Zhu Feng Village For-All Community Center / SAFA Laboratory of Architectural Design
Zhu Feng Village For-All Community Center / SAFA Laboratory of Architectural Design
Re-generation: Resilience in Rural Residence. Zhu Feng Village is a famous Zhi-Qing village in Shangyu city, Zhejiang Province, with a unique Zhi-Qing culture. As early as 1965, Zhu Feng Village welcomed the first batch of Zhi-Qing to settle here, followed by four more batches in 1973, 1974, 1976, and 1977. Since 2020, under the commission of XiaGuan Town, Zhi-Qing Memory Museum For-All, Zhi-Qing Dining Hall For-All, and Zhi-Qing Medical Station For-All, these small cultural facilities transformed from village residences have been gradually designed and built. As a public cultural activity space open to the whole society, the design is a subtle intervention of the renovated building group into the original village settlement with a renewal strategy on a microscopic scale. This concept is mainly based on the following two aspects. On the one hand, although the construction process of preserving and renovating rural dwellings was expected to be particularly difficult, the design continues the scale of rural dwellings as far as possible, retaining some of the original elements, and flexibly transforming them from private to the public through the reorganization of internal spaces and functions. On the other hand, the owner’s strict control of the construction schedule dictates that the finalization of spaces and details needs to be carried out on-site in collaboration with a number of craftsmen. It is important to consider both the cost and the integration of old and new elements.
Remodeling: Evolution of Spatial Pattern under the Influence of Small Changes. According to our previous research, the spontaneous transformation of traditional vernacular dwellings in the Jiang-Nan region is usually accompanied by changes in the structure of family members at different stages and is coordinated and adapted through local spatial modifications. Under the conditions of very limited land tenure in the village, the only way to adapt to the new family life is through small-scale investments and adjustments to obtain a greater degree of spatial expansion, simple wisdom that comes from the evolution of rural space. Thus, we believe that the design should respect the spatial characteristics of the traditional village, but also need to intervene in new light steel structures, gabion walls, and other modern materials, and intervene in the transformation of the village according to local conditions, so as to achieve the interpenetration of the old and the new, and thus reveal the works of the new era of rural spatial pattern. The three buildings, originally intended as residential houses, have a unique regional charm with their original timber, mixed rammed earth, and masonry structures. The challenge for the design of the renovation was to continue the shared memory of the original spatial components while allowing the renovated spaces to carry a more flexible and varied public function. The challenge was therefore not to simply start from scratch, but to retain as much of the original structure and maintenance of the dwellings as possible. When a new structural system is created, the relationship with this existing structural order must be properly managed. An even more challenging challenge was the almost simultaneous process of communication with the original villagers, the adjustment and deepening of the design, and the construction of the project.
Encryption: The Thrust of Passive Adaptation. When vernacular dwellings are constrained by limited land tenure, space and structure, their spatial growth will also spontaneously turn to the interior of the house to reorganize space. This is achieved by adjusting and increasing the intensity and density of use of space within the dwelling in response to increased demand. This is similar to the tension and resilience of living organisms in the natural world as they passively adapt to their environment during their growth. The real pleasure of the design of these three dwellings is to reintegrate the original village spaces, the traditional village buildings with the newly intervening structures, and the display objects containing the memories of the villagers, and to reconcile these elements on a larger scale of the rural landscape. For example, in the design of the Zhi-Qing Memory Museum For-All, the stone masonry walls and timber structure of the building were retained in order to maintain a link with the traditional village even after its completion, and the steel structure was used to transform the interior space into a larger volume, accommodating more functions and the gathering of people. When different people, in their own way, connect with the collective memory of Zhu Feng Village, a new Zhu Feng Village is created that belongs to the people who experience it.
Detail: As A Trace of Common Memory Superimposed by All. Throughout the design process of the Zhu Feng Village series of projects, the importance of detail is constantly emphasized by the functional demands made by the owners. Whereas modern architecture produces detail directly through the assembly of finished products, the ordinary architecture of the countryside often presents space and detail by hand by artisans, which is clearly another kind of creativity and wisdom. Detail is originally a term used to discuss the depth of architectural design, which essentially means the wisdom of construction and use. Without clever conception, no building with unique detailing can be produced. The design and construction of the cultural facilities at Zhu Feng Village combine contemporary construction techniques with the construction wisdom of village craftsmen. Although the implementation of each building is accompanied by a great deal of trial and error, we still enjoy the finished village spaces and the detail of each building, a new place shared by villagers and visitors alike, and a trace of the juxtaposition of the village’s historical memory with the wisdom of construction.
