Architectural Acupunctures in Songyang County, Lishui City, China (Part II)
On URT, we have previously discussed architectural acupuncture as a strategy of small-scale interventions to revive ancient villages in China. To understand the strategy more concretely, this article takes a close look at Pingtian, a village in Songyang where this approach to urban-rural revitalization was employed for the first time.
The Paradigm of Pingtian Village
Architectural acupuncture projects started from Pingtian, a mountain village embraced by clouds and haze for about 200 days in a year. A few years ago, not many knew this declining ancient village, yet its stunning scenery. For many villagers, the mountainous environment led to poverty, so they moved to urban areas to improve living standards, leaving their mud houses decaying. The turning point was in 2013, when Sonyang’s County Mayor Jun Wang invited Associate Professor Deyin Luo from School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, to study and protect traditional villages in the region. Pingtian’s former cadre Genfa Jiang saw it as a great opportunity to revitalize the village. He wrote a letter to Wang and expressed his aspiration of renovating dilapidated houses.
When Jiang was waiting for the reply, he started planning an old-house-saving project with his son. Two years later, when Jiang rented the first batch of more than ten vacant old houses from his relatives and was preparing for the renovation, Luo and other architects came to Pingtian and participated in the planning and design. With the architects’ professional guidance, Jiang decided to build a slow-life tourism zone for revitalization and rented 28 houses in total. By working together in the first phase, they transformed a part of the old houses into a village center, a restaurant, a tea house, a sales exhibition center, two hostels, and created several public spaces. After the publication of these projects on Archdaily and Chinese news portals, inspiring changes began to happen. Tourists arrived, and new economic activities started growing. Young people also returned to Pingtian for the tranquil work environment and new startup opportunities. In 2016, Jiang and other villagers renovated three more houses into hostels to accommodate burgeoning visitors. Now, Pingtian has been rebranded as a Makers’ Base for Rural Tourism and an Exemplar of National Rural Tourism Development in China.
Why is Pingtian Successful?
Nowadays, there are 12 villages in Songyang with architectural acupuncture projects. Among them, Pingtian attracts the most tourists and has the highest revenue. Which factors make the practice in Pingtian successful? After visiting the county and talking with the villagers, we found some clues.
One of the key factors is the so-called tripartite cooperation mode. Stakeholders from different groups play different roles: leading villagers guide the other villagers as investors, managers, and coordinators; architects give professional advice; and the municipal government offers policy and financial support. The three groups work together closely at introducing culture-related projects to the village and promoting tourist products.
In such a cooperation model, the role of community leaders, such as the former cadre Jiang, is extremely important. Traditional Chinese villages tend to still have a clan-dominated social structure and any alteration would require a difficult reorganization of established interpersonal relationships. As shown by the work of Jiang In Pingtian, the leader of the village can act as an intermediary between architects and villagers to ensure the smooth progress of projects.
The presence of qualified architects is also a key element of Pingtian’s success. On the one hand, they provide the strategy for preservation, adding building services and integrating new materials with the original ones in old houses. On the other hand, during the construction, villagers can learn skills and can independently conduct simple renovations in the future, making revitalization sustainable. Moreover, architects are agents of reviving traditional building craft techniques and almost forgotten trades. During the renovation of Pingtian, the chief carpenter returned to the village, regained some long-lost skills and even learned new techniques. Due to this experience, he is now often invited to other villages to do carpentering.
Another important factor of Pingtian’s success is the business model, especially for brand building, maintaining promotion platforms, and developing tourist activities. A company named “Yunshang Pingtian” was established. Then, the company created a public account on WeChat where tourists can receive the latest news, book a room, reserve a table, and purchase featured agricultural products. Tourist activities include handicrafts, pastry baking, and farming, to allow visitors to experience the life and culture of ancient villages.
Development Dilemma
Although the revitalization in Pingtian has had positive effects on villagers like increasing their income sources, there are still some problems. First, better links need to be established between newcomers and the existing community. About 20 employees of the company live in staff dorms in renovated buildings. Together with more than 150 villagers, they form the new community. However, the interactions between these two groups seem limited. This is a major problem since the sustainability of Pingtian’s development depends on community vitality, in other words, the rich relationship among people living in the village.
One more concern is the current status of featured agricultural products. To increase villagers’ income, Pingtian has established an agricultural cooperative called “Dahuangtian Coop”. Its products are popular with tourists for their organic and high nutritive value. Usually, Dahuangtian Coop supply village’s hostels, restaurant and sales exhibition center, and an online shop with agricultural products at a relatively high price. However, the production is low owing to the small planting scale and time-consuming planting method. For this reason, hostels and the restaurant often have to buy ingredients from the town instead. In addition, low production also means that agricultural products are unlikely to be sold in shops owned by well-known retailers like Lishui Shangeng, which creates higher economic benefits. As a result of such low input-output ratio, less than one-third of the villagers joined the coop so far.
Overall, acupunctural architecture is a comprehensive and efficient strategy to develop tourism while preserving the village layout and scenic landscapes. By centering on acupunctural works, different groups are able to collaborate in the protection of local culture and the revival of local economies. Nevertheless, revitalizing a village is even more challenging. As we can see, community vitality and agricultural economics benefit little from these works. So, in the long term, there needs to be experts in other fields engaging in the development and management to enrich the strategy. Where will Pingtian and other villages go? Let’s wait for their inspiring changes.
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