Dafang Dutch Creative Village

Dafang Dutch Creative Village is a rural revitalisation project by NEXT architects, intended to create a distinctive Chinese art village through the fusion of Chinese and Dutch culture at a time of rapid urbanisation. By 2050, nearly one billion Chinese people are expected to live in cities; as this migration proceeds, thousands of villages are being abandoned and fade away, and the cultural and social values that grew with them are receding from memory. NEXT architects, together with the Dutch Institute for Cultural Heritage and Markets, Smartland landscape architects and Total Design visual communication, were commissioned by the Fuzhou municipal government and invited several artists to find new possibilities for the 102 abandoned villages of Dafang. NEXT architects led the masterplan and the design of the individual buildings and interiors, and the project also responds to the national call for rural revitalisation. John van de Water, partner of NEXT architects' Beijing office, has said that the design process focused on the relationships between old and new, history and future, and residents and visitors. The village of Dafang is nearly 900 years old, yet it had fallen into decline. The project inserts contemporary art and design into the existing fabric rather than replacing it, using the old houses as vessels for studios, galleries and guest accommodation. The result is a working village that supports artists, draws visitors and preserves the social structure of rural life, demonstrating how cultural tourism can be a serious tool for countryside renewal.