ARCHITECTURAL ACUPUNCTURE

What this episode covers

For many years, people have been moving from the countryside to the big cities. The towns and villages they leave behind then not only become structurally weak but above all desolate. This worldwide phenomenon can also be observed in China. In the villages of the southeastern Chinese county of Songyang, architect Xu Tiantian and her office DnA_Design and Architecture have together with the provincial government found answers to this structural change. Her strategy, which she calls "architectural acupuncture", is not new, and involves strengthening the identity of the villages with mostly new cultural buildings and conversions and at the same time promoting local crafts. The strategy, however, has resulted in something that they didn't expect: People are starting to come back from the cities. Initially, this was because of the pandemic, but now they are also starting businesses and relocating the centre of their lives back to the countryside. Is this the end of the task or do we now need new strategies to turn small interventions into a big transformation? That's what we talk about today with Xu Tiantian, founding principal of DnA _Design and Architecture in our podcast.

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