3andwich Design

The project is located in the old village of Hongougou, Qinyuan County, Shanxi, on the eastern outskirts of the county town, four kilometers from the center. The village was founded in the Hongwu period of the Ming dynasty and named after a flood-drainage gully. It has 138 households and 488 residents; most have moved to the new village, and only four households remain in the old one. The old and new villages adjoin; the original village pattern is intact, with multi-level terraces rising west to east, and buildings following the terrain, roughly divided into earthen-walled double-pitch-roof dwellings and yaodong cave dwellings. The old village retains good traditional character, with ancient trees and old retaining walls, and because it was a logistics site for the Party, government, and military organs of the Taiyue region during the resistance war, it also holds multiple red-memory sites. Most old houses are idle, damaged by years of neglect; outward migration and lack of industry have made the old village increasingly dilapidated. How to preserve the traditional village face while introducing new industry, boosting the rural economy, improving the environment and villagers' quality of life, and enhancing village vitality, ultimately achieving rural revitalization, is the challenge. The project is part of the overall Hongougou revival plan; the site is a three-sided courtyard in the middle of the old village at a higher elevation. The courtyard contains an empty three-bay cave dwelling in good condition, while wing rooms, opposite house, walls, and gate have collapsed, leaving only stone foundations. The most important element is the large scholar tree outside the courtyard, hundreds of years old yet still lush, guarding the village like a deity. Villagers recall that beneath the tree was always a gathering place, the most important public space and spiritual heart of the old village. Like the old village itself, the scholar tree has seen people come and go, and its former bustle has vanished. How to reconstruct rural public space and reshape the genius loci is the design focus. The designer does not wish to simply repeat history; Hongougou has a new industrial positioning based on regional architectural character and red-history heritage as rural tourism. New villagers and new industry require the tree and its space to play new roles. The new functions are set as a rural memory hall and a small theater. The old cave dwelling is renovated, its exterior preserved, its interior rearranged as a small historical exhibition presenting the history of Hongougou and the deeds of the Taiyue Military Region. The collapsed wing rooms and opposite house are not restored; the designer does not want simple old-as-new repair, but through new construction to give the place a new spirit. The former scene of villagers gathering beneath the scholar tree, exchanging news and goods, inspired the design. It is a semi-open public space: the canopy defines the boundary of the place, and canopy, shadow, and human activity constitute the temperament and events of the place. It is a prototype of public space. The designer uses a new, seemingly-right-yet-wrong design language to recreate this scene and prototype. A group of umbrella-shaped structures is designed: umbrella caps of varying sizes connect to form an irregular roof of multiple circles, covering a quarter of the courtyard and loosely encircling the scholar tree.