Winner of the Curry Stone Prize for humanitarian architecture in 2015, Rural Urban Framework is a nonprofit design and research lab based out of the University of Hong Kong and led by assistant professors John Lin and Joshua Bolchover. The duo lectured at Columbia this past Monday, January 25th, as part of the GSAPP Spring 2016 Lecture Series.
Addressing the pressing depopulation of the Chinese countryside and the urban sprawl of 100,000-people villages — “you call them cities, we call them villages,” says John Lin with a smile — the practice of Rural Urban Framework aims to control the negative impacts of mass-migration flows on the architecture that is left behind, often suffering from mega-infrastructural projects built with misplaced expectations of economic growth and industrialization. The key instinct for R.U.F. is to use design as a means of research, to study by doing.
While academia often spends too long mapping out patterns of exodus, change and decay, R.U.F. treats the village as an ecology, quickly identifying a problem for which architecture can offer a solution. Working among contradicting forces — urban institutions vs. rural livelihood, individual enterprise vs. collaborative organization, vernacular intelligence vs. generic construction — R.U.F.’s projects are a demonstration of how flexible programming can lead to better appropriated spaces and community usage.
Working hand in hand with existing Chinese land policy and the high levels of democracy at the village level, Lin and Bolchover presented architectural projects that stretch over time not only because of very low budgets — problems are often overcome with the use of low-cost, readily available materials and a local workforce — but because of the importance of delivering on the life of the project after it becomes part of the village community.
Lingzidi Bridge, Shaanxi Province, 2012
The construction of a new highway in southern Shaanxi Province involved the construction of a large bridge breaking off the existing Lingzidi Village from their agricultural land and river access. To rectify the consequences of this top-down infrastructure, R.U.F. designed a pedestrian bridge to reconnect the disrupted landscape and facilitate rural citizens’ daily routines to the fields and river.
Mulan Primary School, Guangdong Province, 2012
Following the construction of a high-speed train track, a large mound of earth was formed behind the existing primary school in Mulan Village, threatening to slide and destroy the children’s playing space. With the aid of a concrete retaining wall, R.U.F. created a formal courtyard for the children, animating the space with a series of stairs and shiny self-filtering bathrooms covered in silver-clad tiles. At the conference, R.U.F. shared moving videos of kids playing joyfully around the courtyard.
House for All Seasons, Shijia Village, Shaanxi Province, 2012
The much-awarded House for All Seasons offers a contemporary prototype to the vernacular village house, composed around courtyards for home gardening and sloped roofs — contradicting the modern-looking flat roofs seen in urban developments that became flooding pools during the rainy season. Existing as a semi-private house, the structure also serves as a community center for the Shaanxi Women’s Federation.
Qinmo Primary School and Community Center, Guangdong Province, 2008-9
This ongoing project strives to “promote reasons to stay in the village through education and the possibility to harvest more economical crops,” explained Bolchover in a video for the BMW Guggenheim Lab, thereby challenging the reliance of villages on cities. In Qinmo, R.U.F. built a new school — the large courtyard of which became one of the most-used public spaces of the village — and also addressed the renovation of the old school by transforming its structure into a community garden, where workshops and events are now held on experimental planting and community planning.
Angdong Health Center, Hunan Province, ongoing
As part of the extension and reconfiguration of a hospital in Angdong Village, R.U.F. assessed that the construction of an elevator, which would offer an alternative to climbing up endless flights of stairs — and on a friend’s back if sick and unable — cost the same as building an inclined circulation ramp. This solution also allowed for the creation of airy corridors throughout the health center, an interior courtyard for public use and a means to exercise for residents of the facility.