Theme: Architecture in Transformation
Topic: Countryside Dilemmas-New Rural Planning
Jury Chairman: Rem Koolhaas
Registration Deadline: 24:00(GMT+8) September 20th, 2021
Submission Deadline: 24:00(GMT+8) October 10th, 2021
Jury Review: October 2021
The advent of the year of the Ox brought destruction to the ancient village of Wongding in Yunnan, which has been recognized as important cultural countryside heritage since 2006. The fire that raged through Wongding however exposed more fundamental dilemmas that go beyond replacing the village’s thatched roof tops and intricate wood constructions, which my team and I have been observing in many places in the world for some time now. It coincides with an important crossroads in thinking about the future of the countryside in China and beyond.
China’s rural development has been largely based on top-down industrial planning. Like in many places in the world this brought modernity to the countryside and offered dramatic improvements in the quality of life for many. It however also meant that historical, natural, and cultural quality concentrated in age old ways of living suffered. In 2020 the unprecedented anti-poverty campaigns in China that reshaped countrysides since the 1970s across the nation and specifically areas not unlike those we find in and around Wongding came to a first completion. This important milestone marks an important moment for reflection on this initial way of working not only for China: it demands new considerations on the future of planning the countryside.
