Cloud of Hometown, Architectural Acupuncture Repair

The project is located in Dongximen Village, Tai'an, Shandong. In the early years, the village became a provincial-level poverty village due to traffic congestion, barren land, and hollowing of the population. It was derailed from the times and needs to be protected and updated. Protection does not mean immutable preservation, and renewal is by no means a simple demolition and new construction. It should be renovation on the basis of retaining its original features, from infrastructure to the living environment, and then to the rural economy to create a livable environment that is suitable for modern life.

The design team focuses on the local rich tourism resources and ultra-high forest coverage and other natural advantages, takes “Architectural Acupuncture Repair” as the protection and renewal strategy, integrates the operation logic of modern boutique homestay, and realizes the revitalization of ecology, humanity and industry. “Architectural Acupuncture Repair” adopts a step-by-step way, by selecting the important "acupoint" space to implant the building function, reconstructing flow lines according to local conditions to clear the "vein", and carefully intervening in architectural shapes and landscape construction to adjust the "yin-yang" balance of the environment. Respecting the original rural texture and keeping the area of the base unchanged, from point to surface, from part to whole, the old village was reborn.

By combing the original space nodes, the main building functions are implanted: the reception center is the entrance with a lower mountain, the large courtyard rooms are concentrated in a higher mountain, and the restaurant is located in an environment with a broader vision. The new moving line overcomes the passive impression of the original hillside terrain to visitors, and turns into an active exploration journey that first suppresses and then rises. At the entrance, a zigzag wooden bridge leads the visitors to the reception center; they pass through the free growth forest on the original terrain, and then climb the slope along the stone steps; after passing the restaurant, they continue to climb to the courtyard guest room.

The guest rooms occupy the largest volume in the plan, and are enclosed by a single unit to form a courtyard, which continues the characteristics of closed and stable northern residential buildings. In terms of shape and structure, it also retains the characteristics of gentleness and rigor of northern residences, clear boundaries between internal and external space, and the rough and rustic features of masonry walls. In addition, the designers have updated the façade, incorporating modern light steel structure and glass materials into the masonry wall to soften the sense of volume and generate a sense of spatial coherence and hierarchy, forming a dialogue between indoor space and mountain environment. The restaurant is prefabricated with light steel structure. The woods and tiles material collected from the old village is paved on a large-scale sloped roof. The large-area glass curtain wall completely penetrates the structure below the roof, which is hidden in the mountains and also for visitors an immersive dining experience.

In the process of landscape restoration and reconstruction, the designers uphold the concept of "local construction", restore rustic rural landscapes with local materials and traditional techniques, verify local culture in a modern way and unique perspectives, and use the most natural and simple language to hide design traces, so that it resembles the natural evolution of the countryside, and truly integrates into the life of residential houses and the history of the village. Designers and local artisans use local materials to make landscaping, from stone roads to steps to stacking low walls, relying on traditional artisan skills to weaken or even eliminate design traces. The unmigrated original trees and native plants such as replanted sand sap, heather, pennisetum, etc. constitute the forest integrity and plant diversity, repair the sparse and degraded mountain forest environment and the site internal environment, and make the natural ecological woodland structure more Improved and prevented soil and water loss in mountain forests.

The design takes the creation of space and environment as the starting point, explores the possibility of activating and reusing rural architecture and landscape, and repairs, creates and activates the village by craftsmen without a sense of design. Today's Dongmen Village has reinvigorated the villagers' community consciousness, attracted talents to return, and inspired the second life of innovation and entrepreneurship.