ARCHITECTURAL ACUPUNCTURE

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.