Wen Brigade town of A Capella, Henan province

The Acacella Cultural Tourism Town in Wugou Village, Gongyi, Henan, is an architectural and landscape renewal of 8,659 square metres designed by TTD Guangzhou Bench Design Studio, led by Zhang Haiman in 2021. The village is ringed by mountains, dense primary forest and a quiet, well-preserved ecological setting. Its ancient yaodong cave dwellings, built into the hillsides using locally sourced materials and arranged on the traditional square-earth, round-sky principle, embody the wisdom of earlier Chinese settlers and the ecological belief that people should live in harmony with nature. The designers compare nature's orchestration here to an a cappella choir: clean, pure multi-part harmonies that can be experienced through sound, image, scenery and atmosphere. From high vantage points, the echoing cries of wild geese and the charged presence of near and far landscape produce a deep sense of place. The project fuses local cultural value with contemporary and global outlook, building a lifestyle brand that draws visitors slowly into the region's cultural and spiritual life. The design combines old and new, matching the authenticity of the cave dwellings with the tension of new architecture and carefully placed art. Culture, understood as the essential character of a rural settlement, is expressed through multi-functional public spaces that merge mixed social uses and cultural aspirations. Within the existing environment, the cave dwellings are preserved, their architectural forms continued and their interior-exterior relationships extended to produce rich spatial layers that offer cultural identity and emotional belonging. Ceremonial moments are created to awaken visitors, encouraging them to dwell with the environment and with themselves. Moving through light and shadow, passages and openings, visitors encounter a sense of time that feels like the yaodong themselves, punctuated by surprises that are real, warm and playful. The project argues that, in any era, beauty and quality never fade, and that an international perspective can let a traditional village's native culture shine on the world stage.