Architecture Asia Special Issue - ARCASIA Awards for Architecture 2020

This project comprises several subprojects: restoring the ancestral
temple of Lin’s family as a place for prominent family
ritual activities and a public venue within the village; constructing
Dacang School to provide classroom facilities for the
local primary school and serve as a public meeting place for
the villagers; building the Lounge Bridge, reconnecting the
ancient walkway leading to the village, providing a meeting
and resting place for the farmers in the fields; and restoring
part of Lin’s stilted house as a hostel for visitors. Through the
construction of these facilities, the revitalization plan aims to
revive public life in the village and attract foreign visitors to
come and experience the traditional Hakka lifestyle so that
young people can return to find jobs. The low-output, single-crop
agricultural system could be changed to help eradicate
poverty, facilitating comprehensive social and economic
development within the rural community.
For more than two years, two parallel approaches have been
pursued in the Dacang Project. First, surveys and studies of the
local tectonic system and the deployment of building strategies
adapted to the climate and terrain and local materials, drawing on
traditional Hakka building techniques, have generated a design
vocabulary congruent with the local identity. Second, the building
of the Lounge Bridge in conformity with the narrative path,
the restoration of the ancestral temple, construction of Dacang
School, and partial rebuilding of Lin’s stilted house are aligned
with the typology of public buildings in traditional Chinese villages.
The project is thus reviving village public life and reshaping
the spirit of the community, thereby rebuilding rural public space
according to the choreography of historical narratives.
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