born from the political idea of a ‘new socialist countryside.’ It is one more new practice of architects who have done a lot of work with this idea.

—Zhu Xiaofeng

[15]

The site is seated at a clearing beside Sancha River in the village. The architects designed the activity room into an irregular hexagonal volume encircling a small inner courtyard. The six walls radiating from the center divide the hexagon into six spaces: three enclosed interior spaces and three semi-enclosed door opening spaces. The six spaces cross with each other, while the door openings, which are something between interior and exterior spaces, connect the inside and outside of the courtyard, breaking the strong sense of centrality with thef hexagon rings.

The architects chose black bricks, gray tiles, wood grilles and other similar material widely seen in the

village. Though a hexagonal volume is not typical in villages south of the Yangtze River and thus stands out in the village, because of the structure, siting, and layout, the building nevertheless seems familiar to villagers. “the architect sees the six spaces in a whole as a flexible spatial structure. In view of its surrounding, this flexibility seems like an expression of the free and pleasant rural life. But in the opinion of the architect, the flexibility and ambiguity of spatial experience are also important parts of modern urban life. The activity center has borrowed from local construction techniques, in construction, but its spatial structure could be abstracted into an prototype-like experiment. From today on, the prototype that resembles a landscape-collector could be presented in other construction ways in another region.” [15] [15] Zhu Xiaofeng, Ding Penghua. Recreation Room for Villagers in Jintao Village [J]. Architectural Journal, 2013(01): 66.

Plan

01

100

02

101

03 East entrance 04 Skylight

03

102

Models

04

103

05

05 Drama stage

Section

104

06

06 Exhibition space

07

07 Reading room

105

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15 Exterior of house

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16 Makeshift rainwater channel

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IV 242

Architectural Projects Versus Events

There are some phenomenal practices worthy of discussion beyond the dazzling rural construction cases built by architects, namelythe construction, rejuvenation, and integrated preservation of whole villages in rural areas. The reconstruction of whole villages focuses not only on transforming the physical space of villages, but also on the exploration of combining new economic and management systems. These can be considered ‘artistic events.,’ many of which shall be discussed in greater detail in this section.

In the rural construction sites of villages, one can see active artists and architects. As outsiders, their thinking and intervention are not limited to their own profession, but they also focus on the relationship between themselves and rural development .

All these rural construction events, whether successful or not, are trying unusual paths of reconstructing rural life and culture. They have exerted a profound and lasting influence and have stimulated many discussion.

1. Intervention of Artists and Art Exhibitions Bishan Plan—a ‘Rural Utopia’ of Intellectuals and Artists Bishan is a village with a population of over 2900 in Yi county which is a center forof Hui culture and a major location for Hui businessmen in southern Anhui province. Like other villages in China, a lagging economy and unpleasant living conditions have exacerbated the drain of population. Today, the village has more than 100 ancient famous residential houses and ancestral halls in good condition from the Ming and Qing dynastiesg. Thanks to the Bishan Plan, Bishan village has grown from an unknown little

village into a renowned experimental base of rural rejuvenation construction with art intervention.

Ou Ning and Zuo Jing, the founders of Bishan Plan, hoped to build, together with local villagers, a ‘Bishan commune’ for collective life by encouraging intellectuals to return to the countryside. Ou Ning once expanded on the name and pointed out that a ‘commune’ underlines the relationship between the people. The idealized Chinese name describes a vision that outsiders and local villagers live on the same land and develop together [19]. In 2011, Bishan Plan formally began. It was a new system of rural construction that integrates land development, tourism, environmental and historical protection, architecture teaching, organic agriculture, and other aspects.

According to the Bishan Plan, the key of rural construction was not reconstruction of physical spaces, but a series of public events based on researching the local rural culture. Artists, architects, and other outsiders, together with local villagers, took part in these public activities, which included cultural events, rural fairs, and rural construction.

The most important of these events was The One Hundred Handicrafts of Yi County and Bishan Harvest Festival. In the first program, the artists researched the traditional handicrafts of Yi county, including interviewing craftsmen, taking photos, and then used this information to build a database on the local art.

They also presented their findings with pictures and videos. At the same time, they invited designers, architects and artists from all over China to work with local artisans in the hope that create works with rich vitality by combining modern design ideas and concepts with local traditional techniques, and thus to promote traditional craftsmanship and rural economy.

