Fangding Village Cultural Center to rebuild the villager's cultural confidence

CONTEXT
Fangding village is notable for its historical courtyard-houses and cave-dwellings built within natural earth walls and mountains. As the origin of the Yellow River civilization, this region represents an excellent ancient construction method- integrating human spaces into nature, which is the critical philosophy that influenced the design.

DESIGN GOALS AND CHALLENGES
Fangding Village Cultural Center's project design goal is to memorize the historical relics on-site while framing a vivid green park for villagers' outdoor activities.
Locates at the village's east, the site is on the top of a hill adjacent to the lake with 28 meters elevation change. The hillside has three main terrace tiers retained by two existing earth walls. The design challenges are to arrange the programs based on the principles of presenting the premium north lake view, buffering the east flooding channel, preserving the existing earth walls and terrains best, and creating an artistic space echoing with its native culture, history, and residents' spiritual and social needs.

DESIGN STRATEGIES
To achieve the goals, the team comes up with three major design strategies. First of all, the three main programs- the visitor center, the grove plaza, and the cultural center-are arranged from top-down along the existing three terrace tiers to best fit and preserve the earth wall and site topography. The first two programs are on the west side of the earth wall, that the earth wall has been kept intact as a natural buffering between the main route and flooding channel. Second, the visitor center and the grove plaza are designed at the existing buildings' location to minimize construction's earthwork through re-using the existing foundation. Third, the cultural center at the lowest terrace is enclosed with the lake by the earth wall behind, making it more exclusive to the vistas and calming it with a sense of peace.

THE VISITOR CENTER
Located at the access road entrance, the visitor center building is an open pavilion partitioned by grille and earth walls to respond to the existing material context. The landscape goal is to create a series of resting gardens and corridors throughout the pavilion. Rows of the native ginkgo tree are planted selectively according to site layout, including create a 30-meter roadside parameters buffer and hide the site in the woods. A linear water feature is placed next to the pavilion, under the ginkgo tree's canopy, that has exquisite water sprouts filtering the traffic sound and enlivening the space with water rhythms. Clusters of fountain grasses and Chinese silver grasses are planted throughout the site to create dynamic seasonal landscapes. Several rustic rocks collected from the existing site lay on the gravels between the grasses, witnessing the site changes over the years.

THE GROVE PLAZA
As the site topography stepping down, visitors need to pass a 50-meter-long corridor right by the existing earth wall before entering the grove plaza. A metal wall is elevated to protect the earth wall and the corridor's passengers. The material contrast creates a memorial experience for the visitors to observe the historical texture through the wall's openings. Past the earth wall corridor, visitors will be opened up to the grove plaza, which includes a 700-sqm zelkova tree grove plaza and a 500-sqm reflecting pond in front of two retaining earth walls with a middle vista view opening. Zelkova trees have 2-meter high branch that is ideal for under canopy activities. A descending stairway submerged into the reflecting pond is facing the monumental view opening, sunken into the wall's reflections, leading people toward the lower cultural center terrace. It creates a mystic and exceptional experience to merge with the existing site features while resolved the 10-meter elevation difference between terraces on the route.


THE CULTURAL CENTER
The cultural center's building stretches along with the last terrace tier toward the lake view, which also used many earth wall textures to correspond to the local materials. The earth walls are fully preserved and integrated with the new building's structure. Its texture blends in with the black asphalt field, the dark-grey flagstone paving, and the lush grass clusters in the landscape. A zig-zag sloped corridor links the building toward the lake trail through the shoreline's steep topography. The plant design keeps consistency with the existing shoreline meadow and preserves the lake's best view by scattering small tree clusters selectively.

MATERIAL AND SUSTAINABILITY
The landscape elements respect the vernacular texture by using native rock and straw mixed walls. It is adaptive to the climate by keeping moisture away in winter as this region's most traditional landscape wall construction method.
Deciduous trees, including ginkgo, zelkova, and others, are planted on the site to create cool summer shade and pass through warm winter sunlight that best fits China's north climate. The under canopy grasses species are all low-maintenance and with strong roots that are good for slope stabilization.
The rainwater from the building's rooftop is collected into the site's water features and re-used for irrigation after filtration.

SUMMARY
Fangding Cultural Center has been serving the community for two years and will keep prospering as the center of villagers' education, cultural gathering, and whole family activities. The project respectfully responds to the site's cultural heritage and exceptional topography footprints in the ambiance of serenity and rustic elegance. As it learns and is derived from the context through design, in return, the project rebuilds the villager's cultural confidence. It stimulates the thriving of native culture in space-making during the rapid urbanization process in suburban China.