The recent interest in the countryside revitalization in China, both from a design and a political perspective, epitomized by the 2016 Venice Biennale’s Chinese pavilion on the and the 2021 Rural Revitalization Promotion Law, moved planners and designers’ focus from the urbanization phenomenon to the desertification of the countryside. However, the urban exodus hasn’t stopped, and the population living in cities passed the symbolic threshold of 50% in 2015 and kept growing. Driven by what Lefebvre calls “the second circuit of capital,” i.e., real estate speculation, public authorities keep converting land from rural into urban, leading to endless urban growth, following outdated urban models from the early 20th century. Between the Arcadian vision of the countryside and the dystopian urban condition, our research explores urbanization’s frontline to address agricultural land loss, cultural landscape preservation, and housing creation. Located in the urban fringes of Wenzhou, our project looks at the urban fringes’ vernacular productive landscape, where agriculture and industry coexist, and capitalizes on existing conditions to imagine revitalization alternatives neither following the towers field of Le Corbusier nor the ideal image of a preserved countryside. Learning from the existing infrastructural overlappings and the disurbanists speculations, our proposal questions the traditional juxtaposition of the city and the countryside to explore overlapping scenarios. Our design aims to answer the need for population growth in urban fringes, driven by rural-urban migration and economic development while providing the existing population ways to preserve and improve their previous means of production: small-scale industries and agriculture.
Ruzhen Zhao has been studying architecture at the School of Public Architecture, Michael Graves College, since Fall 2018. She has been extensively involved in extracurricular projects, competitions, and research during her studies. The diverse practice in Chinese Suburban Villages interested her in the related questions of care, labor, ecology, and economy in architecture and urbanism. Her experience in Wangzhai village got her enrolled in the student’s team part of the Wenzhou-Kean University Campus Planning for the extension of the campus in the Wanghzai area.
Vincent Peu Duvallon is an Assistant Professor of Architecture and Executive Director of the School of Public Architecture, Wenzhou-Kean University. He received his professional degree at the ESA in Paris, France, and studied at the University of Hong Kong and the Ecole d’Architecture de Versailles in France. He trained with Christian de Portzamparc and Frederic Borel in Paris before developing an active professional practice in Asia with built works in Korea and China. He has lectured about his work globally. His research focuses on contemporary vernacular environments and landscapes, particularly in the Wenzhou area, south of Zhejiang.