Village prototypes:
A survival strategy for Chinese minority rural villages
Rural Chinese villages are disappearing at an alarming rate. Unprecedented urban growth either has or is in the process of decimating the physical and cultural identity of the village. This paper explores an alternative adaptive strategy for the Dong Minority rural villages of Southern China. Through the implementation of various forms of architectural prototypes, an operational tool to interrogate the village, local crafts and traditional customs are transformed through design propositions. Dong's inherently social and spatial structures become agents of change, assisting the prototype to calibrate an incremental modernisation approach; a paradigm for the community to realise that coexistence with the times doesn't necessarily equate with the erosion of heritage.
Author:
Peter W. Ferretto, Ling Cai