Today, the One Hundred Handicrafts of Yi County have already been compiled into a book. The Bishan Havest Festival was designed to recover and rebuild

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[19] Ou Ning. A Case Study on the Bishan Commune: The Possibility of Utopian Practices [J]. New Architecture, 2015(01): 17-18.

part of rural public life by recovering an ancient ceremony and giving it new content. In this program, villagers in primitive straw clothes perform sacrificial dances while famous poets are invited to read poems and literature for local children in the ancestral hall.

With the intervention of artists, the spatial functions of some historical buildings in Bishan village had been updated: the old neglected ancestral hall was rebuilt into a public space with a bookstore and a cafe; the temporary place built for bullfrog breeding was reconstructed into ‘WOW Houses,’ which became an art space for experimental exploration.

The Bishan Bookstore is a rural bookstore started by Pioneer Bookstore because of the beautiful natural environment and cultural resources of Bishan village offers as well as the incentives provided by the local government for creating bookstores. The bookstore aims to build the local culture and promote education through reading events with books about the history and culture of Huizhou and other topics. In Bishan plan, all art event and building reconstruction are localized rural experiments. This series of art practice were intended to protect traditional Huizhou culture.

Ou Ning wanted in Bishan Plan for both outsiders and local villagers take participate in and protect rural traditions, collectively rejuvenating the village community. In 2014, Miss Zhou Yun of Harvard University raised concerns the Bishan Plan, doubting whether the plan belonged to the villagers or to outsiders.[20] Since 2015, the Plan has gained no new progress and has basically stopped.

[20] Paper Warfare on Bishan Plan between Harvard Doctorate Receiver Zhou Yun and Curator Ou Ning, refer to Guancha webpage: http://www.guancha.cn/ culture/2014_07_06_244166.shtml, 2014-07-06.

[21] Qu Yan. Xu Village-the

Chinese Site of Artistic Rural Reconstruction [J].

Time+Architecture, 2015(03): 46-47.

[22] Refer to 21.

The utopian plan of Ou Ning did not to fruition in the end, but it did invoked deep debate on the question on who has control over the rural construction process.

Consequently, the project may be representative of difficulties faced in many contemporary rural rejuvenation projects across China.

Xu Village Experiment—Promoting Village Rejuvenation by Art Xu village, located in Shanxi province and hidden in Tai-hang Mountains, has over 2000 years of history and a beautiful and quiet landscape. Houses from the Ming and Qing dynasties are the few clues to the village’s history. Due to its poor transportation and

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lagging economy, the village was once mocked as ‘having nothing but a long history.’ Yet, for the same reason, the village’s traditions remained relatively intact. However, like other traditional villages, it was reduced to a impoverished village with crumbling buildings, meager farming, and many young adults working outside.

The artist, Qu Yan, decided to take Xu village as a model for rescuing ancient villages through a series of projectto preserve and reconstruct the area. He suggested measures for saving historical relics.

He also planned to update the living conditions and find other opportunities for the villagers, providing a perfect and workable approach for both improving the life of farmers and the living environment as well as protecting traditional rural houses and historical relics [21].

Specifically, Qu Yan begun with recovery of architecture. He first talked with leaders and residents of the village, then formulated measures for the restoration and protection of Ming and Qingera streets and buildings. He chose several studios for the restoration experiment. With two years of renovation and constant improvement, the Xu Village International Art Commune was completed in an old film and television studio, made up of offices, apartments, a library, a conference center, a reception area, and more— all built around a giant public square, integrating modern functions and life into old building spaces by simply restoring the interiors and reinforcing the structures . Periodically held art events like the Xu Village Art Festival and the Xu Village Forums bring external artists to Xu Village, enabling cross-pollination of ideas with external and local artists . As such, the project seeks to revitalize the area through artistic events. This experiment has already been underway for several years, and the ancient village deep in mountains has already attracted wide attention as well as many visitors.

More importantly, its environment has been improved, bringing back many young people who were working in cities [22].

‘Home reconstruction,’ besides art and intervention, may be another important concept for the ongoing Xu village artistic project . What Qu Yan wanted to rebuild

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Title: Beautiful Villages: Rural Construction Practice in Contemporary China Author: Zhang Xiaochun (Ed.) ISBN: 9781864707984 Production manager | Group art director: Nicole Boehringer Senior editor: Gina Tsarouhas Assisting editor: Benjamin Sepsenwol Printed by Everbest Printing Investment Limited, in Hong Kong/China

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