Project Name: Culture & Living Space of Dabu Village Songxi County
Completion Year: 2024
Gross Built Area: 1222.4m²
Building cost：RMB 3500000 ¥（EUR 460000 €）
Design Firm: Cocoon Studio Shanghai
Contact Name: Wang Weishi
Contact e-mail: cocoonstudio@126.com
Firm Location: Shanghai & Suzhou
Lead Architects: Wang Weishi
Lead Architects e-mail: windwws@gmail.com
Project location: Dabu Village, Hedong Township，Songxi County，Nanping，Fujian Province，China

Additional Credits
Lead Architect: Wang Weishi ,
Archtecture Design: Wang Weishi ; Wang Yiyang (intern) ; Lu Hongpeng (intern)
Structure Design: Chen Xuejian
HVAC/Drainage/Electrical Engineer: Qian Wei
Consultant: Chen Chunhui
Clients: Songxi Beautiful Hedong Tourism Development Co., Ltd.

1.Shanghai Zunbang Architecture Design Co. Ltd.
2.Fujian SHANGDAO Engineer Co. Ltd.
3.FOR-WIN TECHNOLOGY

Photo credits: Gao Hanzhi

Made in village: Culture & Living Space of Dabu Village Songxi County

Dabu village located in mountain area between Fujian and Zhejiang province. Shipping trade alone Songxi river created the village where we can still find old pier remains extend to the river. The old houses along the river still keep the historical features recording the uninterrupted traces of history. The project is the renovation of one group of these houses. We try to present contemporary space quality and value by balance the preservation of historical features and introduction of new structure and spaces.

Made in village

Different from regular renovation development, this project follows the mode of autonomous renovation funding and leading by the government. The ownership and functions remain unchanged, only under the unified management of the government in the form of leasing. This mode enhanced the operability of the renovation, but also create complex situations to the design and construction due to ambiguous ownership and function situations. In addition, the cost is limited, and the construction is mainly based on experience construction. This make the project a “Made in village” project which always surrounding by special village situations. It is a challenge but also inspiring.

The ownerships of houses are complex and scattered. Since the reconstructed buildings theoretically still belong to different families, according to rural customs, the boundaries between households must still be marked by permanent components such as wall or platform. This makes the renovation design need not only to consider the building community as a whole, but also to make sure that the position and geometric of the boundaries will be presented in a recognizable way. This gives the space a unique complexity, behind this complexity is the natural form of the ownership of the village houses which essentially forms the scale and context of the village. Under the control of such complexity, the space will never be heterogeneous even if it is brand new construction.

Space function cannot be accurately defined while the continuous evolution becomes a daily situation. In contrast with the normal development project with clear target and function, the function and requirement of the space in this project are always unclear. Under the aim of a public culture and living space for the village, participants’ assumptions and understanding of rural public spaces dynamically affect the design and form of the space, this resulted in spontaneous adjustments on site throughout the construction process, the spaces are evolving themselves: although it continues to deviate from design expectations, it has always responded to the expectations and demands of the countryside in a flexible manner.

Mixing of new and old

The renovation design starts from dealing with new and old. The existing building complex is composed with two parts. The southern part is made up of fragmented small houses while the northern part is a complete mansion surrounding by rammed earth wall. Traditional wood frame, blue tiles and rammed earth walls formed the traditional feature of the space, however, these buildings are extremely ordinary and do not constitute special protection value no matter from the perspective of form, craftsmanship or history. Additionally, the houses are severe damage and collapse, if we try to restore the building with historical style, it will become a fake antique building which is unnecessary and inappropriate. Therefore, the overall renovation strategy is to protect and retain valuable components based on the current situation, and integrate them with new structures to form a spatial experience where the old and the new are intertwined.

We adapt the strategy of darning in the southern part corresponding to the scattered building conditions. After removing the temporary construction and buildings that do not have retention conditions, two independent traditional house and several rammed earth wall is left. Considering not affecting the existing structural foundation, the new space is embedded in the building pattern in a diagonally staggered manner, forming a homogeneous pattern of alternating old and new, interspersed courtyards and buildings. For the interior space, this strategy forms a space group with courtyards which can be roamed and experienced. The concreteness of the traditional wooden structure and the abstraction of the contemporary space alternate and present each other. The northern part is complete in form with components like carved wooden structure, rammed earth walls and relief sculpture of “福“ depicting the historical atmosphere of the place. However, the roof no longer exists. We introduce a vertical structure rooted in between these components and grow above to form a new space as the roof. It is an open space floating on the walls and wood frames in the upper part with a horizontal view of the natural landscape and roofs. Beneath this structure the original wood structure of the house is preserved. The floor of the roof space follows the position and elevation of the wooden purlins, creating large slatted steps facing the landscape for people to sit on. The wooden frame and the new structure are integrated through staggered steps, restoring the structural strength of the wooden structure supporting the roof and retaining the spatial weight of the hall. The light and shadow revealed from the gaps prompt the reconstruction of structure and space, integrating contemporary experience into the historical atmosphere, and promoting a chemical reaction of the interweaving of the old and the new.

Public space and collective memory

As the cultural living space of Dabu Village, the public attributes of the project are very important. For rural areas, public experience does not lie in consumption scenes or cultural activities, which are commonly used to define public concepts, the open and free space experience itself, as well as the cultural identity and collective memory that can bridge interpersonal relationships, constitute the publicity and relaxation of the countryside. Public space is a specific place that must be accurately defined. In ancient times, the big tree by the road always forms the entrance space of a village, giving the event space an image in a specific form. Nowadays, how to create appropriate and effective public spaces in the contemporary context has become an important challenge.

In addition to creating an open roaming experience within the building, we turned our attention to the outdoor space on the roof. A complete new volume is set up on the west side of the dispersed layout of the southern part as an intangible cultural heritage workshop. This space connects the new and old volumes indoors, while on the roof, it connects second floor spaces by a slightly sloping walkable roof and bridge. It integrates the scattered tile roofs into a highly experiential place in a connecting and supporting posture. This roof space is naturally connected to the village through external stairs, forming a rural public space that is not restricted by the opening hours of the building: a small square space floating between the roofs. Here you can touch the wind-eroded rammed earth walls up close, and you can climb up the tile roofs facing the landscape. The common elements of the countryside are redefined by new experiences. At one end of the roof, a sky bridge cantilevers over the street towards the river, directing the roof space to the distant view of the landscape. This is the only perspective from which one can look around the village and the landscape, giving this space the particularity and iconicity of the village, as well as its unique public character.

The white arched curved piers of the bridge, in a special form that transcends the scale of the village, build a contemporary landmark by the river at the street entrance and become a new collective memory of the village. If we look at it from a distance, this bridge is just like the causeway piers that historically extended villages to the river in the same linear form, continuing the cultural memory of the village living towards the river.