Xiangxi(the west of Hunan) has a mysterious attractiveness both naturally and culturally
Mr. Shen Congwen described the place in his books
It rains here nearly every day
Suddenly you forget about the city
Finding yourself surrounded by mountains and forests
We are confident that we will do something meaningful
In 2017
I received a call from China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation
They asked me if I could pay a visit to Lahao
Lahao is located in the northwest of Fenghuang
It’s 15 minutes’ drive away
It’s close to Tongren, Guizhou
In Shen Congwen’s books, Xiangxi is a mysterious place
It’s covered by plants
Like a retreat from the world
We were responsible for the renovation of 13 houses
The foundation adopted a special mechanism
The residents became shareholders by paying one yuan each person
Then they would get a bonus yearly
And after 25 years, the houses would be returned to them
Wu Jinsong was the first resident architect
He’s 16 years older than me
We both graduated from Wuhan University
He was pursuing a master degree in Britain’s University of Dundee
Then he came to Xiangxi once his summer vacation began
When I was in Scotland
I visited the local villages
And I saw lots of old and beautiful houses
Then I thought of my own hometown
We could see no building older than my grandfather
I went to Xiangxi right after I came back to China
I lived in a villager’s home near the site
The worker came to knock on my door every morning
To wake me up for work
And I easily formed the habit of starting working at sunrise and stopping working at sunset
Local people speak Miao language
So I needed simultaneous interpreting
The land has its stories
They do wood carving
They are able to carve a work as thin as a piece of paper
The witch mask is able to drive evil spirits away
There was an old man
Who was nearly one hundred years old
He was a soldier in the ‘Great Movement to Resist America and Assist Korea’
He started creating in his 20s
He form Chinese characters with bird patterns
Lahao Guesthouse is located on halfway up the hill
It’s surrounded by primeval forests
Roots of many old trees are exposed in the air and are intertwined
There’re also some undeveloped karst caves
Which offer wild experiences
There’s also public space
The tea room, Volunteers’ Home and some public facilities
It’s a community without boundaries
Tourists can walk freely in the village
And they can visit the villagers’ home and chat with them
A basic principle for the renovation is no demolition
For an old house the most important feature is the stone walls
In Xiangxi
The stone-wall houses form a unique system of folk residence
Historically the structure was invented for resisting bandits
They were piled up with love
So they look beautiful both orderly and naturally
In order to make the new house grow out of the old house
We make the roof float over
To be 80cm higher than the old stone walls
And we adopted side skylights
The stone walls are presented in front of you like paintings
We’re post-90s
We’re far away from our family and girlfriends
We don’t have much recreation after work
Sometimes the villagers don’t understand us
Which make us feel wronged and upset
We would sit there together and think about nothing
The job doesn’t offer a descent reward
It’s might because of our love for rural areas
We can reserve more things with history in villages
And rebuild confidence
In August, 2019
When the first guesthouses in Lahao were going to be completed
We went to Xinzhaiping Village
It’s located in the northeast corner of Fenghuang and it’s 70km away
It’s also surrounded by a primeval forest
The village extends along a slope
Local people transport goods with mules
There’re 7 houses in total
And they cover an area of over 800m2
The old wooden structure is the biggest historical treasure
Of the village
It’s been an advantage of Chinese architecture for thousands of years
We moved the wooden structure to the nearby empty land with jacks
After we remade the foundation, we moved the structure back
The core of Chinese tradition is in rural areas
Everyone has a dream home in their mind
The architects participate in the projects not just to build some guesthouses for the villages
But to wake up the places
And to bring all walks of the society to rejuvenate rural areas together