Shattering urban stereotypes of how countryside villages should look

Urban tourists expect to see graceful pavilions, flowing streams, quaint bridges and lush green fields when they visit rural China. That is the idyllic image of the countryside.

Indeed, rural makeovers used to be Disneyesque recreations of urban stereotypes. But how do the people who actually live in rural areas want their environment to look?

That is the question facing a new breed of rural architects whose job is to assist the government's rural revitalization program.

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When designer Zhou Longjuan asked locals whether they would like a pavilion constructed between two neighboring villages in her survey for a village makeover, most shrugged their shoulders.

"That sort of encapsulates the challenges of rural revitalization projects," she told Shanghai Daily. "The desires of local residents are a major concern, but we really can't speculate on what they want because village life is so different from that in cities. Locals don't know what they might want because they haven't experienced anything else."

It is a challenge even for veteran architect Li Jiayi, whose prolific career includes the new 2-square-kilometer Shanghai Expo Culture Park.

"Urban projects, even ones as huge and complex as the Expo Culture Park, is relatively straightforward in terms of its functions," she said. "Whether you are designing an industrial zone, a residential building or a park, the functions are clear."

However, she added, "Rural projects, though generally smaller in terms of scale, can be much more complicated and challenging. You have to take into consideration permanent farmland, different types of spaces and the lifestyle of villagers. The spaces for living, labor and social functions are more interwoven."

Ti Gong

Ti Gong

Li and Zhou, both from Shanghai Xian Dai Architectural Decoration and Landscape Design Research Institute of Arcplus Group, are among the first group of 96 rural architects approved by Shanghai Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

Li is chief engineer of the institute; Zhou, its landscape designer.

The selection process for "rural architects" requires both professional credentials and on-site experience in countryside projects. The resulting list of experts is aimed at providing towns and villages with help in revitalizing their environment.

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The modern makeover of rural areas to improve the quality of life has been underway for years as authorities, architects and academics continued to explore different possibilities. Rural revitalization strategy was first unveiled in 2017.

Many people think of Shanghai as a metropolis with no rural aspects. But the city actually encompasses vast tracts of countryside, dotted with more than 1,500 villages. The city's goal is to create at least 150 "model villages" by 2025 to serve as guides for redevelopment of others.

Xulian Village in Qingpu District, where Zhou worked for 18 months, is one of the target model villages. She traveled to the village at least three times a week, compared with other projects that usually require only weekly on-site visits.

Thanks to the depth of her predesign surveys, she was no longer a stranger to locals by the time construction started.

"For rural revitalization projects, we are designing for the local residents, so I really had to be there to fully understand their daily routines and lifestyle," Zhou said. "Prior to the rural revitalization policy, such projects were typically based on tourism-related factors, meaning that you produced designs that would attract outsiders."

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Zhou said villages were full of surprises.

For one thing, she found villagers weren't all that keen on creating plazas for line dancing, unlike their elderly urban peers, who consider such activities an important social function.

And unlike the urban setting, where home, work and social activities are compartmentalized, rural life combines them all into one. Social interaction can range from anything to wandering into a neighbor's house in the middle of dinner to chatting in the fields while picking vegetables together.

Then, too, many rural residents don't particularly want greenery or flowers near their homes, unlike urban dwellers who prize such surroundings. In the countryside, greenery and flowers mean more insects.

The balancing act of rural architects is to improve local lifestyles without doing harm to the natural environment.

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Zhou cited the example of washing clothes in a river. It's not only a traditional custom but also a social activity. But chemicals in the laundry powder may pollute a waterway – a concept often difficult to explain to locals.

"The trick to winning them over is to provide better options," Li explained, giving the example of introduction of washing machines.

"Rural architects often have to coordinate among various government authorities, local residents and third-party interests," Li said, showing Shanghai Daily the minutes of a recent meeting attended by a dozen local government authorities representing viewpoints like agriculture and civil services.

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It all sort of depends on how you view the urban-rural divide.

"Rural is not the opposite of urban," Li said. "It is not a recreation of urban. For me, it is a matter of coexistence. Classic poetry and paintings exalt the splendor of rural landscapes as part of our traditional culture, and that aesthetic should not be allowed to disappear."

Zhou ended up building that pavilion between the two villages and felt a sense of achievement when it was slowly accepted by villagers.

"My aim is to give them a place to rest and have a bit of a chinwag along a road that many people use to commute between villages," she said. "At first, they weren't so sure about the pavilion because they are used to just resting and chatting in their yards, but slowly they embraced the new structure as part of their daily routines."

Ti Gong

Ti Gong

Ti Gong