‘Will Wang Shu’s village be nothing but an imagined form of rural life for urbanites?’ | Buildings | Architectural Review
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Regeneration, or gentrification? Wencun Village, designed by Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu’s Amateur Architecture Studio, proposes an alternative approach to Chinese rural housing and construction
Conceived as a prototype for better rural life in China, Wencun Village includes 14 new residential buildings, a new bridge and several small public pavilions, the reconstruction of some rickety houses, and the refurbishment of recently built concrete-brick houses.
‘To live in the countryside with nature has always been an important theme in Chinese culture,’ says Wang Shu. Villages in the countryside were long regarded as cultural seeds, a source of intellectuals for the larger cities. A civilised poetic life, the countryside was semi self-governed by local scholars in pre-modern China, and the settlements were generally in good order, governed by tradition.
